The death of Imam Abu Dawud al-Sijistani

Imam Abu Dawud Sulayman ibn al-Ashʿath — author of "al-Sunan," one of the Six Books, who selected from five hundred thousand hadiths four thousand eight hundred that gathered the hadiths of legal rulings — died in Basra.

Abu Dawud was born in 202 AH in Sijistan and travelled to the lands, taking from Ahmad ibn Hanbal and his generation. He presented his book "al-Sunan" to him, and he approved it. Abu Dawud said: I mentioned in it the sound, what resembles it and what is close to it; and whatever had a severe weakness in it, I made clear.

He settled in Basra after the revolt of the Zanj to revive it with knowledge. It was said to him: Four hadiths from your book suffice the diligent seeker: "Deeds are by intentions," "Part of a person's good Islam is his leaving what does not concern him," "A believer is not a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself," and "The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear."

Ibrahim al-Harbi said of him: Hadith was made supple for Abu Dawud as iron was made supple for Dawud. He died in Basra on 16 Shawwal 275 AH, and his Sunan remains to this day a mainstay of jurists in the hadiths of rulings.