al-Marasil li-Abi Dawud
- Author died
- 275 AH
- Editions
- Mu’assasat al-Risālah
al-Marasil (The Hurry-Transmissions) is a hadith work compiled by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (202–275 AH / 817–889 CE) that collects mursal narrations—reports transmitted with interrupted chains—arranged according to legal subjects .
Composition and Relation to the Sunan
Abu Dawud composed the book alongside his primary compilation, Sunan Abi Dawud. In his letter to the inhabitants of Mecca (Risalat Abi Dawud ila Ahl Makkah), he noted that the sections (ajza') of his Sunan totaled eighteen parts, one of which consisted of al-Marasil . In the same letter, he estimated that while his Sunan contained approximately 4,800 hadiths, it included or was accompanied by roughly 600 mursal traditions . The book circulated both as an integrated supplementary portion and as an independent monograph .
Legal Methodology and Terminology
Abu Dawud articulated the legal reasoning behind collecting mursal traditions in his letter to Mecca, explaining that early jurists—including Sufyan al-Thawri, Malik ibn Anas, and al-Awza'i—regularly used mursal hadiths as legal proof until al-Shafi'i critiqued their uncritical usage, a position subsequently adopted by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others . Abu Dawud maintained that in the absence of a fully connected (musnad) narration opposing them, mursal reports provide valid legal evidence, although they do not possess the same evidential strength as uninterrupted (muttasil) transmissions .
He classified the collected mursal reports into varying grades: some are unauthentic owing to weak transmission paths, while others are corroborated through alternate, fully connected routes that establish their authenticity . Furthermore, following early hadith terminology, Abu Dawud applied the term mursal broadly to encompass missing links and broken lines of transmission across the isnad rather than restricting it solely to narrations where a Successor omits the Companion .
Structure and Transmission
The book is arranged thematically by chapters of jurisprudence (abwab), covering legal topics such as ritual purity, prayer, and financial transactions . In modern critical counts, the work contains 544 mursal traditions .
The text was preserved and transmitted through the major transmitters of Abu Dawud's works, including Abu Ali al-Lu'lu'i, Ibn Dasah, and Abu Dawud's copyist Abu Isa al-Ramli .
Editions
al-Marasil was initially printed in Cairo without isnads by Matba'at al-Taqaddum and reissued by Matba'at Muhammad Ali Subayh . Complete critical editions with full chains of transmission have since been published, including one edited by Shu'ayb al-Arna'ut (Beirut, 1408 AH / 1988 CE) .
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