al-Manhal al-Adhb al-Mawrud Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud
- Author died
- 1352 AH
- Editions
- Matba'at Al-Istiqaama
al-Manhal al-Adhb al-Mawrud Sharh Sunan Abi Dawud (The Sweet, Flowing Spring: A Commentary on Sunan Abi Dawud) is an extensive legal and hadith commentary on Abu Dawud's Sunan Abi Dawud, authored by the Egyptian Azhari scholar Mahmud Khattab al-Subki (d. 1352 AH / 1933 CE) .
Background and Scope
Al-Subki began teaching Sunan Abi Dawud to a group of students in Rabi' al-Thani 1343 AH . Because copies of the text were scarce and difficult for students to acquire, he initially intended to print the work to facilitate wider access, but he was subsequently requested to compose a comprehensive commentary explaining its contents .
Al-Subki did not live to complete the entire commentary; he died on 14 Rabi' al-Awwal 1352 AH, having reached the chapter on sacrificial animals (Bab fi al-Hady) within the Book of Hajj Rites (Kitab al-Manasik) . His work was published in Egypt across ten large volumes printed at Matba'at al-Istiqaama in 1351 AH .
Methodology and Structure
The commentary opens with an introduction covering hadith terminology, a biography of Abu Dawud and his students, his criteria and compilation method, the status of traditions on which Abu Dawud remained silent, the transmission lines of the Sunan, excerpts from Abu Dawud's epistle to the people of Mecca, and al-Subki’s own chains of narration linking back to the text .
In the body of the commentary, al-Subki's methodology has been compared to that of Badr al-Din al-'Ayni in 'Umdat al-Qari . For each tradition, his method incorporates:
- Explaining Abu Dawud's chapter headings and providing detailed biographies of every narrator in the chain of transmission .
- Highlighting subtle aspects of chains (lata'if al-isnad), noting variant manuscript readings, and vocalizing names and obscure vocabulary .
- Cross-referencing other collections that recorded the hadith—both from the Six Books and outside them—and evaluating its authenticity as sound (sahih), fair (hasan), or otherwise .
- Supplying full chains for traditions that Abu Dawud left without complete transmission (wasl ma 'allaqahu Abu Dawud) .
- Detailing legal rulings (fiqh al-hadith), setting out the divergent positions of the juristic schools and their respective textual proofs, and summarizing these legal conclusions under explicit headings .
Continuations and Indices
The author's son, Amin Mahmud Muhammad Khattab (d. 1378 AH), revised and corrected the original ten volumes and authored a continuation entitled Fath al-Malik al-Ma'bud Takmilat al-Manhal al-Adhb al-Mawrud . Amin al-Subki published four volumes of this continuation, carrying the commentary forward until the chapter on the gravity of adultery (Bab fi Ta'zim al-Zina) at the conclusion of the Book of Marriage and Divorce .
In 1356 AH (1937 CE), Mustafa 'Ali al-Bayyumi published a separate comprehensive index (Miftah) for al-Subki’s ten volumes, providing indexes of chapters, verbal hadiths, actionable traditions, vocabulary, legal topics and named figures, and numerical lists .
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