[IMAM ABU DAWUD'S JURISTIC APPROACH TO THE REPETITION OF HADITH IN HIS SUNAN]

Abstract

ABSTRACT
This study aims to shed light on the juristic reasoning of one of the the leading scholars
associated with the Six Canonical Books of Hadith, namely Imam Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, by examining a selected group of hadiths whose repetition does not, at first glance, appear to have an evident rationale. Such cases require careful reflection and juristic deduction in order to uncover their juristic implications and to clarify the benefits, outcomes, and juristic effects
resulting from this repetition. The significance of this study derives from the work under examination, as Abu Dawud’s Sunan is regarded as one of the most important collections of juristic hadiths (ahadith al-ahkam). Accordingly, its hadiths have often served as a basis upon which the jurists of the various regions built their juristic rulings. In this research, I adopted
the analytical method, through analyzing the hadiths under study, examining them from a juristic perspective, and deriving conclusions represented in the benefits and juristic effects arising from their repetition. Among the most prominent findings of this study is that Imam Abu Dawud, although he does not frequently repeat hadiths in his Sunan, does so for a number of juristic purposes. These include: benefiting from a single hadith and making use of its various juristic aspects by citing it as evidence in more than one place in the book; drawing attention to other wordings in the repeated hadith upon which a difference in juristic ruling, an additional meaning, or similar juristic effects may be based; giving preference to one of the two narrations of a repeated hadith; and, finally, highlighting the juristic points contained in a lengthy hadith by abbreviating it and citing only the relevant portion after having cited it in full elsewhere..
Keyword:. jurisprudence, repetition of hadith, Abu Dawud, Sunan Abi Dawud, juristic implication