So were they really writing under the sway of human emotions, personal impulses, and local customs—as the Shaykh, may Allah have mercy on him, alleged? Or were they writing out of an impartial scholarly inquiry?
In truth, the matter is far simpler. The Shaykh examined the question of the hijab and reached one conclusion, while others studied the very same issue and came to a different verdict. Each has the evidence that led him to his view, and each should remain within those limits, without impugning the intentions of scholars and students of knowledge—lest a spiteful opponent from among the innovators seize the opportunity to malign him.
- His habit—may Allah have mercy on him—of treating certain chapters, single issues, individual hadiths, and particular events from the Prophet’s biography in a separate epistle or stand-alone book.
Examples of chapters treated independently:
(a) “Rules of Funerals and Their Innovations.”
(b) “The Prophet’s Prayer from the Opening Takbīr to the Salutation—as Though You Were Watching It.”
(c) “The Rites of Hajj and ʿUmrah in the Quran and the Sunnah and the Reports of the Salaf, together with a List of the Innovations People Have Added.”
Examples of single issues treated independently:
(a) The question of descending into prostration and how it is performed; on this he wrote “Removing Doubts about the Hadith of Descending.”
(b) The question of placing the hands after rising from bowing; on this he wrote “A Refutation of ‘A Splendid Gift concerning Holding the Hands after Bowing.’”
Examples of individual hadiths treated independently:
(c) “Authentication of the Hadith on the Fasting Person’s Breaking His Fast after Dawn before Setting Out on a Journey, together with a Rebuttal of Those Who Declared It Weak”—originally a series of articles later compiled into a book.
Examples of particular events from the prophetic biography treated independently:
(d) “The Night Journey and Ascension: their hadiths, a critical study of their chains of transmission, and a clarification of what is sound and what is weak.”
(e) “Firing the Catapults: Demolishing the Story of the ‘Cranes.’”
Such was the Shaykh: whenever he considered an issue in need of separate treatment, he would isolate it and write on it.
- His special care—may Allah have mercy on him—for certain books. Among them:
(a) Sunan Abī Dāwūd: he traced its hadiths back to their sources and divided the collection into
(1) Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan Abī Dāwūd;
(2) Ḍaʿīf Sunan Abī Dāwūd.
As mentioned earlier in discussing his works, these differ from the Ṣaḥīḥ and Ḍaʿīf editions of the Four Sunan that were published by Maktab al-Tarbiyah.
(b) Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān: