Risalat Abi Dawud ila Ahl Makka
- Author died
- 275 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-‘Arabiyyah
Risalat Abi Dawud ila Ahl Makka (Epistle of Abu Dawud to the People of Mecca) is a methodological treatise written by the hadith scholar Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (202–275 AH / 817–889 CE) to explain the selection criteria, editorial method, and legal scope of his hadith collection, Sunan Abi Dawud .
Background and Transmission
Abu Dawud composed the epistle in response to an inquiry from the inhabitants of Mecca regarding whether the traditions compiled in his Sunan represented the most authentic narrations known to him on each legal topic . Because Abu Dawud did not author an extensive formal introduction within the Sunan itself, the letter serves as the primary authorial statement outlining his methodology and conditions (shurut) .
The text was transmitted through a chain preserved in hadith compendia and treatises: dictated by Abu Dawud, it was received in Mecca by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Hashimi, from whom Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Jumay' al-Ghassani heard it in Sidon . It was subsequently transmitted through Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali al-Suri, Ahmad ibn al-Hasan ibn Khayrun, and Ibn al-Batti (Muhammad ibn Abd al-Baqi) .
Contents and Methodology
In the epistle, Abu Dawud details several editorial rules and hadith-critical parameters governing the compilation of his Sunan:
- Scope and Subject Matter: He confined the Sunan exclusively to legal rulings (ahkam), explicitly excluding hadiths related to asceticism (zuhd) and pious virtues (fada'il al-a'mal) .
- Criterion of Authenticity: He confirmed that the narrations in each chapter generally represent the soundest reports known to him on that topic . In rare cases where two sound routes were available—one with a stronger isnad and the other transmitted by an earlier authority in memorization—he occasionally opted for the latter, noting that fewer than ten hadiths in the work fall under this category .
- Selectivity and Conciseness: To ensure accessibility and practical utility (qurb manfa'atih), he limited each thematic section to one or two hadiths, even when multiple authentic variants existed .
- Repetition and Abbreviation: A hadith was repeated from two or three routes only if another version contained an additional textual detail (ziyadat kalam) . Long hadiths were sometimes abbreviated so that students could directly grasp the legal implication (mawdi' al-fiqh) .
- Evaluation of Weak Narrations and Authorial Silence: Abu Dawud stated that he did not include narrations from anyone abandoned (matruk al-hadith) . He explicitly marked severely weak hadiths (wahn shadid) and anomalous narrations (munkar), noting that any tradition left without critical comment is deemed acceptable or usable (salih), though some remain more authentic than others (ba'duha asahhu min ba'd) .
- Use of Hurried Narrations (Murasil): He noted that early scholars—such as Sufyan al-Thawri, Malik ibn Anas, and al-Awza'i—relied on mursal narrations until al-Shafi'i critiqued their evidential value, a stance subsequently adopted by Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others . However, when no connected (musnad) narration was available on a legal topic, Abu Dawud retained the mursal report as legal evidence, while acknowledging that it does not possess the same strength as a fully connected chain .
- Total Volume: He estimated that the Sunan contains approximately 4,800 hadiths, alongside around 600 mursal reports .
Scholarly Significance and Editions
The epistle has been treated by hadith commentators—including Abu Sulayman al-Khattabi and Ibn Ruslan—as the primary framework for interpreting Abu Dawud's critical remarks and tacit approvals (sukut) . In modern print, the treatise has been edited and published independently as well as prefixed to editions and commentaries of the Sunan, with critical editions prepared by Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari in Cairo (1369 AH) and Muhammad ibn Lutfi al-Sabbagh in Beirut (1394 AH / 1974 CE) .
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