A number of scholars transmitted ḥadith from him; among them were his son Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allah, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī, and Aḥmad ibn Salmān al-Najjād, the last person on earth to narrate from him.
He lived in Basra, visited Baghdad more than once, and there he recited his book, the Sunan. It is said that he actually composed it in Baghdad (1) and then presented it to Imām Aḥmad, who judged it excellent and praiseworthy.
The ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (2) related: “Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qāriʾ al-Dīnawarī narrated to me verbatim, saying: I heard Abū al-Ḥusayn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Ḥasan al-Faradī say: I heard Abū Bakr ibn Dāsa say: I heard Abū Dāwūd say:
‘I wrote down five hundred thousand ḥadith from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. From them I selected what I included in the book—meaning the Sunan—in which I gathered four thousand eight hundred ḥadith (3). I recorded what is authentic and what closely resembles it. For a person’s religion, four ḥadith (4) are sufficient:
The first is his statement—may Allah have mercy on them: “Actions are judged only by intentions” (5).
The second: “Part of a person’s excellence in Islam is that he leaves what does not concern him” (6).
The third: “A believer is not truly a believer until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself” (7).
The fourth: “The lawful is clear and the unlawful is clear, and between the two lie doubtful matters” (8).’
(1) In the manuscripts labeled “B” and “Ẓāʾ,” it is marked as “composed earlier.”
(2) al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tarīkh Baghdād, vol. 9, p. 57.
(3) Its number in the printed edition, according to al-Luʾluʾī’s recension, is 5274.
(4) al-Dhahabī comments: “For one’s religion, it suffices to prohibit (haram), but in fact a Muslim needs many authentic sunnas alongside the Qurʾān.” (Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, 13:210)
(5) Reported by:
• Aḥmad in al-Musnad (1:25, 43);
• al-Bukhārī in al-Ṣaḥīḥ (1:7, 15) under “The Beginning of Revelation,” “Faith,” “Actions Are Judged by Intentions,” and in “Virtues of the Prophet’s Companions”;
• Muslim (no. 1907) under “Leadership,” chapter on the Prophet (PBUH) saying “Actions are judged by intentions”;
• Abū Dāwūd (no. 2201) in “Divorce”;
• al-Tirmidhī (no. 1647);
• al-Nasāʾī (1:59–60);
• Ibn Mājah (no. 4227).
All transmit it from ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (ra). It is one of the ḥadīths foundational to Islam.
(6) The ḥadīth is transmitted by:
• al-Tirmidhī (no. 2317) in his chapter on Zuhd;
• Ibn Mājah (no. 3976) from Abū Hurayrah (ra);
• Mālik in al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, book on Good Morals (2:903);
• al-Tirmidhī (no. 2318) from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn as mursal (therefore weak in that chain). However, it is also reported from several Companions (as in al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr), which improves its reliability. It is a fundamental principle of adab (etiquette) in Islam.
(7) I have not found this wording in Sunan Abū Dāwūd. It is cited by Ibn al-Athīr in Jāmiʿ al-Uṣūl (ed. 1:190), al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Mizzī in his autograph Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (1:531), and al-Dhahabī in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (13:210) in the context of a report attributed to Abū Bakr ibn Dāsa. The preserved version, however, is that narrated by al-Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, and Ibn Mājah from Anas ibn Mālik (ra): “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”
(8) Reported by al-Bukhārī in “Faith” (no. 52); Muslim (no. 1599) in al-Musāqāt; Abū Dāwūd (no. 3330); al-Tirmidhī =