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Who is Abu Dawud in full?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ash'ath al-Sijistani, author of the well-known Sunan and other works, was a حافظ (Hafiz, memorizer of Hadith), a jurist, an ascetic, and a pious scholar, resembling Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He traveled extensively and compiled the book Sunan, which he presented to Imam Ahmad, who approved of it. Abu Dawud stated that he wrote five hundred thousand Hadiths, from which he selected four thousand eight hundred for his Sunan. He mentioned four comprehensive Hadiths that encapsulate the Muslim's religion: "Actions are but by intentions," "From the perfection of one's Islam is his leaving that which does not concern him," "A believer does not truly believe until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself," and "The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear." He was born in the 202nd year of the Hijra and passed away in Basra in the 275th year of the Hijra.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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