The second, however, belongs to the larger project devoted to the Four Sunan. The methodology differs from one version to the other: the work that has actually been printed and circulated is the second, whereas the first—the one the Shaykh extols and cites most frequently—has not yet been published.

The Shaykh has drawn attention to the distinction between the two in several of his writings; see, for example, his introduction to Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd (the printed edition), pp. 5–6.

In the introduction to volume 5 of Silsilat al-Aḥādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah, pp. 6–7, he writes:

“It is worth noting that the reader will often find me attributing a report—by number—to Ḍaʿīf Abī Dāwūd, and perhaps to its counterpart Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd as well. One must realize that in both cases I am referring to the parent volumes of ‘the weak’ and ‘the sound,’ in which I have discussed at length their chains of transmission and narrators. I do not mean the printed abridgements entitled Ṣaḥīḥ Abī Dāwūd and Ḍaʿīf Abī Dāwūd, which contain nothing more than a brief statement of each ḥadith’s grade—sound or weak. Let this be a consistent rule wherever I cite either of them in any of my books.” End quote.

Ṣaḥīḥ: (al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah), [authored] (published).
He did not complete the work: he reached only as far as the Night Journey and Ascension, and he left the introduction—where he explained the motive behind the book—unfinished as well. The heirs therefore deemed it a service to knowledge to release the manuscript in its existing state.

The basis of the work is Ibn Kathīr’s al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyyah. The author devoted himself to the text, retaining only what he judged authentic. He preserved Ibn Kathīr’s own wording, occasionally adding a few lines of his own. At times he would set aside the particular version Ibn Kathīr cited and insert instead the exact wording of the source to which Ibn Kathīr had referred.

The book is expected to appear under the title Ma Ṣaḥḥa min Sīrat Rasūl Allāh ﷺ (“What Has Been Authenticated from the Biography of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him”).

Is his earlier work, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Isrāʾ wa-l-Miʿrāj, merely a section extracted from this larger book? See Ṣaḥīḥ al-Isrāʾ wa-l-Miʿrāj.

(…) Ṣaḥīḥ Qiṣṣat al-Isrāʾ wa-l-Miʿrāj is identical to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Isrāʾ wa-l-Miʿrāj.

Ṣaḥīḥ: (Kashf al-Astār ʿan Zawāʾid al-Bazzār), by al-Haythamī, [authored].