Principle Seven: One must not rely on Abū Dāwūd’s silence.

It is well known that Abū Dāwūd said about his Sunan: “Any ḥadīth in this book that suffers from a severe flaw I have pointed it out, and whatever I have left without comment is ṣāliḥ (acceptable).”

The scholars differed over what he meant by ṣāliḥ. Some took it to mean that the report is ḥasan (good) and fit to be used as evidence. Others held that he intended a broader sense, covering both what can serve as proof and what may be cited only for corroboration—that is, a weak report whose weakness is not severe. This second view is the correct one, for his very words, “and any ḥadīth with a severe flaw I have pointed it out,” imply that if the flaw is not severe he will leave it unmentioned. That shows that not everything he leaves uncommented upon is ḥasan in his estimation. Supporting this is the fact that his Sunan contains many narrations that no scholar doubts are weak, yet Abū Dāwūd kept silent about them. Al-Nawawī even remarks concerning some of these reports, “Abū Dāwūd did not explicitly declare them weak only because their weakness is self-evident.”