Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- T Gharas
Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud (The Authentic Narrations of Abu Dawud's Sunan) is a hadith verification work by the scholar Nasir al-Din al-Albani (d. 1420 AH / 1999 CE), dedicated to isolating and authenticating the sound narrations in Sunan Abi Dawud by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (d. 275 AH / 889 CE) .
Composition and Scope
Al-Albani initiated his comprehensive research on the narrations of Sunan Abi Dawud around his first pilgrimage in 1368 AH / late Safar 1369 AH (c. 1949 CE), working intermittently across multiple notebooks over approximately forty years . The project formed a paired enterprise aimed at distinguishing authentic transmissions from weak ones, yielding two complementary works: Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud and Da'if Sunan Abi Dawud .
Al-Albani designated the exhaustive version of this study as the "mother work" (al-Kitab al-Umm), which served as the primary reference for his cross-references across his other writings . He did not complete the full commentary of the work prior to his death; the detailed al-Umm manuscript of the authentic collection ends at hadith 2,734 within the "Book of Funerals" (Kitab al-Jana'iz), under the chapter on sitting during a bereavement .
Method and Structure
In al-Kitab al-Umm, al-Albani conducted detailed hadith criticism (takhrij), tracing transmission pathways across classical collections and manuscript sources, providing rigorous transmitter criticism (al-jarh wa-al-ta'dil), and evaluating defects ('ilal) following the method he established in Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahiha and Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Da'ifa .
In his introduction, al-Albani addressed the widespread scholarly premise regarding narrations passed over in silence by Abu Dawud, examining the four principal statements transmitted from Abu Dawud, including his declaration in his letter to the people of Mecca: وما كان في كتابي من حديث فيه وهن شديد فقد بينته، وما لم أذكر فيه شيئا فهو صالح، وبعضها أصح من بعض ("Whatever hadith in my book contains severe weakness, I have clarified it; and whatever I did not mention anything regarding is fit (salih), though some are sounder than others") . Al-Albani concurred with the reconciling view attributed to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, asserting that the term salih in Abu Dawud's usage is broader than narrations fit for legal proof (li-l-ihtijaj)—which includes sahih and hasan—and also encompasses narrations suitable for supportive consideration (li-l-i'tibar), namely mildly weak narrations lacking severe debility .
Editions
The work has been issued in two principal formats:
- An abridged format containing hadith texts with concise isnad evaluations and verdicts, published by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh (first edition in 1419 AH / 1998 CE; second edition in 1421 AH / 2000 CE in three volumes) .
- The unabridged reference edition (al-Kitab al-Umm), featuring full chain analysis and detailed critical discussions, published posthumously in eight volumes by Mu'assasat Gheras in Kuwait in 1423 AH / 2002 CE . In preparing this edition, the publishers synchronized the legal chapter headings based on the edition of 'Izzat 'Ubayd al-Da''as (which al-Albani had adopted after previously using the Tazi edition) and retained the author's original numbering system .
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