2075 — Abū al-Fadl al-ʿAbbās ibn Yūsuf al-Shiklī narrated to us, saying: Ibrāhīm ibn al-Muhallab al-Zuhrī narrated to us, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Hasan al-Sāhilī narrated to us, saying: Baqiyya ibn al-Walīd and al-Walīd ibn Muslim narrated to us, saying: Thawr ibn Yazīd narrated to us, from Khālid ibn Maʿdān, from Muʿādh ibn Jabal, who said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

“When religious innovations arise among my nation ⦗2563⦘ and my Companions are reviled, let the scholar make his knowledge manifest. Whoever among them fails to do so shall incur the curse of Allah, the angels, and all mankind.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Husayn said: I asked al-Walīd ibn Muslim, “What does it mean to make knowledge manifest?” He replied, “To make the sunnah manifest—to make the sunnah manifest.”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah have mercy on him—said: Throughout this book, al-Sharīʿa, from beginning to end, I have set down what I know everyone encompassed by Islam needs to know. This is because the doctrines of many people have become corrupt and so many deviant desires and successive innovations have appeared. I have included what I know will strengthen the hearts of the people of truth and provide a crushing rebuttal to the people of innovation and misguidance, according to what Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has taught me. Praise be to Allah for that.

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd—may Allah have mercy on him—once recited to us a poem that he had composed concerning the sunnah. This is the proper place for it, and I shall relate it so that the people of truth may thereby increase in insight and strength, if Allah wills.

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd dictated it to us in the Mosque of al-Rusāfa on Friday, with five nights remaining of Shaʿbān in the year 309 AH. He said—may Allah pardon him:

[The Tawīl meter]

Hold fast to Allah’s rope and follow guidance;
Do not be an innovator, that you may prosper.

Profess the Book of Allah and the sunan
Transmitted from His Messenger—you will be saved and profit.

Say: “The speech of our Sovereign is uncreated”;
This the pious professed and openly proclaimed.

Do not go to excess regarding the Quran by withholding judgment,
As Jahm’s followers did when they grew lax.

Do not say, “The Quran I recite is created”;
For Allah’s speech is made clear when uttered.

Say: “Allah shall reveal Himself openly to creation,
As the full moon is plainly seen—yet your Lord is clearer.”

He was not begotten, nor did He beget;
He has no likeness—exalted is the One proclaimed free of imperfection.

The Jahmī may deny this, but we possess
An explicit hadith attesting to what we have said.

Jarīr transmitted it from the words of Muhammad;
Say as he said concerning this, and you shall succeed.

The Jahmī may also deny His right hand,
Though both His hands overflow with bounties.

Say: “The Almighty descends every night,
Without asking how—exalted is the One, the Praiseworthy—

To the lowest heaven, bestowing of His grace;
Then the gates of heaven are parted and opened.

He says: ‘Is there anyone seeking forgiveness, to meet a Forgiver?
Or anyone seeking a gift of goodness and provision, that it may be granted?’”

This was transmitted by people whose reports cannot be rejected;
Ruined and disgraced are those who called them liars!

Say: “The best people after Muhammad
Are his two ministers from the earliest days, then preeminent ʿUthmān.

Their fourth is the best of creation after them:
ʿAlī, the ally of goodness, through goodness triumphant.

They and that company—there is no doubt concerning them—
Shall roam forever upon the noble mounts of Firdaws:

Saʿīd, Saʿd, Ibn ʿAwf, Talha,
ʿĀmir of Fihr, and the much-praised al-Zubayr.”

Speak only the best of all the Companions;
Do not malign them, finding fault and casting aspersions.

Clear revelation has proclaimed their excellence,
And verses in al-Fath commend the Companions.

Be certain of the decree that has been predestined;
It is the mainstay of religion’s bond, and religion is broad.

Do not ignorantly deny Nakīr and Munkar,
Nor the Pool and the Scale—you are being sincerely counseled.

Say: “By His grace, Almighty Allah shall bring forth
Bodies from the Fire, reduced to charcoal, and cast them

Upon the river in Firdaws, where its water shall revive them,
Like a seed in the silt borne by a surging flood.”

The Messenger of Allah shall intercede for creation;
And say of the grave’s punishment: “It is an evident truth.”

Never declare the people of prayer unbelievers, even if they sin;
Everyone sins, and the Lord of the Throne pardons.

Do not embrace the doctrine of the Khawārij;
Whoever desires that doctrine is ruined and disgraced.

Do not be a Murjiʾ who trifles with his religion;
Indeed, the Murjiʾ merely makes a mockery of religion.

Say: “Faith consists of speech, intention, and action,”
As the Prophet’s teaching explicitly declares.

At times it diminishes through sins, and at others
It grows through obedience and weighs heavier in the Scale.

Leave aside the opinions and pronouncements of men;
The words of Allah’s Messenger are purer and clearer.

Do not be among those who make sport of their religion,
So that you assail and disparage the People of Hadith.

My friend, if you hold these beliefs throughout your life,
You shall retire and arise each day upon goodness.

Abū Bakr ibn Abī Dāwūd then said to us: “This is my doctrine, my father’s doctrine, the doctrine of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and the doctrine of those scholars whom we met, as well as those whom we did not meet but whose doctrine reached us. Whoever attributes anything else to me has lied.”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah have mercy on him—said: Through this and everything I have set down in this book of ours—al-Sharīʿa, comprising twenty-three parts—we worship Allah, Mighty and Majestic. We sincerely counsel our brothers among the People of the Sunnah and the Community: the people devoted to the Quran, the People of Hadith, the jurists, and all those of good outward standing among them. Whoever accepts it shall have his share of goodness, if Allah wills. As for anyone who turns away from it or from any part of it, we seek refuge in Allah from him. I say to him what one of Allah’s prophets said to his people after counseling them:

“You will remember what I say to you, and I entrust my affair to Allah. Truly, Allah sees His servants.” [Ghāfir: 44]