سنن أبي داود-الرسالة العالمية

Imam Abu Dawud’s as-Sunan is the most comprehensive work from al-Kutub as-Sittah, with him generally covering much more narrations under every topic than any of the others.

As he generally tries to bring the various ahadith found in each chapter, without restricting himself to the sahih ones, there are a number of weak narrations in the book.
Thus, the need for a good edition of the book, that clearly points out the strength of each narration.

While there are a number of good, muhaqqaq editions available, this edition by Sh Shuayb Arna’ut is probably the best option for most ulama, as it ticks all these boxes:
- Edited using the best manuscripts available,
- Clear hukm on every sanad, pointed out exactly who is the problem and why,
- Hukm on every matn, showing which mutun back it up, thus making it sahih/hasan li ghayrihi etc,
- Sharh of difficult phrases,
- Tashkil where required,
- Beautiful type-setting, that makes it a pleasure to read,
- High-quality printing and binding.

Some of the other editions available, like the Dar at-Ta’sil edition, are more suited to specialists, as the footnotes are filled with furuq between the nuskhahs and riwayat of the book, with very little focus on takhrij and hukm.
Dar at-Ta’sil’s editions generally use more manuscripts than others, with their focus being on presenting the most sahih version of the text, with its variants in the footnotes.
They give minimal attention to takhrij, plus their typesetting makes the book seem very cramped. Thus, important for experts and researchers, but not ideal for the average user.

Sh Shuayb Arnaut, while editing his hadith works using the best manuscripts, doesn’t pay much attention to the various furuq between nushkahs. He just mentions the major differences, rather focusing on the strength of every narration.
What really helps, is that he doesn’t only tell you the status of this particular chain, rather he points out whether it is backed up by other similar narrations, thus becoming acceptable.

All this makes his edition perfect for most ulama.

High-quality Beirut edition in 7 volumes.