Sunan Abi Dawud — Divorce (Kitab Al-Talaq)

Ibn Abbas said: There remained one more pronouncement of divorce for you. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) took the same decision. Abu Dawud said: I heard Ahmad b. Hanbal say: ‘Abd al-Razzaq said that Ibn al-Mubarak said to Ma’mar: Who is this Abu al-Hasan ? He bore a big rock. Abu Dawud said: Al-Zuhri has narrated (traditions) on the authority of this Abu al-Hasan. Al-Zuhri said: He was lawyer, and al-Zuhri narrated many traditions from Abu al-Hasan. Abu Dawud said: Abu al-Hasan is well known narrator. This tradition is not practiced.

While relating the tradition about Barirah A’ishah said “her husband was a slave, so the Prophet(ﷺ) gave her choice. She chose herself. Had he been a free man, he would not given her choice.”

Barirah was emancipated, and she was the wife of Mughith, a slave of Aal AbuAhmad. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) gave her choice, and said to her: If he has intercourse with you, then there is no choice for you.

Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) severely objected to the tradition of Fatimah daughter of Qays. She said: Fatimah lived in a desolate house and she feared for her loneliness there. Hence the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) accorded permission to her (to leave the place).

Sulaimah bin Yasar said about leaving the house by Fathimah “That was due to her bad manners.”

The tradition mentioned above has also been transmitted by Al Zuhri through a different chain of narrators. In this version she said “When he was at the gate of the mosque which was near the gate of Umm Salamah, two men passed them. The narrator then transmitted the tradition to the same effect.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Fighting is of two kinds: The one who seeks Allah’s favour, obeys the leader, gives the property he values, treats his associates gently and avoids doing mischief, will have the reward for all the time whether he is asleep or awake; but the one who fights in a boasting spirit, for the sake of display and to gain a reputation, who disobeys the leader and does mischief in the earth will not return credit or without blame.

The Prophet (ﷺ) appointed Ubn Umm Makthum as a governor of Medina (in his absence) twice.

The Prophet (ﷺ) made a speech one day and mentioned a man from among his Companions who died and was shrouded in a shroud of bad quality, and was buried at night. The Prophet (ﷺ) rebuked that man be buried at night until prayer was offered over him, except that a man was forced to do that. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: When one of you shrouds his brother, he should use a shroud of good quality.

This has been abrogated. When Ahmad b. Hanbal was asked about a man taking a bath after his washing the dead, I heard him say: Ablution is sufficient for him. Abu Dawud said: The narrator Abu Salih made a mention of the narrator Ishaq, the client of Za’idah between him and Abu Hurairah. He said: The tradition of Mus’ab is weak. It contains many things that are not practised.

We were with Fudalah b. ‘Ubaid at Rudis in the land of Rome. One of our Companions dies, Fudalah commanded us to dig his grave; it was (dug and) levelled. He then said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) commanding to level them. Abu Dawud said: Rudis is an island, in the sea.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) as saying: A vow does not provide for the son of Adam anything which I did not decree for him, but a vow draws it. A Divine decree is one which I have destined, it is extracted from a miser. He is given what he was not given before.

They (the people) used to buy grain in the upper part of the market in the same spot without measuring or weighing it. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade them to sell it there before removing it.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The similitude of the one who takes back what he gifted is like that of a dog which vomits and then it eats vomit. When a donor seeks to take back (his gift), it should be made known and he informed why he sought to take it back. Then whatever he donated should be returned to him.

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade every intoxicant and everything which produces languidness.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: The Jews were split up into seventy-one or seventy-two sects; and the Christians were split up into seventy one or seventy-two sects; and my community will be split up into seventy-three sects.

The Prophet (ﷺ) said: Beware! I have been given the Qur’an and something like it, yet the time is coming when a man replete on his couch will say: Keep to the Qur’an; what you find in it to be permissible treat as permissible, and what you find in it to be prohibited treat as prohibited. Beware! The domestic ass, beasts of prey with fangs, a find belonging to confederate, unless its owner does not want it, are not permissible to you If anyone comes to some people, they must entertain him, but if they do not, he has a right to mulct them to an amount equivalent to his entertainment.

Do not distinguish between the Prophets.

I did not see more defective in respect of reason and religion than the wise of you (women). A woman asked: What is the defect of reason and religion ? He replied: The defect of reason is the testimony of two women for one man, and the defect of faith is that one of you does not fast during Ramadan (when one is menstruating), and keep away from prayer for some days.

Shariq al-Hawzani and I came to Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) and asked her: By which (prayer) the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) began when he woke up at night? She replied: You asked me about a thing which no one asked me before. When he woke up at night, he uttered: “Allah is Most Great” ten times, and uttered “Praise be to Allah” ten times, and said “Glory be to Allah and I begin with His praise” ten times, and said: “Glory be to the King, the Most Holy” ten times, and asked Allah’s pardon ten times, and said: “There is no god but Allah” ten times, and then said: “O Allah! I seek refuge in Thee from the strait of the Day of resurrection,” ten times. He then began the prayer.