al-Ijaz fi Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud - al-Nawawi
- Author died
- 676 AH
- Editions
- al-Dār al-Athariyyah
al-Ijaz fi Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud (The Concise Commentary on the Sunan of Abu Dawud) is an incomplete commentary on the hadith collection Sunan Abi Dawud by the Shafi'i jurist and hadith scholar al-Nawawi (d. 676 AH / 1277 CE) .
Composition and Scope
Al-Nawawi commenced the work as a specialized commentary on Sunan Abi Dawud but died before completing it . His student Ibn al-Attar (d. 724 AH) listed it among the writings his teacher began but left unfinished, characterizing it as a short portion (qit'ah yasirah) on the Sunan . Another student of al-Nawawi, Muhammad ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Lakhmi, likewise recorded that al-Nawawi wrote only a small part of it . Al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) noted that al-Nawawi reached the chapters on ablution (wudu'), designated the work al-Ijaz, and reported hearing that Ibn Raslan incorporated the text entirely into his own commentary on the collection and built upon it . Al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH) also noted in his biographical and commentary works that al-Nawawi produced an incomplete portion of the commentary .
Manuscript and Content
The surviving text exists in a single manuscript preserved under number 200 in the Hekimoglu Ali Pasha Library in Istanbul . The title on the manuscript is recorded as Kitab al-Ijaz fi Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud al-Sijistani, naming the author as Yahya ibn Sharaf ibn Mura ibn Hasan ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Nawawi, with a note by the copyist stating that it was transcribed from and collated against al-Nawawi’s autograph copy .
The preserved manuscript opens with the Book of Purification (Kitab al-Taharah) and breaks off during the commentary on hadith 105 in the chapters on ritual ablution . Al-Nawawi discusses hadith authenticity, transmitters, linguistic definitions, and legal rulings derived from the narrations .
Scholarly Reception and Quotations
Several later scholars quoted from al-Nawawi's commentary:
- Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi (d. 807 AH) quoted geographical and lexical points from the commentary in Tarh al-tathrib .
- Siraj al-Din Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804 AH) cited al-Nawawi's commentary multiple times in al-Badr al-munir, including citations from its introductory section analyzing Abu Dawud's methodology, as well as rulings on specific narrations and transmitters—some of which extend beyond the extant physical manuscript to hadiths 108, 114, and 132 .
- Al-Suyuti drew heavily on al-Nawawi's formulations in his commentary Mirqat al-su'ud .
Printed Editions
The surviving text has been published in modern editions, including:
- An edition edited by Husayn ibn 'Ukashah ibn Ramadan, published by Dar al-Kayan in Riyadh (1427 AH / 2006 CE) .
- An edition edited by Mashhur Hasan Al Salman, published alongside Ibn al-'Attar's biographical work Tuhfat al-talibin by al-Dar al-Athariyyah in Amman (1428 AH / 2007 CE) .
Answer updated