We say: The Wāqifah—meaning those who stopped short of delving into and investigating whether the Qur’an is created or uncreated—were in this matter followers of their shaykh, Imam Aḥmad, for he too used to declare the Wāqifah innovators (mubaddi‘) and counted them as a faction of the Jahmiyyah, as is found in his epistle to Musaddad.¹

**His Jurisprudential School (Madhhab):**

Most of those who wrote biographical accounts of Imam Abū Dāwūd placed him in the first rank of the companions of Imam Aḥmad, such as Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī and al-Qāḍī Abū al-Ḥusayn Ibn Abī Ya‘lā al-Farrā’, and al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī counted him among the most distinguished of his companions.²

This was also affirmed definitively by the muḥaddith Shaykh Muḥammad Anwar al-Kashmīrī and Shaykh Muḥammad Zakariyyā al-Kāndahlawī.³

However, Abū ‘Āṣim al-‘Abbādī and Ibn Bāṭīsh counted him among the Shāfi‘īs, and they were followed in this by Tāj al-Dīn Ibn al-Subkī, and concurred with them Ṭāshkubrīzādah and Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān al-Qinnawjī.⁴ Yet this view is open to scrutiny, for al-Dāwūdī said: “They did not cite any evidence for it.”

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¹ Ibn Abī Ya‘lā al-Farrā’, *Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah* 1/343, where he mentions the epistle in full.

² Al-Shīrāzī, *Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahā’*, p. 171; Ibn Abī Ya‘lā, *Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah* 1/159–162; al-Dhahabī, *Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’* 13/215.

³ Al-Kashmīrī, in his commentary on al-Bukhārī titled *Fayḍ al-Bārī* 1/58; al-Kāndahlawī, in the introduction to his book *Lāmi‘ al-Darārī ‘alā Jāmi‘ al-Bukhārī*, p. 60.

⁴ Ibn al-Subkī, *Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfi‘iyyah al-Kubrā* 2/293; Ṭāshkubrīzādah, *Miftāḥ al-Sa‘ādah* 2/284; al-Dāwūdī, *Ṭabaqāt al-Mufassirīn* 1/207; Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān, *Abjad al-‘Ulūm* 3/127.