INTRODUCTION[1]
By Abu Khaliyl
About the Author
He is Abū Dāwūd, Sulaimān bin Al-Ash'ath bin Ishāq, bin Bashīr bin Shaddād bin 'Amr bin 'Imrān Al-Azdī As-Sijistānī;[2] he was born in the year 202 after Hijrah.[3] The biographers agree that he died in the year 275.
As-Sijistānī is derived from Sīstān, a region which today stretches from south eastern Iran to south western Afghanistan.
The term As-Sijizī is also used as an ascription for Sīstān, hence sometimes Abū Dāwūd was called: "Abū Dāwūd As-Sijizī."[4]
He began to travel seeking Aḥādīth at a young age, and made his way to Baghdād by the time he was eighteen years old. His journeys, seeking knowledge, took him through the lands of Khurāsān, Al-'Irāq, 'Arabia, Ash-Shām, and Egypt.
His most famous teachers include Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal, Ishāq bin Ibrāhīm, Yahyā bin Ma'in, Abū Bakr Ibn Abī Shaibah, his brother 'Uthmān bin Abī Shaibah, 'Alī bin Al-Madīnī, and 'Abdullāh bin Maslamah Al-Qan'abī, who was among those famous for reporting the Muw'aṭṭa of Imām Mālik.
His most famous students include his son, Abū Bakr 'Abdullāh bin Abī Dāwūd, At-Tirmidhī, An-Nasā'i, Abū Bakr Al-Khalāl, Ar-Ramahurmuzī, Ibn Abī Ad-Dunyā, Ad-Duwlabī, as well as those who narrate the Sunan from him — a discussion of which follows.
Selected Statements About the Author and His Book[5]
Al-Khaṭṭābī said: "The book of the Sunan, by Abū Dāwūd, is a noble book, there has not been another book written in the knowledge of the religion that
[1] References for his biography include Tārīkh Baghdād, Tahdhīb Al-Kamāl, Siyar A'lām An-Nubalā', Al-Ḥāfiz Abū Tāhir As-Silafī's introduction to Ma'ālam As-Sunan by Al-Khaṭṭābī, and Ghāyat Al-Maqsūd fī Sharḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd by Al-'Allāmah Al-'Azīm Ābādī. All of what has been cited here is supported with authentic chains of narration.
[2] There are some slight variations in his complete name according to those who wrote his biography.
[3] Suw'alāt Abū 'Ubaid Al-Ājurī, see also all of the previously mentioned references.
[4] See Imām At-Tirmidhī's comments in his Sunan, after number 466 and 716, and he narrated number 3604 (8) from "Abū Dāwūd As-Sijizī."
[5] See the biographical references mentioned above.
is like it.”
And he said: “I heard Ibn Al-‘Arābī say — while we were listening to him (recite) this book; he pointed to the copy which was in front of him — ‘If a man does not have any knowledge with him, except that of the Muṣḥaf in which is Allāh’s Book, then this book, he would not have a need for any knowledge at all beyond the two of them.”
Al-Khaṭṭābī said: “Abū ‘Umar Muḥammad bin ‘Abdul-Wāḥid Az-Zāhid — the companion of Abū Al-‘Abbās Aḥmad bin Yaḥyā — informed me, he said: ‘Ibrāhīm Al-Ḥarbī said: “When Abū Dāwud wrote this book, Aḥādīth were made supple for him, just as iron was made supple for Dāwud.” Meaning the Prophet Dāwud, peace be upon him.”[1]
Al-Ḥāfīz Adh-Dhahabi said: “Along with his Imāmat in Ḥādīth and its fields, Abū Dāwud was among the major Fuqahā’, for his book proves that. He was among the distinguished companions of Imām Aḥmad; he attended his lessons for a lengthy period of time, and he asked him about delicate issues, in both branches (Furū’) and fundamentals (Uṣūl), and he stayed upon the Madhhab of the Salaf, regarding following the Sunnah and submitting to it, and not delving into problematic Kalām.”[2]
Those Who Narrate His Sunan
There are many who heard Abū Dāwud’s Sunan from him, those that are popular, or known to have reported it from him, are; Al-Lu’lu’i (Muḥammad bin Aḥmad), Ibn Dāsah, (Abū Bakr Muḥammad bin Bakr bin Muḥammad), Ar-Ramlī (Abū ‘Eisā Ishāq bin Mūsā), and Ibn Al-A’rābī (Abū Sa’eed Aḥmad bin Muḥammad).[3]
His Books
Other than his Sunan, his letter to the people of Makkah, explaining the conditions he adhered to in compiling his Sunan, and his Masā’il of Imām Aḥmad, Abū Dāwud is known to have authored the following: At-Tafarrud, Al-Marāsil, A’lām An-Nubuwwah, Az-Zuhd, and An-Nāsikh wal-Mansūkh. Abū ‘Ubaid Al-Ājurri compiled a book of questions that he asked Abū Dāwud,
[1] These narrations and statements of Al-Khaṭṭābī are taken from his introduction to Ma’lam As-Sunan. The narrators in the chain for the last statement were all graded trustworthy by Al-Baghdādī in Tārīkh Baghdād, and each of them are confirmed to have heard from the one he is reporting from. Abū ‘Umar Az-Zāhid was called “Tha’lab’s boy,” and Tha’lab is Aḥmad bin Yaḥyā — Ash-Shaībānī of Al-Kūfah — that Al-Khaṭṭābī mentioned.
[2] Siyar A’lām An-Nubalā’, and by Kalām he means the philosophical theological issues termed: ‘Ilm Al-Kalām.
[3] The versions narrated by Al-Lu’lu’i and Ibn Dāsah are the most popular and most complete. Occasionally, the reader will notice a footnote in the translation indicating a variation based upon one of the versions, in addition, some comments of some of the other reporters of the Sunan appear between square brackets.
entitled: Suw'ālāt Abī 'Ubaid Al-Ājurī 'an Abī Dāwūd[1]
Commentaries
The most famous of commentaries on the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd is that of Al-Khaṭṭābī. He is Abū Sulaimān Ḥamd bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm Al-Khaṭṭāb Al-Khaṭṭābī Al-Bustī. He heard from the previously mentioned Abū Sa'eed Ibn Al-A'rābī in Makkah, and Abū Bakr Ibn Dāsah in Al-Baṣrah, as well as other scholars.[2] He died in the year 388 after Hijrah.
His commentary is on an abridged selection of chapters and narrations of the Sunan, and it is said that his commentary is the first commentary on a Ḥadīth book, hence its great rank and importance in the field of Ḥadīth commentary. The name of his commentary is Ma'ālam As-Sunan.
There are many other commentaries written for the Sunan, some of them published and others not yet published. Among them, that of Al-Munḍhirī, who compiled an abridgement of Sunan Abī Dāwūd with comments, Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawzī, who compiled comments on an abridgment of the Sunan, As-Suyūṭī, Al-'Aīnī, and Abū Al-Ḥasan As-Sindi. An-Nawawī, also compiled a commentary which they say was not completed, and it is among those that are lost.
The most famously cited commentary today, is that of Al-'Allāmah Abū Tayyib Muḥammad Shams Al-Ḥaqq Al-'Azīmābādī, entitled; 'Awn Al-Ma'būd. This work contains comments taken from his larger collection, entitled: Ghāyat Al-Maqṣūd, some of the larger collection is published.
His Objectives and Criteria
Regarding the level of narrators he included in his Sunan, Abū Dāwūd said: "There are no abandoned (Matrūk) Ḥadīth narrators in the book of As-Sunan which I wrote, and when there is a Munkar Ḥadīth I clarified that it is Munkar, and there is nothing other than it which is similar for that topic." And the meaning of Munkar is an odd narration, whose narrators are disparaged.
And, he mentioned about the weak Aḥādīth in his book: "Whatever Ḥadīth there is in my book that has a severe weakness, then I have clarified it, and whatever I did not mention anything about it, then it is Ṣāliḥ (good), and some of them are more correct than others."[3]
It is clear from its context, that some of the Aḥādīth not clarified by him are
[1] It is said that he authored other books as well. All of the above are mentioned by Al-Ḥāfiz Ibn Ḥajar, as books he heard with chains of narration to the author, in Al-Mu'jam Al-Mufahras also called: Tajrid Asānīd Al-Kutub Al-Mashhūrāh wal-Ajzā'al-Manthūr.
[2] Al-Ansāb.
[3] These two statements are taken from Abū Dāwūd's letter to the people of Makkah regarding his Sunan, and most of its contents have been narrated from him through various routes of transmission.
weak, while he did not consider them to be severely weak.
And he said: "I wrote, from Allāh's Messenger ﷺ, five-hundred thousand Aḥādīth, selecting from them what I included in this book — meaning the book As-Sunan — so I collected four thousand Aḥādīth in it,[1] mentioning what is Ṣaḥīḥ, and what resembles that, and what is close to that."[2]
Al-Ḥāfīz Ibn Mandah said: "Abū Dāwūd narrated weak chains of narration when he did not find anything else for the topic, because that is stronger to him than a man's opinion."[3]
[1] Our edition includes 5,274 narrations. It is possible that he made this statement at one time, and included many other narrations later, since it is known that the various editions narrated from him differ in the number of narrations, as well as the fact that some of them contain chapters and books that others do not. It is also possible that in this statement he means Aḥādīth with a complete chain of narration. In his letter to the people of Makkah, he said: "Perhaps the number of Aḥādīth in my book reach four thousand and eight hundred, and about six-hundred Aḥādīth that are Mursal." And this number is closer to what is known of it.
[2] Tārīkh Baghdād, with a chain of narration that was graded Ṣaḥīḥ by Shaikh Al-Albānī in his introduction to Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd.
[3] See Muqaddimah Ibn Aṣ-Ṣalāḥ, and the introduction to Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd. In his letter to the people of Makkah, Abū Dāwūd also indicated that he cited Mursal narrations when there was nothing similar for the topic.