📘 সুনানে আবু দাউদ - তাহকীক আরনাউত (আবু দাউদ - মৃত্যু 275 হিজরী)

Al-Nawawi said: The scholars are unanimous in praising Abu Dawud, describing him as possessing complete memorization, abundant knowledge, precision, piety, religiosity, and keen understanding in hadith and other fields(1).

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: Al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud are two imams in jurisprudence among the people of ijtihad(2).

Ibn 'Abd al-Hadi said: The firm imam, the master of hadith memorizers(3).

Al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi said: The imam, the shaykh of the Sunnah, the foremost of the hadith memorizers(4).

He also said: Abu Dawud, along with his imamate in hadith and its various branches, was among the leading jurists, and his book is evidence of that(5).

Ibn Taghribirdi said: He was the imam of the people of hadith in his time without dispute, and he was knowledgeable in the defects of hadith and was a pious man(6).

Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Layth narrated: Sahl ibn 'Abd Allah al-Tustari came to Abu Dawud al-Sijistani and said: O Abu Dawud, I have a need of you. He said: What is it? He said: [Say] until you say: I have fulfilled it to the extent possible. He said: I have fulfilled it to the extent possible. He said: Put out your tongue to me.

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(1) "Tahdhib al-Asma' wa al-Lughat" 2/225.
(2) "Majmu' al-Fatawa" 20/40.
(3) "Tabaqat 'Ulama' al-Hadith" 2/290.
(4) "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'" 13/203.
(5) Ibid. 13/215.
(6) "Al-Nujum al-Zahira" 3/73.

The one who, when he was told the hadiths of the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, until he kissed him—so he brought out his tongue to him and he kissed it.

The ḥāfiẓ Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī commented on this story: Nothing made this act easy for Sahl, despite his withdrawal from people and his seclusion from them—out of his inclination toward despair, his preference for obscurity, and his abandonment of superfluous matters—except the revival by Abū Dāwūd of hadith and the noble sacred law in Basra, following what had befallen it from the Zanj who rose with the Qarmatian and its destruction, and the killing of its scholars and notables, as is well known and widely reported among the elite and the common folk. And the arrival of al-Muwaffaq to him—we say: he is the commander Abū Aḥmad Ṭalḥa ibn al-Mutawakkil ibn al-Muʿtaṣim, brother of the caliph al-Muʿtamid ʿalā Allāh, and he was a heroic, brave, and highly esteemed commander; al-Dhahabī mentioned him in his *Tārīkh Duwal al-Islām* under the deaths of the year 278 AH—and his request that he proceed to move to it [Basra] so that people might travel to him, and his book on the Sunan and other sciences might be taken from him, and that it might be populated through him, as we have already set forth in what we dictated. For he was certain that his residence there and his being among its people would serve the role of valiant warriors and glorious protectors. And little is what Sahl did on his behalf when he saw the right that was due… And the virtues of Abū Dāwūd are many, and his rank among the people of standing is great.

Abū Ṭāhir also said: He was, may God have mercy on him, in his time consulted regarding jarḥ and taʿdīl, his words were recorded, and reliance was placed upon him to the utmost degree. He also said: He had knowledge of the transmitters of hadith, and in the knowledge of hadith and its transmission he was a mountain among mountains.

(1) Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī in his introduction to al-Khaṭṭābī's commentary *Maʿālim al-Sunan* 4/370–371 and 372.

His Doctrine on the Attributes:

Imam Abu Dawud—may Allah have mercy on him—held the doctrine of the Salaf in affirming the attributes and negating [any inquiry into] their modality, just as was the doctrine of his teacher Imam Ahmad and most of the scholars of that era and those before it among the jurists and hadith scholars. It is the doctrine upon which the righteous Salaf were agreed, and which the four followed imams and the generality of the people of hadith adopted.

Indeed, al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi mentioned that Imam Abu Dawud was upon the doctrine of the Salaf in following the Sunnah and submitting to it, and in refraining from delving into the narrow straits of theological speculation (1).

Imam Abu Dawud also cited in the Book of the Sunnah within his Sunan hadiths that bear witness to and support the doctrine of the Salaf, as well as what he transmitted in his Masa'il from Imam Ahmad and other scholars of the Salaf in refuting the Jahmiyyah, the Mu'attilah, the Qadariyyah, the Khawarij, and the Mu'tazilah regarding what they held of theological matters such as al-'Uluww (divine elevation), al-Ru'yah (the vision [of Allah]), and the attributes—all of which clearly indicates that he was proceeding upon the doctrine of the Salaf and Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah. May Allah have abundant mercy upon him.

Abu Tahir al-Silafi narrated with his chain of transmission to Muhammad ibn Raja' al-Basri, who said: I said to Abu Dawud al-Sijistani: "I do not see that you narrated from al-Ramadi." He replied: "I saw him keeping company with the Waqifah, so I did not narrate from him."

Al-Silafi commented on that: This al-Ramadi is Ahmad ibn Mansur, one of the distinguished hadith memorizers and trustworthy scholars of Islam. Abu Dawud refrained from narrating from him due to his keeping company with the Waqifah.

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(1) "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'" 13/215.

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.

His being learned in jurisprudence under Imam Ahmad and other imams, and his transmission from them, does not mean that he was a blind follower of them, taking their opinions without scrutiny or examination of their evidences. Rather, he—may Allah have mercy on him—having completed the tools of ijtihad, would choose and issue fatwas according to what his ijtihad led him to in understanding the Book and the Sunnah, and whatever was derived from them. For the scholars of that era in which Abu Dawud lived were not content for themselves with taqlid—neither the hadith preservers nor the imams of jurisprudence.

And Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah was asked about the six imams and others: Were they mujtahids who did not imitate anyone, or were they blind followers? He answered them by saying: As for al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud, they are two imams in jurisprudence among the people of ijtihad. As for Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Ibn Khuzaymah, Abu Ya'la, al-Bazzar, and the like, they follow the madhhab of the people of hadith; they are not blind followers of any single scholar, nor are they among the absolutely mujtahid imams. Rather, they do not incline away from the opinions of the imams of hadith such as al-Shafi'i, Ahmad, Ishaq, Abu 'Ubayd, and their likes. Among them are those who have a special attachment to certain imams, like the attachment of Abu Dawud and the like to Ahmad ibn Hanbal. And they are more inclined toward the madhhabs of the people of the Hijaz, like Malik and his peers, than toward the madhhabs of the people of Iraq, like Abu Hanifah and al-Thawri.¹

And the scholar Shaykh Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari said: And Abu Dawud studied jurisprudence under the jurists of Iraq, and his stature in jurisprudence became great. And they—meaning al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud—

¹ *Majmu' al-Fatawa* 20/40.

The most knowledgeable of the scholars—may God have mercy on them and lavish upon them the abundant flow of His mercy—and upon them rests the greatest favor to this community for their service to the Sunnah.¹

Shaykh Tahir al-Jaza'iri, however, adopted a middle position between the two groups, saying: "In my view, al-Bukhari and Abu Dawud, like the rest of the aforementioned imams, are not followers of any single specific authority, nor are they among the absolutely independent mujtahid imams. Rather, they lean toward the opinions of their own teachers."²

*His Scholarly Legacy:

A. His Students:

Imam Abu Dawud, like the scholars of his era, possessed a comprehensive grasp of knowledge across linguistics, jurisprudence, hadith, exegesis, and other fields—a breadth that made him a destination for students of knowledge, who flocked to him from every direction, eager to receive learning from him, particularly the science of hadith, in which he excelled and which so dominated his scholarship that he became an imam in it, one to whom others referred, from whom they transmitted, and whose authority they accepted.

Among his students were those who received the entire *Sunan* from him through narration, while others studied only some of his transmitted reports. A great number of those students were among the most distinguished in this field, succeeding him admirably and serving as beacons of guidance after him.

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¹ Marginal note in *Shurut al-A'immah al-Khamsah*, p. 56.
² *Tawjih al-Nazar*, p. 185.

As for his students who stayed with him and read the Book of Sunan with him, the most prominent of them are:

1. Abu 'Ali Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn 'Amr al-Basri al-Lu'lu'i. Al-Dhahabi described him by saying: "The imam, the muḥaddith, the truthful one," and on another occasion he said: "Trustworthy." His student, the judge Abu 'Umar al-Qasim ibn Ja'far al-Hashimi, said: "Abu 'Ali al-Lu'lu'i had read the Book of Sunan with Abu Dawud for twenty years, and he was called the warraq of Abu Dawud—and warraq in the language of the people of Basra means the one who reads to the people." He was the last to transmit the Book of Sunan from him. He died in the year three hundred and thirty-three.

Al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Tujibi said: "The most sound of all the transmissions of the book is the transmission of Abu 'Ali Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn 'Amr al-Lu'lu'i al-Basri, which was the last that Abu Dawud—may God have mercy on him—dictated, and upon it Abu Dawud died."

Abu al-Tayyib al-'Azim Abadi said: "The copy of the Sunan transmitted by al-Lu'lu'i is the one circulated in our Indian lands, the lands of the Hijaz, and the lands of the East among the Arabs—indeed, in most lands—and it is what is understood by 'the Sunan' when mentioned absolutely. This copy was abridged by al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri, and he extracted its hadiths. On this copy there is a commentary by Ibn Ruslan and al-Hafiz al-'Iraqi, and glosses by Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Sindi, and al-Suyuti—and these glosses are printed—and others. This transmission is the one intended in the statement of the author of al-Muntaqa and the author of Jami' al-Usul."

The author of *Naṣb al-Rāyah*, the author of *al-Mishkāh*, the author of *Bulūgh al-Marām*, and other muḥaddithūn [relied upon it]. The imam, the ḥāfiẓ, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan, known as Ibn ʿAsākir al-Dimashqī, took this recension in his book *al-Ishrāf ʿalā Maʿrifat al-Aṭrāf*, until al-Suyūṭī said that the recension of al-Luʾluʾī is among the most authentic recensions(1).

We have obtained, praise be to God, three photographed copies from handwritten originals transmitted via the recension of al-Luʾluʾī.

2. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Razzāq ibn Dāsah(2) al-Baṣrī al-Tammār. al-Dhahabī described him, saying: "The shaykh, the trustworthy, the learned." He said: "He was the last person to transmit the *Sunan* in full from Abū Dāwūd." Likewise, Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī said that his recension is the most complete of the recensions, and Ibn ʿAṭiyyah said the same in his *Fihrist*. Abū al-Ṭayyib al-ʿAẓīmābādī said: "It is well-known in the lands of the Maghrib"(3). We say: Among the Eastern scholars who relied upon it are the imam Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Rāzī al-Jaṣṣāṣ, who died in the year 370 AH; the imam Abū Sulaymān Ḥamd ibn Muḥammad al-Khaṭṭābī, who died in the year 388 AH; the ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym al-Aṣbahānī, who died in the year 430 AH; and the ḥāfiẓ Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Bayhaqī, who died in the year 458 AH.

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(1) *ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd* 14/135.
(2) al-Muʿallimī said in the introduction to *al-Ikmāl* by Ibn Mākūlā, p. 60: "There are four names regarding which the scholars have stated that their final letter remains a *hāʾ* whether paused upon or connected: Mājah, Dāsah, Mandah, and Saydah."
(3) Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī in his *Fihrist*, p. 106; Ibn ʿAṭiyyah in his *Fihrist*, p. 159; al-Dhahabī in *al-Siyar* 15/538; and Abū al-Ṭayyib in *ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd* 14/135.

Among the Maghribis who relied upon it [this transmission] is the author of *al-Muḥallā*, Imam Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥazm, who died in the year 456 AH, and Imam Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, who died in the year 463 AH.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar said: The two transmissions of al-Luʾluʾī and Ibn Dāsah are close to one another, except in some instances of forward and backward ordering. He died in the year 346 AH.

By the grace of God, we have obtained two photographic reproductions from two manuscript copies transmitted through him, one of which is complete, while the other is missing some of its chapters.

3 — Abū Saʿīd Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ziyād ibn Bishr ibn Darham ibn al-Aʿrābī. Al-Dhahabī described him by saying: The Imam, the muḥaddith, the model of emulation, the truthful, the ḥāfiẓ, the Shaykh of Islam. And he said in another place: He was trustworthy and firm. Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī said: In the transmission of Ibn al-Aʿrābī, the Book of Tribulations and Epic Battles, the Book of Letters, and the Book of the Seal are not present, and approximately half of the Book of Garments fell out, and many leaves were missing from the Book of Ablution, the Book of Prayer, and the Book of Marriage, along with hadiths he extracted from his transmission from his shaykhs. He narrated most of them from Abū Usāmah Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Ruwwās, from Abū Dāwūd, according to what I recorded from the book of Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm. He died in the year 340 AH, at the age of ninety-four years and some months.

Abū al-Ṭayyib al-ʿAẓīmābādī said: Along with its deficiencies, it also contains some hadiths that are not in the narration of al-Luʾluʾī, and al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī mentions his narration in *al-Aṭrāf* (1).

4 — Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-ʿAbd al-Warrāq. Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī transmitted with his chain of transmission to Ibn al-ʿAbd his statement: I heard the book *al-Sunan* from Abū Dāwūd six times; from the sixth time a portion remained that he did not complete in Basra. He said: The Basran [narration] adds to the Baghdadi one more than six hundred and sixty hadiths, and more than a thousand expressions (2).

Abū al-Ṭayyib al-ʿAẓīmābādī said: The narration of Ibn al-ʿAbd is present in al-Mizzī's *Aṭrāf*, and al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar also mentions his narration in *Fatḥ al-Bārī* (3).

We say: Al-Ḥāfiẓ frequently referred to it in his copy of *al-Sunan* that we possess, with the symbol "ʿB."

Al-Kawtharī said: In the narration of Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-ʿAbd there are some additions that are useful in the criticism of hadiths, and likewise the narration of Isḥāq ibn Mūsā al-Ramlī (4).

5 — Abū ʿĪsā Isḥāq ibn Mūsā ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salama al-Ramlī. Al-Dāraquṭnī declared him trustworthy, and al-Suyūṭī said: His copy approximates the copy of Ibn Dāsa. It contains additions useful in the criticism of hadiths, as al-Kawtharī said.

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(1) *ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd* 14/135.
(2) From the end of the conclusion of *Risālat Abī Dāwūd ilā Ahl Makka fī Waṣf Sunanih*, al-Kawtharī edition.
(3) *ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd* 14/136.
(4) In his introduction to *Risālat Abī Dāwūd ilā Ahl Makka fī Waṣf al-Sunan*.

He was described as the copyist ( warrāq ) of Abū Dāwūd in Baghdad. He died in the year three hundred and twenty (1).

We say: His transmission is found with Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (2).

6 — Abū Sālim Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥammād ibn Māhān ibn Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Julūdī. Yūsuf al-Qawwās declared him trustworthy. He died in the year three hundred and twenty-nine. The Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī has mentioned his transmission of the Sunan from Abū Dāwūd (3).

7 — Abū Usāma Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Yazīd al-Ruwwās. He was mentioned previously in the discussion of Ibn al-Aʿrābī, where we noted that Ibn al-Aʿrābī transmitted most of the ḥadīths he had not heard directly from Abū Dāwūd through his own shaykhs, and that he narrated most of them from Abū Usāma al-Ruwwās, as Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī indicated. Both al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī and al-Dhahabī have mentioned his transmission from Abū Dāwūd (4).

8 — Abū ʿAmr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Shāhmard al-Ṣayrafī, the jurist of Baṣra, known as Ibn Khumayra. He heard from Abū Dāwūd in Damascus, and both al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī and al-Dhahabī have mentioned his transmission of the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd (5).

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(1) Al-Khaṭīb in Tārīkh Baghdād 6/395, Ibn Khayr in his Fahrasa p. 104, al-ʿAẓīmābādī in ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd 14/136, and al-Kawtharī in his introduction to Risālat Abī Dāwūd ilā ahl Makka.
(2) Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ in al-Ghunya pp. 38 and 218, and Ibn Khayr in his Fahrasa p. 104.
(3) Al-Khaṭīb in his Tārīkh 5/311, and al-Dhahabī in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ 2/592, and in Tārīkh al-Islām, deaths 321–330.
(4) Al-Mizzī in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl in the biography of Abū Dāwūd, and in Tuḥfat al-Ashrāf (10930) and (12082), and al-Dhahabī in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ 2/592.
(5) Ibn ʿAsākir in Tārīkh Dimashq 2/folios 19–25, al-Mizzī in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl in the biography of Abū Dāwūd, and al-Dhahabī in al-Tadhkira 2/592.

9 - Abu al-Tayyib Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ushnani al-Baghdadi, resident of al-Rahbah. Al-Hafiz al-Mizzi mentioned in his biography of Abu Dawud that he was one of the narrators of the "Sunan" from Abu Dawud.(1)

Among the students of Abu Dawud who took from him the part on "al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh" (The Abrogating and Abrogated) was Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Salman ibn al-Hasan ibn Isra'il al-Baghdadi al-Hanbali al-Najjad. Al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi described him, saying: "The Imam, the hadith scholar, the hafiz, the jurist, the mufti, the Shaykh of Iraq." He also said: "He heard from Abu Dawud and traveled to him, and he was the last of his companions [to die]."(2)

Among his students who studied with him the book "al-Radd 'ala Ahl al-Qadar" (Refutation of the People of Qadar) was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ya'qub al-Mattuthi al-Basri.(3) We have not found a biography for him in the sources available to us.

Among those who studied under him in the science of the conditions of narrators was Abu 'Ubayd Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Uthman al-Ajuri. Despite his fame, we have not found a biography for him in the sources at our disposal, except that some described him as a hafiz, and he was also described as a companion of Abu Dawud. Al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi, who transmitted from him in "al-Siyar" in the biography of Ishaq ibn Rahawayh, said: "I do not know of anyone who weakened him."(4) And it appears to us from

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(1) Al-Khatib in his "Tarikh" 4/36, and al-Mizzi in "Tahdhib al-Kamal" in the biography of Abu Dawud.
(2) Al-Dhahabi in "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'" 15/502-505, and Ibn Hajar in "al-Mu'jam al-Mufahras" (373).
(3) Al-Mizzi in "Tahdhib al-Kamal" in the biography of Abu Dawud.
(4) Al-Dhahabi in "Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'" 11/377.

During his “Questions” (1) addressed to Abu Dawud, he was a constant companion of his for a long period. The scholars relied on these “Questions” of his and transmitted them in their books on the biographies of narrators.

Among them is al-Husayn ibn Idris al-Ansari al-Harawi, whom al-Dhahabi described by saying: the memorizer, the trustworthy. Al-Daraqutni declared him trustworthy. He died in the year three hundred and one (2).

We say: al-Khatib in his “History” frequently transmitted from him, reporting from Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, from his “Questions” to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal concerning narrators. He holds a high rank among the rest of Abu Dawud’s students, for he shared a number of his teachers with him, such as Sa’id ibn Mansur and ‘Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah.

As for his students who took hadith from him, hadith after hadith and narration after narration, and who were not numerous, they are many; the most famous of them are:

1. Abu ‘Isa Muhammad ibn ‘Isa ibn Sawrah al-Tirmidhi, the imam, the memorizer, the critic, the jurist, author of “al-Jami’.” We have devoted a comprehensive biography to him in our introduction to his book “al-Jami’ al-Kabir” in our critical edition, so refer to it there.

2. Ahmad ibn Shu’ayb ibn ‘Ali al-Nasa’i, the imam, the memorizer, the critic, the insightful, author of the well-known “Sunan.” He narrated from Abu Dawud in “al-Kuna” and named him by his name, saying: Sulayman ibn al-Ash’ath. Al-Nasa’i also narrated in his “Sunan” from Abu Dawud by his kunyah, and the two memorizers al-Mizzi and al-Dhahabi considered it most likely that he is al-Sijistani.

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(1) The third part of it has been printed, edited by Muhammad ‘Ali Qasim al-‘Umari.
(2) Al-Dhahabi in “Tadhkirat al-Huffaz” 2/695–696.

They both pointed out that sharing his kunya and scholarly rank was Sulaymān ibn Sayf al-Ḥarrānī, so it is possible that he is the one intended.

3 — Among them is his shaykh, Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. He took from him the ḥadīth of Abū al-ʿAshrāʾ al-Dārimī, on the authority of his father, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked about al-ʿatīrah (the sacrifice offered in Rajab), and he approved of it. Abū Bakr al-Khallāl said: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal heard from him a single ḥadīth, which Abū Dāwūd used to mention.¹ We say: al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī has mentioned Abū Bakr al-Khallāl among the students of Abū Dāwūd.²

4 — Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sājī. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī described him, saying: The Imām, the reliable, the ḥāfiẓ, the muḥaddith of Baṣrah, its shaykh, and its muftī. We say: He is the one who praised the book "al-Sunan" of Abū Dāwūd, saying: The Book of God, the Mighty and Majestic, is the foundation of Islam, and the book "al-Sunan" of Abū Dāwūd is the covenant of Islam. He authored works on jurisprudence and on the defects of ḥadīth. He died in the year three hundred and seven.³

---
¹ Al-Dhahabī said in "Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ" 13/211: It is the ḥadīth of Abū Dāwūd [2825], from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr al-Rāzī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Qays, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Abū al-ʿAshrāʾ, from his father, that the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was asked about al-ʿatīrah and he approved of it. This is a munkar ḥadīth; Ibn Qays was criticized on account of it. What is preserved from Ḥammād with this chain is only the ḥadīth: "Is slaughtering not but in the throat and chest?" We say: The rest of the ḥadīth is: "And if you stabbed her in the thigh, it would suffice you." It was also narrated by al-Tirmidhī (1551) and Ibn Mājah (3184). Abū al-ʿAshrāʾ is unknown, and in "al-Tahdhīb": al-Maymūnī said: I asked Aḥmad about the ḥadīth of Abū al-ʿAshrāʾ concerning slaughtering, and he said: In my view it is an error; it does not please me, and I do not follow it except in a case of necessity. He said: I do not know that anything other than this ḥadīth is narrated from Abū al-ʿAshrāʾ.

² Al-Mizzī in "Tahdhīb al-Kamāl" in the biography of Abū Dāwūd.

³ Ibn ʿAsākir in his "Tārīkh" 7/folio 547, Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī in "Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ" p. 104, and al-Dhahabī in "al-Siyar" 14/197–200.

5 - Isma'il ibn Muhammad ibn Isma'il ibn Salih al-Baghdadi al-Saffar. Al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi described him, saying: "The Imam, the grammarian, the man of letters, the musnid of Iraq." Al-Darqutni declared him trustworthy and said: "He was a staunch supporter of the Sunnah." He died in the year three hundred and forty-one (AH).

6 - Abu 'Awanah Ya'qub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Yazid al-Naysaburi al-Isfarayini. Al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi described him, saying: "The Imam, the great hadith master, the widely traveled." He also said: "He excelled in this field and surpassed his peers." He is the author of "Al-Musnad al-Sahih," which he compiled according to the standard of "Sahih Muslim." He died in the year three hundred and sixteen (AH).

There are many others besides these, mentioned by the two hafizes al-Mizzi and al-Dhahabi. We have only limited ourselves to mentioning the eminent among them, those whose standing is not unknown and whose merit is not denied.

B - His Works:
Just as Imam Abu Dawud had distinguished students who succeeded him with excellence and followed his methodology in this field, he also had significant works that were the focus of attention of scholars, who found in them their goal and their objective. The most important of these are:

1 - The book of "Al-Sunan," which is the very work we are undertaking to edit and publish, and which will be discussed in full, God willing.

2. *Al-Marasīl* (The Mursal Hadiths): This is a great book in its field; no one, to our knowledge, had devoted a standalone work to it before. It comprises within its covers five hundred and forty-four mursal hadiths, arranged by chapters, most of which have a sound chain of transmission back to the one who sent them (i.e., the transmitter who omitted the Companion). It is most likely that he included in it the majority of the mursal reports that reached him, and only a few escaped him. His purpose in compiling it—as is most probable in our view—was for it to serve as a reference for the jurist, who could rely on its texts, derive rulings from them, and issue legal opinions accordingly when no authentic, continuous (muttaṣil) hadith is found on the matter at hand. For he held, following his teacher Imam Aḥmad, that the mursal report is admissible as evidence when there is nothing more firmly established on the topic, and he preferred it over analogical reasoning (qiyās). It is stated in his "Epistle to the People of Mecca": "If there is no musnad (continuous) report against the mursal reports, and no musnad is found, then the mursal is used as evidence, though it is not equal in strength to the continuous one."(1)

This book was previously printed with the chains of transmission omitted and some narrations abridged in Egypt in the year 1310 AH, at the al-Taqaddum Press, under the supervision of Shaykh ʿAlī al-Sunnī al-Maghribī al-Ṭarābulusī. From that edition, it was reprinted at the Muḥammad ʿAlī Ṣubayḥ Press in Egypt. This edition—despite the errors and distortions it contains—is of no use to the researcher who cares about the chain of transmission and insists on it in order to judge the text and verify its authenticity.

By the grace of God Almighty and His facilitation, I was able to critically edit this book, relying on a photographed manuscript copy of the handwritten version preserved in--------------------------------------------
(1) p. 33, within *Three Epistles on the Science of Hadith Terminology*, edited and annotated by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah, may God have mercy on him.

The Köprülü Library in Istanbul, under number 294-2, and it is of the utmost rarity and quality, written in the hand of al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, as I later ascertained with certainty. We have already described it in the introduction to the book, so refer to it. (1)

This book is well known and famous through the transmission of Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAmr al-Luʾluʾī.

3 - "Al-Nāsikh wa al-Mansūkh" (The Abrogating and the Abrogated): This is among the valuable books of Imam Abū Dāwūd. Ibn al-Abbār (658 AH) mentioned it in his "Muʿjam Aṣḥāb Abī ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī" (2), and the ḥuffāẓ al-Mizzī, al-Dhahabī, and Ibn Ḥajar also mentioned it (3). It is known through the transmission of Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Salmān al-Najjād, from Abū Dāwūd.

Ibn al-Nadīm and al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (4) have mentioned that Imam Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd al-Sijistānī had a book titled "Al-Nāsikh wa al-Mansūkh," so it is not unlikely that both of them composed works in this field. The book is lost, with no extant copy as far as we know.

4 - "Al-Zuhd" (Asceticism): This book was mentioned by Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī in his "Fahrasa" (5). A copy of it exists in al-Qarawiyyīn in Fez, and a copy in the library

--------------------------------------------
(1) Published by Muʾassasat al-Risāla in the year 1418 AH.
(2) P. 268.
(3) Al-Mizzī in "Tahdhīb al-Kamāl" in the biography of Abū Dāwūd, al-Dhahabī in "Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ" in the biography of Abū Bakr al-Najjād 15/505, and Ibn Ḥajar in "Al-Muʿjam al-Mufahras" (373). Ibn Ḥajar heard it and had it in his possession.
(4) Al-Nadīm in "Al-Fihrist" p. 288, and al-Khaṭīb in "Tārīkh Baghdād" 9/464.
(5) P. 109.

Al-Ẓāhiriyyah Library in Damascus(1). Ibn Khayr narrated it via the chain of Ibn Dāsah and Ibn al-Aʿrābī.

5. "Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad" (Questions of Imām Aḥmad): This is one of the precious books that contains Imām Aḥmad's jurisprudential opinions, his views on certain matters of creed, and other benefits concerning the science of narrators and criticism of ḥadīths. Two manuscript copies of the book exist, one of which is in the Al-Ẓāhiriyyah Library in Damascus. According to its editor, Shaykh Muḥammad Bahjat al-Bayṭār, it is the oldest book in the Al-Ẓāhiriyyah Library, as it was written in the year 266 AH during the lifetime of its author, Imām Abū Dāwūd. He also indicated the existence of another copy in the Maḥmūdiyyah Library in Medina, which he called the Medinan copy, and he explained that the Ẓāhiriyyah copy contains an additional twenty-six large pages over the Medinan copy, in addition to what the Medinan copy contains of ḥadīth-related and jurisprudential difficulties and ambiguities in the names of narrators and dates. After him, the eminent scholar Shaykh Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā reviewed it and added useful annotations to it. It was printed in the year 1352 AH, then reproduced photographically several times, including an edition by Dār al-Maʿrifah in Beirut. These questions are transmitted through the narration of Abū Bakr Ibn Dāsah, from Imām Abū Dāwūd.

6. "Al-Radd ʿalā Ahl al-Qadar" (The Refutation of the People of Qadar): The two ḥāfiẓs, al-Mizzī and al-Dhahabī, mentioned it in their biographies of Abū Dāwūd(2), and they stated that its narrator from Abū Dāwūd is Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad--------------------------------------------
(1) Dr. Taqī al-Dīn al-Nadwī in "Al-Imām Abū Dāwūd," p. 44, quoting from the catalog of Al-Ẓāhiriyyah manuscripts by Shaykh al-Albānī, may God have mercy on him, p. 161.
(2) "Tahdhīb al-Kamāl" and "Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ" 13/206.

Ibn Ahmad ibn Ya'qub al-Mutawwa'i al-Basri. Ibn 'Asakir has transmitted in several places of his book "Tarikh Dimashq" some questions on al-qadar from the narration of al-Mutawwa'i, on the authority of Abu Dawud(1), and al-Bayhaqi before him transmitted in "Shu'ab al-Iman" a narration from him as well(2). This book is counted among the lost books as far as we know.

7 - "Tasmiyat al-Ikhwah alladhina ruwiya 'anhum al-hadith" (The Naming of the Brothers from Whom Hadith Was Narrated): Thus did Abu Dawud name it, as it appears on the first folio of the manuscript original preserved in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, and it is transmitted through the narration of Abu 'Ubayd al-Ajurri from him. On that folio he mentioned that he took this from the book of 'Ali ibn al-Madini, and that part of it he took from Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and part from Mus'ab ibn 'Abd Allah al-Zubayri. This manuscript original consists of seven folios, as Dr. Akram Diya' al-'Umari states(3). It has recently been printed under the editorship of Dr. Basim Faysal al-Jawabira at Dar al-Raya in Riyadh, in the year 1408 AH.

8 - "Ashab al-Sha'bi" (The Companions of al-Sha'bi): Abu 'Ubayd al-Ajurri mentioned it in his "Su'alat" (Questions), and attributed it to Imam Abu Dawud(4).

9 - "al-Tafarrud fi al-Sunan" (Uniqueness in the Sunan): Al-Qadi 'Iyad and Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili mentioned it, in what they transmitted from some of their shaykhs(5), and the second named it: "Ma tafarrada bihi ahl--------------------------------------------
(1) Among them is what he cited in the chapter on the mention of what was reported condemning the people of al-Sham and the refutation of its falsehood, and among them is what appears in the biography of Dawud ibn Abi Hind, the biography of the Prophet Sulayman, peace be upon him, the biography of 'Abd Allah ibn al-Harith ibn Nawfal, and others.
(2) (189).
(3) "Buhuth fi Tarikh al-Sunna" p. 65.
(4) p. 181.
(5) Al-Qadi 'Iyad in "al-Ghuniya" p. 277, and Ibn Khayr in his "Fahrasa" p. 109.

The cities are among the transmitted Sunnahs," and both of them were narrated via Ibn Dāsah, from Imam Abū Dāwūd.

10 - "Dalā'il al-Nubuwwah" (Signs of Prophethood): It was mentioned by Ibn Khayr al-Ishbīlī and al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar under the title "A'lām al-Nubuwwah" (1), and it was narrated via Abū Bakr Ibn Dāsah as well, from Imam Abū Dāwūd. A manuscript copy of it exists in the Leipzig Library in Germany under number 10/ [75] with the title "Dalā'il al-Nubuwwah."

11 - "Su'ālāt Abī ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī lahu" (The Questions of Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī to Him): It was mentioned by the ḥuffāẓ Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī, Ibn Kathīr, and Ibn Ḥajar (2). Al-Silafī said: "I have in my possession from these questions something of the utmost quality, beneficial, and delightful, and in the A'lām, convincingly addressing the issue of corporeality." Among them is what Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī narrated from him in five large volumes, in my own handwriting, with each volume containing thirty folios, except for the fourth and fifth, which are less than that. Ibn Kathīr said concerning it: "Abū ʿUbayd al-Ājurrī had questions to him regarding jarḥ (criticism) and taʿdīl (validation), authentication, and ʿillal (defects), a beneficial book." We say: This book contains Abū Dāwūd's own views on the narrators, as well as what he transmits from the scholars of knowledge, such as Imam Aḥmad, Ibn Maʿīn, Ibn al-Madīnī, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Shuʿbah, Sufyān, and others.

The third part of this book has been printed, edited by Muḥammad ʿAlī Qāsim al-ʿUmarī in the year 1406 AH, and it is among the publications of the Islamic University in--------------------------------------------
(1) Ibn Khayr in his "Fahrasah" p. 110, and Ibn Ḥajar in "al-Muʿjam al-Mufahras" (198).
(2) Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī in his introduction to al-Khaṭṭābī's commentary "Maʿālim al-Sunan," which is printed at the end of the book 4/372, and Ibn Kathīr in "Mukhtaṣar ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth" p. 41, and Ibn Ḥajar in "al-Muʿjam al-Mufahras" (677).