Part of The Six Imams, Authors of the Sunan (series completed)
· Lesson 4 of 7
Biographies of the Imams who wrote the six books | Episode (3) | Imam Abu Dawood, may God have mercy on him
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Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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O you who recite the words of the Prophet and explain them,
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How beautiful is your voice when it calls to guidance!
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The biographies of the authors of the six major books,
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Six biographies filled with beauty and majesty.
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Summarized with care from that unique and magnificent book,
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The biographies are of the highest nobility,
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By Imam al-Dhahabi, may Allah have mercy on him.
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Prepared by Shaykh Muhammad al-Muhanna, may Allah preserve him.
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Imam Abu Dawud, may Allah have mercy on him,
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The Imam, the master of the Sunnah, and the foremost of the hadith scholars.
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He is Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash'ath al-Azdi al-Sijistani.
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The hadith scholar of Basra.
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He was born in the year 202 AH.
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He traveled, collected, and authored.
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He excelled in this field.
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In Makkah, he heard from al-Qa'nabi and Sulayman ibn Harb,
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And he heard from Muslim ibn Ibrahim,
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And 'Abdullah ibn Raja',
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And Abu al-Walid al-Tayalisi,
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And their peers in Basra.
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Then he heard in Kufa from al-Hasan ibn al-Rabi' al-Burani,
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And Ahmad ibn Yunus al-Yarbu'i,
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And a group of others.
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He heard from Safwan ibn Salih,
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And Hisham ibn 'Ammar in Damascus,
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And from Ishaq ibn Rahwayh,
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And his peers in Khurasan,
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And from Ahmad ibn Hanbal,
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And his peers in Baghdad,
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And from Qutaybah ibn Sa'id in Balkh,
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And from Ahmad ibn Salih,
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And a multitude in Egypt.
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He heard from 'Amr ibn al-Madini,
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And Sa'id ibn Mansur,
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And Sahl ibn Bakkar,
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And 'Ali ibn al-Ja'd,
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And Muhammad ibn al-Minhal al-Darir,
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And Musaddad ibn Musarhad,
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And Yahya ibn Ma'in,
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And many others besides them.
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Abu 'Isa narrated from him in his Jami',
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And al-Nasa'i, as it is said,
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And Abu al-Tayyib al-Ushnani,
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The narrator of the Sunan from him,
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And Abu Bakr al-Najjad,
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And Abu 'Umar Ahmad ibn al-Basri,
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The narrator of the Sunan from him,
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And Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Muhammad,
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Al-Khallal the jurist,
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And Harb ibn Isma'il al-Kirmani,
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And his son Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud,
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And Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Dunya,
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And Abu 'Ali,
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Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Lu'lu'i,
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The narrator of the Sunan,
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And Muhammad ibn Bakr ibn Dasah al-Tammar,
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One of the narrators of the Sunan.
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He settled in Basra after the destruction of the wicked one,
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The tyrant of the Zanj,
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And he spread knowledge there.
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He used to travel frequently to Baghdad.
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Al-Khatib Abu Bakr said,
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It is said that he authored his book, the Sunan, long ago,
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And presented it to Ahmad ibn Hanbal,
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Who deemed it excellent and praised it.
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Abu Bakr al-Khallal said,
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Abu Dawud,
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The leading Imam of his time,
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A man who was never surpassed in his knowledge,
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Of the extraction of hadith sciences and his insight,
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Into their intricacies, by anyone in his era.
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A man of piety and a leader.
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Ahmad ibn Hanbal heard from him,
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A single hadith.
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Abu Dawud used to mention this.
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Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yasin said,
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Abu Dawud was one of the memorizers of Islam,
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Regarding the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
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Its knowledge, its hidden defects, and its chains of transmission.
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He was at the highest level of devotion and chastity,
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And righteousness and piety.
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He was one of the knights of hadith.
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When Abu Dawud authored the Sunan,
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Abu Bakr said,
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Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Saghani,
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And Ibrahim al-Harbi,
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"Hadith was made soft for Abu Dawud,"
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"Just as iron was made soft for Dawud, peace be upon him."
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Muhammad ibn Makhlad said,
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When Abu Dawud authored the Sunan,
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And read it to the people,
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His book became for the people of hadith,
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Like a Mushaf (Qur'an),
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They follow it and do not contradict it.
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The people of his time acknowledged him,
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For his memorization and his precedence in it.
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The Hafiz Musa ibn Harun said,
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Abu Dawud was created in this world for hadith,
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And in the Hereafter for Paradise.
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Abu Hatim ibn Hibban said,
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Abu Dawud was one of the Imams of the world,
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In fiqh, knowledge, memorization,
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Devotion, piety, and precision.
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He collected, authored, and refined the Sunan.
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The Hafiz Abu 'Abdullah ibn Mandah said,
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Those who extracted and distinguished the authentic from the defective,
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And the error from the correct,
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Are four: al-Bukhari and Muslim,
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Then Abu Dawud and al-Nasa'i.
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Abu 'Abdullah al-Hakim said,
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Abu Dawud is the Imam of the people of hadith,
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In his era, without dispute.
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Musa ibn Harun said,
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I have not seen anyone better than Abu Dawud.
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Abu Bakr ibn Dasah said,
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I heard Abu Dawud say,
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"I wrote down from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
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Five hundred thousand hadiths,
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From which I selected what I included in this book,"
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Meaning the book of Sunan.
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"I collected in it four thousand hadiths,
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And eight hundred hadiths.
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I mentioned the authentic and what resembles and approaches it.
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And it is sufficient for a person for his religion,
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Four hadiths."
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He said, the words of the Prophet, peace be upon him:
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"Actions are by intentions."
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And the second: "Part of the perfection of a person's Islam,
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Is leaving what does not concern him."
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And the third: "None of you will be,
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A believer until he loves for his brother,
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What he loves for himself."
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And the fourth: "The lawful is clear."
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I say, his statement that it is sufficient for a person for his religion,
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Rather, a Muslim needs a large number,
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Of authentic Sunnah alongside the Qur'an.
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Ibn Dasah said,
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I heard Abu Dawud say,
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"I mentioned in the Sunan the authentic and what approaches it.
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If it had a severe weakness, I clarified it."
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I say, he fulfilled that,
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May Allah have mercy on him, according to his ijtihad.
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He clarified what was severely weak,
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And whose weakness was intolerable.
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And he remained silent regarding what was lightly weak and tolerable.
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Thus, it does not necessarily follow from his silence,
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Regarding a hadith,
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That it is considered 'hasan' (good) by him,
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Especially if we judge based on the definition of 'hasan',
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According to our later, modern terminology,
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Which, in the convention of the salaf,
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Returns to a category of the authentic,
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Or that which Abu 'Abdullah al-Bukhari avoids,
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And Muslim accepts.
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And conversely, it is included,
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In the lowest ranks of authenticity.
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For if it were to fall below that,
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It would fall out of the realm of evidence,
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And remain suspended between weakness and goodness.
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The highest level in Abu Dawud's book,
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Among the established, is what the two Shaykhs (al-Bukhari and Muslim) extracted,
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Which makes up a portion of the book.
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Then follows what one of the two Shaykhs extracted,
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While the other avoided it.
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Then follows what both avoided,
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Yet its chain was good, free from defect and irregularity.
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Then follows what had a sound chain,
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And was accepted by the scholars,
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Because it came from two or more acceptable paths,
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Each chain supporting the other.
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Then follows what had a weak chain due to a deficiency in the narrator's memory,
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Such a hadith Abu Dawud accepts,
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And he is silent about it, usually.
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Then follows what was clearly weak due to the narrator,
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This he does not remain silent about,
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Rather, he usually declares it weak.
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And he may remain silent about it depending on its fame and its rejection.
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And Allah knows best.
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The Hafiz Zakariyya al-Saji said,
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The Book of Allah is the foundation of Islam,
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And the book of Abu Dawud is the covenant of Islam.
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I say, Abu Dawud was,
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Along with his leadership in hadith and its sciences,
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One of the great jurists.
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His book is evidence of that.
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He was one of the distinguished students of Imam Ahmad.
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He attended his circle for a long time,
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And asked him about the subtle issues in branches and fundamentals.
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He was upon the path of the salaf in following the Sunnah,
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And submitting to it,
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And avoiding delving into the intricacies of speculative theology.
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Al-A'mash narrated from Ibrahim from 'Alqamah,
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He said: 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud,
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Used to resemble the Prophet, peace be upon him,
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In his guidance and his demeanor.
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And 'Alqamah used to resemble 'Abdullah in that.
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Jarir ibn 'Abd al-Hamid said,
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Ibrahim al-Nakha'i used to be likened to 'Alqamah in that regard.
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Mansur used to be likened to Ibrahim.
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It was said:
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Sufyan al-Thawri used to be likened to Mansur.
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Waki' used to be likened to Sufyan.
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Ahmad used to be likened to Waki'.
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Abu Dawud used to be likened to Ahmad.
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Abu Bakr ibn Jabir said:
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The servant of Abu Dawud, may Allah have mercy on him,
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"I was with Abu Dawud in Baghdad,
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and we had prayed Maghrib.
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Then the Prince, Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq, came to him—
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meaning the Crown Prince.
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He entered, and Abu Dawud turned to him
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and said, 'What brings the Prince at such an hour?'
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He replied, 'I have come to you for three things.'
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He asked, 'And what are they?'
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He said, 'That you move to Basra
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and make it your home,
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so that students of knowledge may travel to you,
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and it may flourish through you, for it has fallen into ruin,
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and people have ceased to visit it
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due to the Zanj rebellion that befell it.'
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He said, 'That is one.'
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He said, 'And that you narrate the Sunan to my children.'
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He said, 'Yes, bring the third.'
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He said, 'And that you set aside a private session for them,
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for the children of the Caliphs do not sit with the common people.'
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Abu Dawud replied,
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'As for that, there is no way to do it,
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for people are equal in the pursuit of knowledge.'
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Ibn Jabir said:
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So they would attend and sit behind a screen—
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meaning a concealed place—
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and listen along with the common people."
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Ibn Dasah said:
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He was asked about that,
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and he said, "The one who has the books is wealthy,
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and the other has no need of it."
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Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud said:
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I heard my father say:
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"The best of speech is that which enters the ear without permission."
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He said: And I heard him say:
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"I have met those among the people of hadith whom I have met;
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there was none among them with a better memory for hadith,
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nor one who had collected more of them, than Ibn Ma'in,
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nor one more pious, nor one more knowledgeable
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of the fiqh of hadith than Ahmad,
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and the most knowledgeable of them regarding its defects was 'Ali ibn al-Madini.
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I saw Ishaq, despite his memorization
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and his knowledge, deferring to Ahmad ibn Hanbal
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and acknowledging his status."
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Abu Dawud said in his Sunan:
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"I measured a cucumber in Egypt at thirteen spans."
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"And I saw a citron on a camel,
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and it had been cut into two pieces,
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and it made the equivalent of two loads."
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A discussion on Sijistan:
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As for Sijistan,
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the region from which Imam Abu Dawud hails,
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it is a small, distinct region,
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bordering the region of Sindh.
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To its west is the city of Herat,
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and to its east is a desert,
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and a wilderness between it and Makran,
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which is the capital of Sindh.
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The completion of this eastern boundary
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is the land of Multan,
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and to its north is the beginning of India.
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The land of Sijistan is rich in palm trees and sand,
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and it is in the third of the seven climates.
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The capital of Sijistan is Zaranj.
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Its latitude is thirty-two degrees.
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The name Zaranj is also used for Sijistan.
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It has a wall and a great congregational mosque,
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and a large river flows by it.
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Its longitude from the Fortunate Isles
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is eighty-nine degrees.
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The relative adjective for it is also 'Sijzi'.
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This is how Abu 'Awanah
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al-Isfara'ini refers to Abu Dawud.
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And to it is attributed
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the Musnad of the time, Abu al-Waqt al-Sijzi.
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It has been said—though it is of no account—
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that Abu Dawud is from Sijistan,
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a village in the district of Basra.
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Qadi Shams al-Din mentioned this in Wafayat al-A'yan.
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When Abu Dawud first arrived
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from the lands, he entered Baghdad
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when he was eighteen years old,
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before he had seen Basra.
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Then he traveled from Baghdad to Basra.
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Abu 'Ubayd al-Ajurri said:
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Abu Dawud passed away on the sixteenth of Shawwal,
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in the year 275.
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I say: His brother,
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Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath, was slightly older than him,
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and he was his companion in his travels,
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and he died in his prime before Abu Dawud.
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The biographies of the authors of the Six Books.
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A village in the district of Basra.
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Qadi Shams al-Din mentioned it.
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Abu Dawud died on the sixteenth of Shawwal,
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in the year 275.
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I say: His brother,
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Muhammad ibn al-Ash'ath, was slightly older than him,
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and he was his companion in his travels,
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and he died in his prime before Abu Dawud.
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The biographies of the authors of the Six Books.
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My veins are for the hadith and its people.
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So sell me your authentic narrations,
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and quench my thirst with the chains of transmission,
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and with the 'he said, he said'.
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And take refuge in our hadith,
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the 'he narrated to us', and the comprehensive,
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eloquent, and precise words.
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For his words—
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may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him—are of great majesty,
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and his speech
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is above all common discourse.
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And upon him is a light,
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radiant with tranquility,
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that flows into my soul,
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and remains a source of inspiration.