Yet, despite all this, al-Nawawī went on to treat as authoritative many hadiths over which Abū Dāwūd had remained silent, without taking the trouble to re-examine their chains of transmission, and because of that he committed numerous errors.

The understanding of Abū Dāwūd’s position that we have adopted was preferred by leading critical scholars such as Ibn Mundah, al-Dhahabī, Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī, and Ibn Kathīr; I have cited their words in the introduction to my book Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd.

I subsequently came across the discussion of this issue by the ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar. He too upheld the same view, clarified it, and furnished proofs the like of which one does not find elsewhere. Were it not for fear of prolonging the matter I would quote his entire statement here; instead I shall simply refer the reader to its source: Tawḍīḥ al-Afkār li-Maʿānī Tanqīḥ al-Anẓār, 1/196–199, by Imām al-Ṣanʿānī.