Usool al Hadith - Forever Islam

work of its type in the hadeeth literature, but is generally seen as the best andmost reliable. It is divided into books, which are subdivided into chapters. 39Although Aboo Daawood retained the scrupulous exactitude of hispredecessors in reproducing the material which he collected, he differed fromthem in the criteria of selection. In his Sunan, he included not only the Saheehtraditions, but also some other accounts that had been classed by other scholars asweak or doubtful. Among the narrators, he relied not only on those who had beenunanimously declared acceptable, but also on others who were the subject ofcriticism. In his opinion, a weak hadeeth – if not very weak, was better than thepersonal opinion of the scholars. 40 This was not necessarily a defect in his book assome critics such as Shu‘bah had in fact been over strict in their criticisms of thenarrators. None the less, Aboo Daawood collected the most reliable traditionsknown to him on every subject of fiqh, quoting the sources through which thetraditions had reached him, together with the various versions of the accounts inquestion. He draws attention to the defects of certain of the traditions he cites, aswell as the relative value of the variant texts. In the case of the traditions which hebelieved to be genuine, however, he makes no comments whatsoever; he alsooften took only those parts of long hadeeths which were relevant to the chapter inwhich they were included.The following remarks made by Aboo Daawood in connection with some ofhis traditions give us a general idea of the method and nature of his criticism:“Aboo Daawood says: This is an inauthentic (munkar) hadeeth. Certainly, it isrelated by Ibn Jurayj from Ziyaad ibn Sa‘d, from az-Zuhree, from Anas, that hesaid that the Prophet (r), had put on a ring made of palm-leaf, which he in timediscarded.The mistake in this hadeeth is to be attributed to Humaam as no other narrator hasrelated it.” 41And in connection with a further hadeeth, after giving two versions of it, heremarks: “The account related by Anas is more correct than the other.” 42Since the author collected traditions which no-one else had ever assembledtogether, it has been accepted as a standard work by scholars of a wide variety ofschools, particularly in Iraq, Egypt, North Africa and many other parts of the39 Hadith Literature, pp. 104-5.40 Studies in Hadith Literature, p. 101.41 Sunan Abu Dawud, vol. 1, p. 4.42 Ibid., pp. 32-3.