He said, “If an intersex person dies, who should perform the ceremonial washing?”
Dawud replied, “His household servants may wash him.”
Muhammad ibn ʿAbdah objected, “But those servants are men; rather, the deceased should be given tayammum (dry ablution).”
Ahmad smiled and said, “He is right, he is right—how excellent a reply that was!” (1)
Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Nadim related: Among Dawud’s writings are Kitab al-Idah (The Clarification), Kitab al-Ifsah (The Explication), Kitab al-Usul (Principles), Kitab al-Daʿawa (Claims), a large work on jurisprudence, Kitab al-Dhabbi ʿan al-Sunnah wa al-Akhbar (Defense of the Sunnah and the Reports) in four volumes, (2) Kitab al-Radd ʿala Ahl al-Ifk (Refutation of the People of Slander), The Description of the Prophet’s Character, Kitab al-Ijmaʿ (Consensus), Kitab Ibṭal al-Qiyas (The Invalidation of Analogical Reasoning), Kitab Khabar al-Wahid, wa Baʿduhu Mujib li’l-ʿIlm (The Single-Chain Report, Some of Which Conveys Certainty), Kitab al-Idah in fifteen volumes, Kitab al-Mutʿah, Kitab Ibṭal al-Taqlid (The Invalidation of Blind Imitation), Kitab al-Maʿrifah (Knowledge), Kitab al-ʿUmum wa’l-Khusus (General and Specific), and many other titles he proceeded to list. (3)
I say: Scholars hold two views regarding whether Dawud and his followers’ dissent is to be counted.
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Those who do count it say: We do not do so because each of their solitary opinions is authoritative; rather, we cite them in summary. Some of their positions are permissible, some strong, and some baseless. What they alone advance usually conflicts only with a conjectural consensus, and it is rare for them to oppose a definitive consensus.
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Those who disregard them and do not count their disagreement do not, for these isolated issues, deem them outside the religion or charge them with unbelief. They simply say: These people belong to the rank of laymen, or they are like the Shiʿah in ancillary matters. We pay no attention to their statements, do not set up a formal dispute with them, do not concern ourselves with collecting their books, and do not direct a lay questioner to them. And if they should openly