Here’s the English translation:


*Imam Abu Dawud*


Among the collections of hadith, the most important is the work of Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash‘ath al-Sijistani, who is said to have studied 500,000 hadiths and selected 4,800 hadiths for his book, a task that took him 20 years.


Abu Dawud was born in 203 AH / 817 CE. Yaqut, al-Sam‘ani, and al-Subki hold that he was born in the famous region of Sijistan in Khurasan. He studied under Muhammad ibn Aslam [d. 242 AH / 856 CE]. After that he went to Basra, where he received most of his training in hadith.


In 224 AH / 838 CE he traveled to Kufa, from where he began a series of journeys in search of hadith, which took him to the Hijaz, Iraq, Persia, Syria, and Egypt. Abu Dawud’s regular travels brought him to the capital, Baghdad. There he met Abu Ahmad al-Muwaffaq, the brother of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu‘tamid and a famous general. 


He invited Abu Dawud to reside in Basra, believing that the city’s population would grow if the renowned scholar and his students settled there. In addition, he requested Abu Dawud to teach al-Muwaffaq’s family. Abu Dawud passed away at the age of 73 in 275 AH / 888 CE in Basra.


One of his most famous books on traditions and sacred law is his _Sunan_. In the _Sunan_ he included not only _sahih_ narrations [as Bukhari and Muslim had done] but also some other narrations which other scholars considered weak or dubious. This is not a flaw of his book; some critics like Shu‘ba were in fact overly strict in criticizing narrators. 


Abu Dawud compiled the most reliable narrations according to his knowledge on every subject of _fiqh_. Al-Khattabi, the commentator on Abu Dawud’s _Kitab al-Sunan_, says that it is a great book, the like of which had never been written before.


Let me know if you want these all compiled into one doc, or need any more Imams translated.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AL ASHARI SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY

 AL ASHARI SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY The more constructive among Asharite thinkers for no doubt on the right path and anticipated some of the more modern forms of idealism yet on the whole the object of the Asharite movement was simply to defend orthodox opinion with the weapons of Greek dialectic.Muslim thinkers of the school of Al AShari did not believe in the infinite divisibility of space and time with them space , time and motion are made up of points and instance which cannot be further subdivided. Ibne Azam however rejected the Asharaite notion of infinite smalls and modern mathematics has confirmed his view. the Asharite argument therefore cannot logically resolve the paradox of zeno Reference: The reconstruction of religious thought in Islam- Allama Iqbal.
Read more

FREDERICK II

Image
FREDERICK II His court was half Oriental and full of highly educated Arabs and some of these were associated in the education of the young King .now they were at some pains to make their point of view clear to him. He got a Muslim view of Christianity as well as a Christian view of ISlam and and unHappy result of this double system instruction was a view exceptional in the age of faith that all religion were  impostures.  He  talk freely on the subject . His blasphemies are on record. He gathered Jews and Muslim as well as Christian philosphers at his court and he did much to educate the Italian mind with saracenic influences. through him the Arabic numerals and algebra were introduced to Christian students and among other philosophers at his court was Michael Scott , who translated portions of Aristotle and the commentaries thereon of the Arab  philosopher averroes of cordoba. We have seen how the Arabs were the means of restoring Aristotle to Europe and how such a ...
Read more

Maulvi Samiullah Khan

Image
 Maulvi Samiullah Khan  He was a close aziz of Sir Syed. Born in 1834 in Delhi, after getting Arabic-Persian education, he got law education and got the post of Munsif. He had a keen eye on the law, hence gave clan-like decisions, but did this work according to his temperament. After not getting the desired results, he resigned and started practicing law.He started it on the very first day. Sir Syed's followers are helpful in his education movement. When a Madrasa was established in Aligarh under his mother, its supervision was handed over to him. He carried out his duties with utmost audacity. On the issue of Syed Mahmood's murder, he spoke to Sir Syed. There was a disagreement and there was a bad temper.But his sympathy for the college remained with him till the end. He died in Aligarh on 17th April 1908. As per his will, his body was taken to Delhi. He was laid to rest near his father's side near the tomb of Shah Abdul Aziz Muhammad Das, outside Delhi gate. incinerated R...
Read more