Bazl al-Majhud fi Hall Sunan Abi Dawud
- Author died
- 1346 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Shaykh Abī al-Ḥasan al-Nadwī lil-Buḥūth wal-Dirāsāt al-Islāmīyah
Bazl al-Majhud fi Hall Sunan Abi Dawud (The Expended Effort in Resolving Sunan Abi Dawud) is an Arabic commentary on Abu Dawud's hadith collection, Sunan Abi Dawud, authored by the Indian Hanafi scholar Khalil Ahmad al-Saharanfuri (1269–1346 AH / 1852–1927 CE) .
Composition and Context
Saharanfuri had long aspired since his youth to author a commentary on Sunan Abi Dawud, an ambition he realized when he reached the age of sixty-four in 1335 AH while leading hadith instruction at the Mazahir al-Ulum seminary in Saharanpur . Due to hand tremors and weakening eyesight that impaired his ability to write and conduct research independently, Saharanfuri dictated the commentary to his student Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi . Kandhlawi located primary references, gathered relevant passages, and presented them to Saharanfuri, who selected and dictated the text .
Saharanfuri continued drafting the work during his spare hours until his final migration to the Hijaz in 1344 AH, entering Medina in mid-Muharram 1345 AH . He dedicated himself entirely to concluding the work there, completing it in Sha'ban 1345 AH .
Methodology and Sources
The commentary addresses both the textual transmissions and legal implications of the hadiths in Sunan Abi Dawud. Saharanfuri consulted up to six manuscript and printed copies of the Sunan to collate readings and correct widespread scribal variants . His method includes:
- Clarifying the vocabulary of the narrations and their linguistic derivations, embedding definitions directly within the phrases of the text (shahr bil-mazj) .
- Explaining the correlation between chapter titles (tarajim) and the cited hadiths, highlighting the rationale behind Abu Dawud's repetition of narrations .
- Documenting Abu Dawud's implicit objectives, completing suspended transmissions (ta'liqat) from external sources, and evaluating biographical details of narrators (rijal) .
- Deriving legal rulings and detailing the positions of the major juristic schools, drawing many comparative rulings from al-Shawkani . He frequently advocates for the Hanafi school, answering dissenting interpretations and substantiating Hanafi legal proofs .
In creedal matters, the author adopted figurative interpretation (ta'wil) regarding divine attributes .
Saharanfuri drew primarily on classical commentaries and reference texts, including Mulla Ali al-Qari's Mirqat al-Mafatih, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Fath al-Bari, Taqrib al-Tahdhib, Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, and al-Isabah, Badr al-Din al-Ayni's Umdat al-Qari, al-Kasani's Bada'i al-Sana'i, al-Sam'ani's al-Ansab, al-Fatani's Majma' Bihar al-Anwar, al-Fayruzabadi's al-Qamus al-Muhit, and Ibn Manzur's Lisan al-Arab .
Reception and Editions
Bazl al-Majhud was praised by contemporary scholars. Muhammad Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri composed an encomium commending Saharanfuri's resolution of obscure remarks by Abu Dawud and his deduction of Hanafi jurisprudence . Additional laudatory endorsements were written by scholars such as Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Jamadi al-Maliki and Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Tijani . Critiques of the work include a treatise by Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Khumayyis titled Fath al-Ma'bud fi Bayan al-Hafawat fi Kitab Bazl al-Majhud, focusing on theological oversights .
The book was first printed in India in five large volumes comprising around 2,000 pages under the supervision of Muhammad Zakariyya al-Kandhlawi . It was subsequently published in twenty volumes, as well as in a modern critical edition prepared by Taqi al-Din al-Nadwi published in 1427 AH / 2006 CE across thirteen text volumes with an additional fourteenth volume of analytical indexes .
Answer updated