Abu Da'ud

From Freepedia

Abu Da'ud, full name Abu Da'ud Sulayman ibn Ash`ath al-Azadi al-Sijistani, was a noted collector of hadith (sayings of Muhammad), and wrote the third of the six canonical hadith collections recognized by Sunni Muslims, Sunan Abi Da'ud. He was born in Sijistan (in Khorasan) in 817, and died in 888. Sunan Abi Da'ud, containing some 4800 hadith, is his principal work, but he wrote some 21 books in total. Some of his hadith are not sahih (authentic), but he claimed that all hadith listed were sahih unless specifically indicated otherwise; this has been controversial among Islamic scholars, since some (eg Ibn al-Hajar) believe some of the unmarked ones to be weak as well. In another work, Kitab al-Marasil, he lists 600 mursal hadith (that is, hadith lacking a complete chain of narrators, or isnad) which, after extensive background investigation, he concludes are nonetheless sahih.