A question about one of the Shaykh’s works, namely the verification of Sunan Abu Dawud.

The questioner: His EminenceThe Shaykh : ... a great work, O Shaykh, with a great commentary ...; so what is the news of it?

The Shaykh : We ask Allah to grant us success in completing this project. I have reached about three-quarters of it, and one-quarter remains. You can observe this from "Sahih Abu Dawud," which is the abridged version. I had noted in the introduction that I followed a plan for verifying "Sunan Abu Dawud" that departed from my plan for tracing the hadiths in the three preceding Sunan collections. This is because in those collections, whenever I verified a hadith as authentic or good, I mentioned some of the defects that I had detailed in explaining the authenticity or goodness of that hadith, and likewise for weak hadiths. But in "Sahih Abu Dawud," I said: You will not see ... the ruling on the hadith as authentic or good; because this summary was taken from my manuscript of Abu Dawud, which I began about forty years ago. Once I reach the end of what I have reached in "Sahih Abu Dawud," I will return to the system I followed in the first three Sunan collections; that is, I will begin by saying: Authentic ... such and such. Because I have not yet reached the point where "Sahih Abu Dawud" extends, I hope that Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) will grant me success in completing it. May you continue to make supplications for us, so that our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) may bless us in our age and in our time as well, so that I can complete its tracing for publication.