Daif Sunan al-Nasai
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islāmī
Daif Sunan al-Nasai (Ḍa‘īf Sunan al-Nasā’ī) is a hadith critical work by the scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE) that isolates and compiles the narrations graded as weak from the Sunan of al-Nasai (215–303 AH / 829–915 CE).
Background and Scope
The compilation was prepared as part of al-Albani's broader undertaking to evaluate the Four Sunan (Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah) and separate their authentic narrations from those deemed weak. The publication of this critical division for the Four Sunan was commissioned by the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States (مكتب التربية العربي لدول الخليج).
The source text examined in the book is al-Nasa'i's al-Mujtaba (also known as al-Sunan al-Sughra), which is an abridgment of his larger work, al-Sunan al-Kubra. The work was published alongside its counterpart, Sahih Sunan al-Nasai, which gathers the authentic narrations with abridged chains of transmission.
Methodology and Structure
In his editorial notice, publisher Zuhayr al-Shawish observed that al-Albani submitted his work on Sunan al-Nasa'i to the Arab Bureau of Education without authoring a dedicated introduction explaining his methodology or addressing scholarly disputes regarding whether al-Mujtaba was abridged directly by al-Nasa'i or by his disciple Ibn al-Sunni.
The text presents the hadiths from al-Nasa'i's collection that al-Albani assessed as deficient in their chains of transmission or text, appending his critical evaluations to each entry.
Publication History
The work was extracted, indexed, and supervised for printing and commentary by Zuhayr al-Shawish under exclusive distribution rights granted to al-Maktab al-Islami in Beirut, which issued it in 1411 AH / 1990 CE (with some library records registering earlier printings under 1408 AH). It was later published in Riyadh by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in a single standard volume comprising 479 pages (first edition 1419 AH / 1998 CE).
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