Description
Imam Abu Dawud, Sulaiman bin Al-Ash’ath bin Ishaq Al-Azdi As-Sijistani, who was one of the eminent Imam of Hadith, was born in 202 AH. He studied Hadith under Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal along with Al-Bukhari and taught many of the later scholars of Hadith, like At-Tirmidhi and An-Nasa’i.
Imam Abu Dawud lived a couple of centuries after the Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) passed away and worked extremely hard to collect his ahadith. Each report in his collection was checked for compatibility with the Qur’an, and the veracity of the chain of reporters had to be painstakingly established.
Abu-Dawud’s collection is recognised by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world to be one of the most authentic collections of the Sunnah of the Prophet (P.B.U.H), however, it is also known to contain some weak ahadith (some of which he pointed out, others which he did not).
Though Abu Dawud collected 50,000 Ahadith, he compiled only 4,800 in his book entitled As-Sunan, which he used to teach in Baghdad and other major cities in his time. He died in Basra on Friday in the month of Shawwal 275 AH. Sunan Abu Dawud has been translated into English.
He was one of the most widely travelled scholars of ahadith, going to Hijaz (Saudi Arabia), Iraq, Khurasahn, Egypt, Syria, Nishapur, Marv, and other places for the sole purpose of collecting the sayings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). His primary interest was in law, hence his collection focuses purely on legal ahadith. From about 50,000 ahadith, he chose 4,800 for inclusion in his work based on their superior authenticity.
It is important to realise, however, that Abu-Dawud’s collection is not complete: there are other scholars who worked as Abu-Dawud did and collected other reports.
