Al-Muwatta: Of Imam Malik Ibn Anas

Al-Muwatta

of Imām Mālik

Translated by

Aisha Abdurrahman Bewley

Copyright © Diwan Press Ltd., 2014 CE/1435 AH

First edition: Diwan Press 1982

Second edition: Madinah Press 1989

Third edition: Diwan Press 2014

Al-Muwatta

Published by: Diwan Press Ltd.

6 Terrace Walk,

Norwich

NR1 3JD

UK

Website: www.diwanpress.com

E-mail: info@diwanpress.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers.

Author: Imam Malik ibn Anas

Translation: Aisha Bewley

Typeset by: Abdassamad Clarke

Cover design by: Abdassamad Clarke

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-1-908892-36-2 (hardback)

978-1-908892-35-5 (paperback)

978-1-908892-39-3 (ePub)

Contents

Introduction

The lineage of Imām Mālik, his family, birth and autobiography

His quest for knowledge

People’s praise of him and their testimony that he was the greatest of the Imāms in knowledge

The shaykhs from whom he transmitted

The transmitters who transmitted from him

The position of the Muwaṭṭa’ and people’s concern for it

Clarification of the meaning of Muwaṭṭa’, its excellent layout and fine style

1. The Times of Prayer

1.1 The times of prayer

1.2 The time of the jumu‘a prayer

1.3 Whoever catches a rak‘a of the ṣalāh

1.4 Dulūk ash-shams and ghasaq al-layl

1.5 The times of prayer in general

1.6 Sleeping through the prayer

1.7 Not doing the prayer at the hottest hour of the day

1.8 Not entering the mosque smelling of garlic and not covering the mouth in prayer

2. Book of Purity

2.1 How to perform wuḍū’

2.2 Wuḍū’ for praying after sleep

2.3 What is pure for wuḍū’

2.4 Things which do not break wuḍū’

2.5 Not doing wuḍū’ on account of eating cooked food

2.6 Wuḍū’ in general

2.7 Wiping the head and ears

2.8 Wiping over leather socks

2.9 How to wipe over leather socks

2.10 Nosebleeds in the prayer

2.11 Nosebleeds in general

2.12 Bleeding from a wound or a nosebleed

2.13 Wuḍū’ on account of prostatic fluid

2.14 Indulgence about not having to do wuḍū’ on account of prostatic fluid

2.15 Wuḍū’ on account of touching the genitals

2.16 Wuḍū’ on account of a man kissing his wife

2.17 How to perform ghusl on account of major ritual impurity

2.18 Ghusl from the two circumcised parts meeting

2.19 Wuḍū’ of a person in a state of major ritual impurity (janāba) when he wants to go to sleep or eat before having a ghusl

2.20 The repetition of the prayer by a person in a state of major ritual impurity, his doing ghusl when he has prayed without remembering it, and his washing his garments

2.21 Ghusl of a woman when she experiences the same as a man in her sleep

2.22 Ghusl for major ritual impurity

2.23 Tayammum

2.24 How to do tayammum

2.25 Tayammum of someone in a state of major ritual impurity

2.26 What is permitted to a man from his wife when she is menstruating

2.27 The purity of a woman after menstruation

2.28 Menstruation in general

2.29 Bleeding as if menstruating

2.30 The urine of an infant boy

2.31 Urinating standing and otherwise

2.32 The tooth-stick (siwāk)

3. Prayer

3.1 The call to prayer

3.2 The adhān on a journey and without wuḍū’

3.3 The meal before dawn (saḥūr) in relation to the adhān

3.4 The opening of the prayer

3.5 The recitation of Qur’ān in the Maghrib and ‘Ishā’ prayers

3.6 Behaviour in the recitation

3.7 The recitation in the Ṣubḥ prayer

3.8 The Umm al-Qur’ān

3.9 Reciting to oneself behind the imām when he does not recite aloud

3.10 Not reciting behind the imām when he recites aloud

3.11 Saying ‘amīn’ behind the imām

3.12 Behaviour in the sitting in the prayer

3.13 Tashahhud in the prayer

3.14 What to do if one raises one’s head before the imām

3.15 What to do if through forgetfulness one says the taslīm after two rak‘as

3.16 Completing what is recalled when uncertain how much has been prayed

3.17 What to do if one stands after the completion of the prayer or after two rak‘as

3.18 Distraction in the prayer

4. Forgetfulness in the Prayer

4.1 What to do if one forgets in prayer

5. Jumu‘a

5.1 Ghusl on the day of jumu‘a

5.2 Paying attention when the imām is giving the khuṭba on the day of jumu‘a

5.3 Catching a rak‘a of the jumu‘a prayer

5.4 Nose-bleeds on the day of jumu‘a

5.5 Making haste on the day of jumu‘a

5.6 The Imām’s stopping off in a town on the day of jumu‘a

5.7 The special time in the day of jumu‘a

5.8 Good appearance and not stepping over people and facing the imām on the day of jumu‘a

5.9 The recitation in the jumu‘a prayer, the sitting, and missing the prayer without a reason

6. Prayer in Ramadan

6.1 Stimulation of the desire for prayer in Ramaḍān

6.2 Praying at night during Ramaḍān

7. Tahajjud

7.1 Concerning prayer in the night

7.2 How the Prophet ﷺ prayed the witr

7.3 The command to pray the witr

7.4 Praying the witr after the break of dawn

7.5 The two rak‘as of Fajr

8. Prayer in Congregation

8.1 The superiority of prayer in congregation over prayer alone

8.2 The ‘Ishā’ and Ṣubḥ prayers

8.3 Repeating the prayer with the imām

8.4 Praying in a group of people

8.5 Prayer behind an imām when he prays sitting

8.6 The excellence of prayer standing over prayer sitting

8.7 Praying voluntary prayers (nawāfil)

8.8 The middle prayer

8.9 Permission to pray in one garment

8.10 Permission for a woman to pray in a shift and head-covering

9. Shortening the Prayer

9.1 Joining two prayers when settled and when travelling

9.2 Shortening the prayer in travel

9.3 Circumstances in which the prayer has to be shortened

9.4 The prayer of a traveller when undecided whether to remain in a place or not

9.5 Doing the full prayer when one decides to remain in a place

9.6 The prayer of a traveller when acting as imām, or when praying behind an imām

9.7 Voluntary prayers while travelling, by day and at night, and praying on a riding beast

9.8 The Ḍuḥā prayer

9.9 General remarks about the voluntary prayer of Ḍuḥā

9.10 Strong warning against passing in front of a person praying

9.11 Permission to pass in front of someone praying

9.12 The sutra of a traveller praying

9.13 Brushing away small stones in the prayer

9.14 Straightening the rows

9.15 Placing one hand on the other in the prayer

9.16 Qunūt in the Ṣubḥ prayer

9.17 Prohibition against a man praying when wishing to relieve himself

9.18 Waiting for the prayer and walking to it

9.19 Placing the hands flat on the surface by the face in prostration

9.20 Turning around and clapping when necessary during the prayer

9.21 Joining the prayer while the imām is in rukū‘

9.22 The prayer on the Prophet ﷺ

9.23 How to perform the prayer in general

9.24 Prayer in general

9.25 Stimulation of the desire for prayer in general

10. The Two ‘Īds

10.1 Ghusl for the two ‘Īds, the call to prayer for them, and the iqāma

10.2 The order to pray before the khuṭba on the two ‘Īds

10.3 The order to eat before going out on the morning of the ‘Īd

10.4 The takbīrs and the recitation in the prayer of the two ‘Īds

10.5 Refraining from praying before and after the two ‘Īd prayers

10.6 Permission to pray before and after the two ‘Īd prayers

10.7 The coming of the imām on the Day of the ‘Īd and waiting for the khuṭba

11. The Fear Prayer

11.1 The Fear Prayer

12. The Eclipse Prayer

12.1 How to pray the Eclipse Prayer

12.2 About the Eclipse Prayer

13. Praying for Rain

13.1 How to pray for rain

13.2 What is reported about praying for rain

13.3 About asking the stars for rain

14. The Qibla

14.1 The prohibition against relieving oneself facing the qibla

14.2 Permission to face the qibla when urinating or defecating

14.3 The prohibition of spitting towards the Qibla

14.4 About the qibla

14.5 The Mosque of the Prophet

14.6 Women going out to the mosque

15. The Qur’ān

15.1 The command to be in wuḍū’ (when touching the Qur’ān)

15.2 Allowance to recite the Qur’ān while not in wuḍū’

15.3 The division of the Qur’ān into sections (ḥizbs)

15.4 About the Qur’ān

15.5 The prostration of the Qur’ān

15.6 About reciting Sūrat al-Ikhlāṣ and Sūrat al-Mulk

15.7 Dhikr (Remembrance) of Allah, the Blessed and Exalted

15.8 Du‘ā’ (supplication)

15.9 Making supplication (du‘ā’)

15.10 Prayer forbidden after Ṣubḥ and after ‘Aṣr

16. Burials

16.1 Washing the dead

16.2 Shrouding the dead

16.3 Preceeding the bier

16.4 The prohibition against following the bier with a burning torch

16.5 The takbīrs in funerals

16.6 What to say in the prayer for the dead

16.7 Permission to pray over the dead after Ṣubḥ until the dawn is clear and after ‘Aṣr until the sun turns yellow

16.8 Doing the prayer for the dead in mosques

16.9 The prayer over the dead in general

16.10 Burying the dead

16.11 Stopping for funerals and sitting in graveyards

16.12 The prohibition of weeping over the dead

16.13 Fortitude in the face of misfortune

16.14 Fortitude in the face of misfortune generally

16.15 Exhumation

16.16 Burial in general

17. Zakāt

17.1 Things subject to zakāt

17.2 The zakāt on gold and silver coins

17.3 Zakāt on mines

17.4 Zakāt on buried treasure (rikāz)

17.5 Non-zakatable items of jewelry, bits of gold and silver, and amber

17.6 Zakāt on the property of orphans and trading for orphans

17.7 Zakāt on inheritance

17.8 Zakāt on debts

17.9 Zakāt on merchandise

17.10 Wealth which has been hidden away (kanz)

17.11 Zakāt on livestock

17.12 Zakāt on cattle

17.13 Zakāt of associates

17.14 Counting lambs and kids when assessing zakāt

17.15 Zakāt when two years are assessed together

17.16 The prohibition of making things difficult for people in taking zakāt

17.17 Receiving zakāt, and who is permitted to receive it

17.18 Collecting zakāt and being firm in doing so

17.19 Zakāt on estimated yields of date-palms and vines

17.20 Zakāt on seeds and olives

17.21 Non-zakatable fruits

17.22 Non-zakatable fruits, animal fodder and vegetables

17.23 Zakāt on slaves, horses and honey

17.24 Jizya imposed on the People of the Book and Magians

17.25 The ‘ushr for the People of Dhimma

17.26 Selling ṣadaqa and taking it back

17.27 Who pays the Zakāt al-Fiṭr

17.28 Measuring the Zakāt al-Fiṭr

17.29 When to send the Zakāt al-Fiṭr

17.30 People who are not obliged to pay the Zakāt al-Fiṭr

18. Fasting

18.1 Sighting the new moon for beginning and ending the fast of Ramaḍān

18.2 Making the intention to fast before dawn

18.3 Being quick to break the fast

18.4 Fasting when someone finds himself in janāba in the morning during Ramaḍān

18.5 Permission for a fasting man to kiss

18.6 Being strict about kissing when fasting

18.7 Fasting while travelling

18.8 Returning from a journey in Ramaḍān and intention to travel in Ramaḍān

18.9 Kaffāra (making amends) for breaking the fast in Ramaḍān

18.10 Cupping a man who is fasting

18.11 Fasting the Day of ‘Āshūrā’ (the 10th of Muḥarram)

18.12 Fasting the Days of Fiṭr and Aḍḥā and fasting continuously

18.13 The prohibition against fasting for two days or more without breaking the fast in between (wiṣāl)

18.14 Fasting on account of manslaughter or for pronouncing the ẓihār form of divorce

18.15 Illness and the fast

18.16 The vow to fast, and fasting on behalf of a dead person

18.17 Making up days missed in Ramaḍān, and the kaffāra

18.18 Making up voluntary fasts

18.19 The fidya (compensation) for breaking the fast in Ramaḍān for a reason

18.20 Making up days of Ramaḍān in general

18.21 Fasting the Day of Doubt

18.22 The Fast in General

19. I‘tikāf in Ramaḍān

19.1 Concerning i‘tikāf (retreat)

19.2 Essentials of i‘tikāf

19.3 Leaving i‘tikāf for the ‘Īd

19.4 Making up for the i‘tikāf (not done)

19.5 Marriage in i‘tikāf

19.6 Laylat al-Qadr (The Night of Power)

20. Ḥajj

20.1 The ghusl of iḥrām

20.2 Ghusl in iḥrām

20.3 Clothes forbidden in iḥrām

20.4 Clothes worn in iḥrām

20.5 Wearing a belt in iḥrām

20.6 Veiling the face in iḥrām

20.7 Wearing perfume during ḥajj

20.8 Points of entry for iḥrām (mawāqīt)

20.9 The method of entering iḥrām

20.10 Raising the voice in talbiya

20.11 Ḥajj al-ifrād

20.12 Performing ḥajj and ‘umra together (Ḥajj al-Qirān)

20.13 When to stop the talbiya

20.14 How the people of Makka, and those besides them living there, go into iḥrām

20.15 Situations when iḥrām is not obligatory for garlanding sacrificial animals

20.16 Menstruating women on ḥajj

20.17 ‘Umra in the months of ḥajj

20.18 When to stop saying the talbiya for ‘umra

20.19 Ḥajj at-Tamattu‘

20.20 Circumstances in which tamattu‘ is not obligatory

20.21 About ‘umra in general

20.22 Marriage while in iḥrām

20.23 Cupping while in iḥrām

20.24 Game that can be eaten by someone who is in iḥrām

20.25 Game that is not lawful to eat while in iḥrām

20.26 Hunting in the Ḥaram

20.27 Assessing the forfeit for hunting game animals

20.28 Animals that someone in iḥrām can kill

20.29 Things that someone in iḥrām is allowed to do

20.30 Performing the ḥajj for somebody else

20.31 Someone whose path (to the House) is blocked by an enemy

20.32 Someone who is prevented (from going to the House) by something other than an enemy

20.33 Building the Ka‘ba

20.34 Hastening (raml) in the ṭawāf

20.35 Saluting the corners during ṭawāf

20.36 Kissing the corner of the Black Stone when saluting the corners

20.37 The two rak‘as of ṭawāf

20.38 Praying after Ṣubḥ and ‘Aṣr when doing ṭawāf

20.39 Taking leave of the House

20.40 Tawāf in general

20.41 Starting with Safā in the sa‘y

20.42 Sa‘y in general

20.43 Fasting the Day of ‘Arafa

20.44 Fasting on the Days of Minā

20.45 What are acceptable as sacrificial animals (hadys)

20.46 Treatment of sacrificial animals while being driven to sacrifice

20.47 Injury to sacrificial animals or their loss

20.48 The animal to be sacrificed on account of intercourse in iḥrām

20.49 The animal to be sacrificed on account of missing the ḥajj

20.50 Intercourse before the Ṭawāf al-Ifāḍa

20.51 The sacrificial animals considered least difficult

20.52 Sacrificial animals in general

20.53 The wuqūf (standing) at ‘Arafa and Muzdalifa

20.54 Wuqūf while not in wuḍū’, and wuqūf on a riding beast

20.55 The wuqūf at ‘Arafa of someone who misses the ḥajj

20.56 Sending women and children ahead

20.57 Going from ‘Arafa to Muzdalifa

20.58 Sacrificing during the ḥajj

20.59 How to make the sacrifice

20.60 Shaving the head

20.61 Cutting the Hair

20.62 Gumming the hair

20.63 Performing the prayer in the House, shortening the prayer, and hastening the khuṭba at ‘Arafa

20.64 Performing the prayer at Minā on the eighth day of Dhū al-Ḥijja, and the jumu‘a at Minā and ‘Arafa

20.65 Performing the prayer at Muzdalifa

20.66 Performing the prayer at Minā

20.67 The prayer of a visitor to Makka or Minā

20.68 Saying the takbīr during the Days of Tashrīq

20.69 Performing the prayer at al-Mu‘arras and al-Muḥaṣṣab

20.70 Staying overnight at Makka on the nights of Minā

20.71 Stoning the jamras

20.72 Indulgence with respect to stoning the jamras

20.73 The Ṭawāf al-Ifāḍa

20.74 A menstruating woman’s entering Makka

20.75 The Ṭawāf al-Ifāḍa of a menstruating woman

20.76 The compensation (fidya) for killing birds and wild animals while in iḥrām

20.77 The fidya for killing locusts in iḥrām

20.78 The fidya for shaving the head before sacrificing

20.79 Forgetfulness in the rituals

20.80 Compensation (fidya) in general

20.81 The ḥajj in general

20.82 The ḥajj of a woman without a maḥram

20.83 Fasting in Ḥajj at-Tamattu‘

21. Jihād

21.1 Stimulation of desire for jihād

21.2 Prohibition against travelling with the Qur’ān in enemy territory

21.3 The prohibition against killing women and children in military expeditions

21.4 Fulfilling safe conduct

21.5 Giving in the Way of Allah

21.6 Booty from war in general

21.7 Things on which the tax of one-fifth (khums) is not obligatory

21.8 What it is permissible for the Muslims to eat before the spoils are divided

21.9 Returning enemy plunder to the owner before the division of the spoils

21.10 Stripping the slain of their personal effects in the booty

21.11 Awarding extra portions from the fifth (khums)

21.12 The share of the spoils allotted to cavalry in military expeditions

21.13 Stealing from the spoils

21.14 Martyrs in the Way of Allah

21.15 Things in which martyrdom lies

21.16 How to wash a martyr

21.17 What is disliked to be done with something given in the Way of Allah

21.18 Stimulation of desire for jihād

21.19 Horses and racing them and financing in military expeditions

21.20 Acquisition of the land of dhimmīs who surrender

21.21 Burial in one grave by necessity and Abū Bakr’s carrying out the promise of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ after the death of the Messenger ﷺ

22. Vows and Oaths

22.1 Fulfilling vows to walk

22.2 Making vows to walk to the House and not succeeding

22.3 How to fulfil the oath of walking to the Ka‘ba

22.4 Vows not permitted in disobedience to Allah

22.5 Inadvertence in oaths

22.6 Oaths for which kaffāra is not obligatory

22.7 Oaths for which kaffāra is obligatory

22.8 What is done regarding the kaffāra of a broken oath

22.9 Oaths in general

23. Sacrificial Animals

23.1 Animals avoided as sacrifices

23.2 Animals desirable as sacrifices

23.3 Prohibition against sacrificing an animal before the imām finishes

23.4 Storing meat from sacrificial animals

23.5 Sharing sacrificial animals

23.6 The sacrificial animal for the child in the womb and mention of the Days of Sacrifice

24. Slaughtering Animals

24.1 Saying the Name of Allah over the slaughtered animal

24.2 Methods of slaughter permitted in necessity

24.3 What is disapproved of in slaughtering animals

24.4 Slaughtering what is in the womb of a slaughtered animal

25. Game

25.1 Eating game killed with throwing sticks and by stones

25.2 Game caught by trained dogs

25.3 Catching sea animals

25.4 Prohibition against eating animals with fangs

25.5 What is disapproved of regarding eating riding animals

25.6 Using the skin of animals found dead

25.7 Eating carrion when forced to, out of necessity

26. The ‘Aqīqa

26.1 About the ‘aqīqa

26.2 Behaviour in the ‘aqīqa

27. Fixed Shares of Inheritance

27.1 Inheritance of direct descendants

27.2 Inheritance of husbands from wives and wives from husbands

27.3 Inheritance of fathers and mothers from children

27.4 Inheritance of maternal half-siblings

27.5 Inheritance of full-siblings

27.6 Inheritance of paternal half-siblings

27.7 Inheritance of grandfathers

27.8 Inheritance of grandmothers

27.9 Inheritance of persons without parents or offspring

27.10 Paternal aunts

27.11 Inheritance of paternal relations (‘aṣaba)

27.12 People who do not inherit

27.13 Inheritance from the people of other religions

27.14 People killed in battle or otherwise whose situation in inheritance is not known

27.15 The inheritance of the child of li‘ān and the child of fornication

28. Marriage

28.1 Asking for someone’s hand in marriage

28.2 Asking the consent of virgins and women previously married

28.3 The bride-price and unreturnable gifts

28.4 Consummating a marriage

28.5 Wedding nights of virgins and of women previously married

28.6 Stipulations not permitted in marriage

28.7 Marriage of a muḥallil and its like

28.8 Combinations of women not to be married together

28.9 Prohibition against marrying mothers of wives

28.10 Marriage to mothers of women with whom one has had sexual relations in a disapproved manner

28.11 What is not permitted in marriage in general

28.12 Marrying slaves when already married to free women

28.13 A man’s owning a slave whom he has married and then divorced

28.14 Reprehensibility of intercourse with two sisters or a mother and daughter that one owns

28.15 Prohibition against intercourse with a slave-girl who belonged to one’s father

28.16 Prohibition against marrying slave-girls who are People of the Book

28.17 Muḥsanāt

28.18 Temporary marriage

28.19 Marriage of slaves

28.20 The marriage of idolators when their wives become Muslim before them

28.21 The wedding feast

28.22 Marriage in general

29. Divorce

29.1 The ‘irrevocable’ divorce

29.2 Divorce by euphemistic statements

29.3 Giving wives the right of full divorce

29.4 When a wife’s authority must be considered as only a single pro-nouncement of divorce

29.5 When allowing a wife her authority does not constitute a divorce

29.6 Annulment of marriage by the husband’s vow to refrain from intercourse (īlā’)

29.7 The īlā’ (vow of abstention) of slaves

29.8 Ẓihār of freemen

29.9 Ẓihār done by slaves

29.10 The option (of slave-girls married to slaves when freed)

29.11 Separating from wives for compensation (khul‘)

29.12 The khul‘ divorce

29.13 Li‘ān (invoking mutual curses)

29.14 Inheritance of children of women against whom li‘ān has been pronounced

29.15 Divorce of virgins

29.16 Divorce of sick men

29.17 Compensatory gift after divorce

29.18 The divorce of a slave

29.19 Maintenance of slave-girls divorced when pregnant

29.20 ‘Idda of women with missing husbands

29.21 ‘Idda of divorce and divorce of menstruating women

29.22 ‘Idda of women in their houses when divorced in them

29.23 Maintenance of divorced women

29.24 ‘Idda of slave-girls divorced by their husbands

29.25 General chapter on ‘idda of divorce

29.26 The two arbiters

29.27 Oath of men to divorce while not yet married

29.28 Deadline of men who do not have intercourse with their wives

29.29 General section on divorce

29.30 ‘Idda of widows when pregnant

29.31 Widows remaining in their houses until free to marry

29.32 ‘Idda of an umm walad on her master’s death

29.33 ‘Idda of slave-girls whose master or husband dies

29.34 Coitus interruptus

29.35 Limit of abstaining from adornment in mourning

30. Suckling

30.1 Suckling of the young

30.2 Suckling of older people

30.3 Suckling in general

31. Business Transactions

31.1 Non-returnable deposits (‘urbūn)

31.2 Wealth of slaves

31.3 Built-in liability agreements

31.4 Defects in slaves

31.5 The purchase of slave-girls with conditions attached

31.6 Prohibition against intercourse with married slave-girls

31.7 Ownership of the fruit of trees sold

31.8 Prohibition against selling fruit until starting to ripen

31.9 The sale of ‘ariyyas

31.10 The effect of crop damage on the sale of agricultural produce

31.11 Keeping back a portion of the fruit

31.12 Disapproved practices in the sale of dates

31.13 Muzābana and muḥāqala

31.14 General remarks about selling produce at its source

31.15 Selling fruit

31.16 Selling gold for silver, minted and unminted

31.17 Money-changing

31.18 Selling gold for gold and silver for silver by weight

31.19 Buying on delayed terms and re-selling for less on more immediate terms

31.20 What is disapproved of in selling food with delayed payment or delivery

31.21 Pre-payment on food

31.22 Bartering food for food with no increase between them

31.23 General section on selling food

31.24 Hoarding and raising prices by stockpiling

31.25 What is permitted in bartering animals for other animals and advances on animals

31.26 What is not permitted in the sale of animals

31.27 Selling animals in exchange for meat

31.28 Selling meat for meat

31.29 Selling dogs

31.30 Advance and sale of some goods for others

31.31 An advance on goods

31.32 Selling weighable items like copper and iron and similar things

31.33 Prohibition against two sales in one

31.34 Transactions with uncertainty in them

31.35 Al-mulāmasa and al-munābadha

31.36 Murābaḥa transactions (partnership between investors and borrowers in profit-sharing re-sales)

31.37 Sales according to a list of contents

31.38 The right of withdrawal (khiyār)

31.39 Usury in debts

31.40 Debts and transfer of debts in general

31.41 Partnership, transferral of responsibility to an agent and revocation

31.42 Bankruptcy of debtors

31.43 What is permitted of free loans

31.44 What is not permitted of free loans

31.45 What is forbidden of haggling and such transactions

31.46 Business transactions in general

32. Qirāḍ

32.1 Qirāḍ

32.2 What is permitted in qirāḍ

32.3 What is not permitted in qirāḍ

32.4 Conditions permitted in qirāḍ

32.5 Conditions not permitted in qirāḍ

32.6 Qirāḍ in Wares

32.7 Hire in qirāḍ

32.8 Overstepping in qirāḍ

32.9 Expenses permitted in qirāḍ

32.10 Expenses not permitted in qirāḍ

32.11 Debts in qirāḍ

32.12 Goods in qirāḍ

32.13 Loans in qirāḍ

32.14 Accounting in qirāḍ

32.15 A general view of qirāḍ

33. Cropsharing

33.1 Cropsharing

33.2 The condition about slaves in cropsharing

34. Renting Land

34.1 Renting land

35. Pre-emption in Property

35.1 Cases in which pre-emption is possible

35.2 Cases in which pre-emption is not possible

36. Judgements

36.1 Stimulation of desire to judge correctly

36.2 Giving testimony

36.3 Judgement on testimony of those who have received ḥadd-punishments

36.4 Judgement based on oaths along with the testimony of a single witness

36.5 Judgement on a deceased with a debt against him and a debt for him and only one witness

36.6 Judgement on claims

36.7 Judgement on the testimony of children

36.8 Perjury on the minbar of the Prophet

36.9 Taking oaths on the minbar in general

36.10 Prohibition against forfeiting pledges given on security

36.11 Judgement on pledging fruit and animals as security

36.12 Judgement on pledging animals as security

36.13 Judgement on pledges shared between two men

36.14 Judgement on pledges in general

36.15 Judgement on renting animals and going beyond specified destinations

36.16 Judgement about raped women

36.17 Judgement on consuming other people’s animals

36.18 Judgement on the abandonment of Islam

36.19 Judgement on men finding other men with their wives

36.20 Judgement on the abandoned child

36.21 Judgement on attaching paternity to children

36.22 Judgement on inheritance of attached children

36.23 Judgement on women who are umm walad

36.24 Judgement on bringing barren land into cultivation

36.25 Judgement on watering land

36.26 Judgement on benefiting neighbours

36.27 Judgement on division of properties

36.28 Judgement on animals grazing on other people’s crops and animals stolen from the herd

36.29 Judgement on injuries to domestic animals

36.30 Judgement regarding articles given to artisans to work on

36.31 Judgement on taking on debts and transfers of debts

36.32 Judgement on garments bought which have defects

36.33 What is not permitted in giving gifts (1)

36.34 What is not permitted in giving gifts (2)

36.35 Judgement on gifts

36.36 Taking back ṣadaqa

36.37 Judgement on life grants

36.38 The ruling on lost property which is found

36.39 Judgement on slaves using finds

36.40 Judgement on strays

36.41 Ṣadaqa of the living for the dead

37. Wills and Testaments

37.1 The command to write wills

37.2 Permissibility of bequests made by children, simpletons, lunatics and idiots

37.3 Limiting bequests to one-third of the estate

37.4 Dealing with the property of a pregnant woman, a sick person and someone present in battle

37.5 Bequests to heirs and right of possession

37.6 Effeminate men and the custody of children

37.7 Liability for defective goods

37.8 General chapter on rendering judgement and aversion to it

37.9 Damages and injuries caused by slaves

37.10 What is permitted in gifts

38. Setting Free and Walā’

38.1 Freeing a share held in a slave

38.2 Making conditions when freeing a slave

38.3 People who free slaves and own no other property

38.4 Judgement on the property of slaves when they are set free

38.5 Freeing slaves who are umm walads and a general section on freeing

38.6 Slaves permitted to be freed when a slave must be freed by obligation

38.7 Slaves not permitted to be freed when a slave must be freed by obligation

38.8 Freeing the living for the dead

38.9 The excellence of freeing slaves, freeing adulteresses and illegitimate children

38.10 The right of the one who sets free to the walā’

38.11 Slaves attracting the walā’ when set free

38.12 The inheritance of the walā’

38.13 The inheritance of slaves set free and the walā’ of Jews and Christians who set slaves Free

39. The Mukātab

39.1 Judgement on the mukātab

39.2 Assuming responsibility in kitāba

39.3 Severance in the kitāba for an agreed price

39.4 Injuries caused by mukātabs

39.5 Selling mukātabs

39.6 The labour of mukātabs

39.7 Freeing a mukātab on payment of his due before its term

39.8 The inheritance of a mukātab on emancipation

39.9 Conditions concerning mukātabs

39.10 The walā’ of the mukātab when he is set free

39.11 What is not permitted in freeing a mukātab

39.12 Freeing a mukātab and an umm walad

39.13 Bequests involving mukātabs

40. The Mudabbar

40.1 Judgement on the mudabbar

40.2 General section on tadbīr

40.3 Bequests involving tadbīr

40.4 A master’s intercourse with his mudabbara

40.5 Selling mudabbars

40.6 Injuries caused by mudabbars

40.7 Injuries caused by an umm walad

41. Ḥudūd

41.1 Stoning

41.2 Self-confession of fornication

41.3 The ḥadd for fornication

41.4 Rape

41.5 The ḥadd for slander, denial of paternity and insinuation

41.6 That for which there is no ḥadd punishment

41.7 That which obliges cutting off the hand

41.8 Cutting off the hands of runaway slaves who steal

41.9 Intercession is cut off for thieves when cases reach the ruler

41.10 General section on cutting off the hand

41.11 Things for which the hand is not cut off

42. Drinks

42.1 The ḥadd punishment for drinking wine

42.2 Containers forbidden for preparation of nabīdh

42.3 Mixtures of fruit disapproved for making nabīdh

42.4 The prohibition of wine

42.5 General section on the prohibition of wine

43. Blood Money

43.1 Concerning blood-money

43.2 Procedure in blood-money

43.3 The blood-money for murder when accepted, and the criminal act of the insane

43.4 The blood-money for manslaughter

43.5 The blood-money for accidental injury

43.6 The blood-money for women

43.7 The blood-money for the foetus

43.8 Injuries for which there is full blood-money

43.9 The blood-money for an eye whose sight is lost

43.10 The blood-money for head wounds

43.11 The blood-money for fingers

43.12 General section on the blood-money for teeth

43.13 Procedure in the blood-money for teeth

43.14 The blood-money for injuries to slaves

43.15 The blood-money of the People of Protection (dhimma)

43.16 Blood-money that has to be paid on an individual basis

43.17 Inheritance of blood-money and making it more severe

43.18 General section on blood-money

43.19 Killing secretly by trickery and sorcery

43.20 What is obligatory for intentional injury

43.21 Retaliation in killing

43.22 Pardoning murder

43.23 Retaliation in Injury

43.24 The blood-money and crime of the slave set free and from whom his former master does not inherit

44. The Oath of Qasāma

44.1 Beginning with the people seeking blood revenge in the oath

44.2 Blood relatives who are permitted to swear in the case of an intentional act

44.3 Swearing in the case of manslaughter

44.4 Inheritance in cases of qasāma

44.5 Swearing for blood revenge in cases involving slaves

45. A Comprehensive Book

45.1 Supplication for Madīna and its people

45.2 What has been narrated about dwelling in Madīna and leaving it

45.3 Making Madīna a ḥaram

45.4 The epidemic of Madīna

45.5 The expulsion of the Jews from Madīna

45.6 Concerning Madīna

45.7 About the plague

46. The Decree

46.1 The Prohibition against talking about the Decree

46.2 General section on the People of the Decree

47. Good Character

47.1 Good character

47.2 Modesty

47.3 Anger

47.4 Shunning People

48. Dress

48.1 Wearing clothes for beautification

48.2 Wearing dyed garments and gold

48.3 Wearing rough silk

48.4 Clothes disapproved for women to wear

48.5 A man trailing his garments

48.6 A woman trailing her garments

48.7 Wearing sandals

48.8 Ways of dressing

49. The Description of the Prophet ﷺ

49.1 Description of the Prophet ﷺ

49.2 Description of ‘Īsā ibn Maryam e and the Dajjāl

49.3 Sunna of the fiṭra (natural form)

49.4 Prohibition against eating with the left hand

49.5 The very poor

49.6 The intestines of the unbeliever

49.7 Prohibition against drinking from silver vessels and blowing into drinks

49.8 Drinking while standing

49.9 The sunna about drinking and passing to the right

49.10 General section on food and drink

49.11 Eating meat

49.12 Wearing rings

49.13 Pulling off necklaces and bells from the necks of camels

50. The Evil Eye

50.1 Wuḍū’ against the Evil Eye

50.2 Guarding against the Evil Eye

50.3 The invalid’s reward

50.4 Seeking refuge and using talismans in illness

50.5 Treating the invalid

50.6 Washing with water for a fever

50.7 Visiting invalids, and evil omens

51. Hair

51.1 The sunna regarding hair

51.2 Caring for hair

51.3 Dyeing the hair

Chapters on Seeking Refuge and Those who Love Each other for the Sake of Allah

51.4 What is commanded of seeking refuge in Allah

51.5 Those who love each other in Allah

52. Visions

52.1 Visions

52.2 Games of dice

53. Greetings

53.1 Behaviour in greeting

53.2 Greeting Jews and Christians

53.3 General section on the greeting

54. General

54.1 Asking permission to enter

54.2 Blessing someone who sneezes

54.3 Pictures and images

54.4 Eating lizards

54.5 Concerning dogs

54.6 Concerning sheep

54.7 Mice falling into clarified butter, and giving precedence to food over the prayer

54.8 Guarding against ill luck

54.9 Names that are disliked

54.10 Cupping and the reward of the cupper

54.11 Concerning the East

54.12 Killing snakes and what is said about them

54.13 What to say on journeys

54.14 Travelling alone in the case of men and women

54.15 How to behave on journeys

54.16 The command to be kind to slaves

54.17 A slave and his reward

55. The Oath of Allegiance

55.1 About the oath of allegiance

56. Speech

56.1 Disliked speech

56.2 The order to be mindful in speech

56.3 Disliked speech and speech without the mention of Allah

56.4 Backbiting

56.5 What is feared from the tongue

56.6 Two people conversing to the exclusion of another

56.7 Truthfulness and lying

56.8 Squandering property and being two-faced

56.9 Punishing the many for the actions of the few

56.10 About people with taqwā

56.11 What to say when it thunders

56.12 The legacy of the Prophet ﷺ

57. Jahannam

57.1 Description of Jahannam

58. Ṣadaqa

58.1 Stimulation of desire for ṣadaqa

58.2 Refraining from asking

58.3 What is disliked in ṣadaqa

59. Knowledge

59.1 Seeking Knowledge

60 The Supplication of the Unjustly Wronged

60.1 Supplication of someone unjustly wronged

61. The Names of the Prophet ﷺ

61.1 The names of the Prophet ﷺ

Glossary

Index

Introduction

Praise be to Allah, who sent our Prophet Muḥammad as a mercy to the whole universe. He sent down the Noble Qur’ān through him as a light and guidance for those who are godfearing. He commanded him to clarify what had been revealed to people so that they might reflect. His words and actions made clear to them everything they needed to know. He instructed those who were present with him to convey his teaching to those who were not there.

Blessings and peace be upon him and upon his family and his good and pure Companions who expended their property and their lives to spread the dīn of Islam. By means of them Allah preserved His Sharī‘a enabling it to survive through the passage of time down to the present time. Their hearts were the vessels which contained and preserved the ayats of the Clear Book and the Sunna of the Seal of the Prophets and the Imām of the Messengers. Then those who followed them, and those who followed them in turn, undertook this task. The people who wrote down and recorded this knowledge appeared in the time of the third generation. The greatest of them was the Imām of the Abode of the Hijra, the Imām of the Imāms, Abū ‘Abdullāh Mālik ibn Anas al-Aṣbaḥī al-Madanī. He took it upon himself to serve the Sharī‘a and to preserve the Prophetic Sunna. He did this by relaying it from those notable Tābi‘ūn with whose knowledge he was satisfied and whose words he thought worthy of conveying and by his work he opened the way for all later writers and cleared a path for the compilation of Islamic law. He selected those transmitters who were reliable and rejected those who were weak. His book, al-Muwaṭṭa’, was the greatest book written at that time. It was the most precise in layout and the best of them in its choice of chapters. The other books written at the same time as his book have vanished but Allah had decreed that his book would remain until this time and indeed until the first of the two worlds comes to an end, when Allah will inherit the earth and all those on it. This has come about by the permission of the One Who created the two worlds and the jinn and mankind.

I have been asked by some of our brothers, who desire to disseminate knowledge and to renew the call of Islam, to write an introduction to this edition of the Muwaṭṭa’, which is the first translation of the Muwaṭṭa’ in the English language. I have complied with their request hoping for an abundant reward from Allah since we are well aware of the importance of this book, its blessings, the abundant knowledge to be found in it and its fame, both past and present, among the books written on the science of ḥadīth by the Imāms who are worthy of emulation.

We have divided this introduction into the following topics:

The lineage of Imām Mālik, his family, birth and autobiography

His full name is Mālik ibn Anas ibn Mālik ibn Abī ‘Āmir al-Aṣbaḥī and he was related to Dhū Aṣbaḥ, a sub-tribe of Ḥimyar, one of the Qahtani tribes who held sway over an immense kingdom during the period of the Jāhiliyya. Their kingdom was known as the Tabābi‘a (pl. of Tubba‘). Tubba‘ is mentioned in two places in the Noble Qur’ān.

His father’s grandfather, Abū ‘Āmir, is considered by some to have been one of the Companions and it is mentioned that he went on all the raids with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ except Badr. However, Ibn Ḥajar mentioned in the Iṣāba from adh-Dhahabī that he did not find anyone who mentioned him as being one of the Companions, although he was certainly alive in the time of the Prophet ﷺ. As for Mālik ibn Abī ‘Āmir, the grandfather of the Imām, he was one of the great scholars of the Tābi‘ūn. He was one of those who assisted in the writing out of the noble Muṣḥaf at the time of the Amīr al-Mu’minīn, ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān l.

He had four children: Anas, the father of the Imām, Abū Suhayl whose name was Nāfi‘, ar-Rabī‘, and Uways the grandfather of Ismā‘īl ibn Abī Uways and his brother, ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd. These two (Ismā‘īl and ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd) were among the students of Mālik and among the transmitters of the Ṣaḥīḥ. The four brothers (i.e. Anas, Mālik’s father, and his brothers) transmitted from their father, Mālik ibn Abī ‘Āmir, and others, in turn, transmitted from them. The most famous of them in knowledge and transmission was Abū Suhayl. Imām Mālik related from him as did the compilers of the Ṣaḥīḥ collections. Al-Bukhārī, Muslim, and others transmitted a lot from Mālik ibn Abī ‘Āmir and from his son, Abū Suhayl.

From this it is evident that the Imām was a branch from a good tree whose men were famous for transmitting and serving knowledge. Part of the excellence of this family lies in the fact that it gave birth to Imām Mālik. It is said that this took place in 90 A.H. although there are other opinions. He died when he was 87 according to the soundest report although it is also said that he was 90. Mālik, may Allah have mercy on him, was tall and slightly corpulent. He was bald, with a large head and well-shaped eyes, a fine nose and a full beard. Muṣ‘ab az-Zubayrī said, Mālik was one of the most handsome people in his face and the sweetest of them in eye, the purest of them in whiteness and the most perfect of them in height and the most excellent in body. Another said, Mālik was of medium height. The first is better known.

His quest for knowledge

At the time when Mālik grew up, and during the time immediately preceding him, Madīna al-Munawarra was flourishing with the great scholars who were the direct inheritors of the knowledge of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them. They included "the seven fuqahā’" of Madīna (or the ten) and their companions who took from them. Mālik himself was always eager for knowledge and devoted himself to the assemblies of eminent men of knowledge. He drank and drank again from the sweet, quenching springs of knowledge.

He was instructed in the learning and recitation of the Noble Qur’ān by Imām Nāfi‘ ibn ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān ibn Abī Nu‘aym, the Imām of the reciters of Madīna and one of the seven reciters. Abū ‘Amr ad-Dānī, who included the biography of Imām Mālik in his book Ṭabaqāt al-Qurrā’, considered him to be to be one of the reciters. He mentioned that Imām al-Awzā‘ī related the Qur’ān from Mālik, he being concerned with the meaning of its commentary. In the Muwaṭṭa’, you will find some of his commentaries on certain ayats.

He occupied himself with those who knew ḥadīths, both in transmission and knowledge, and was a master in fiqh, knowing how to derive judgements and join statements together and how to weigh one proof against another. Part of his good fortune was that two of his shaykhs, Muḥammad ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī and ‘Abdullāh ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Amr ibn Ḥazm al-Anṣārī, were instrumental in the beginning of the process of recording the ḥadīths.

Imām Mālik met an extraordinary number of men of knowledge who related from the Companions or from the great Tābi‘ūn. He did not attend the circle of everyone who sat teaching in the mosque of the Prophet ﷺ or leaned against one of its pillars relating ḥadīth to the people from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ but used to take only from those men that he saw possessed taqwā, scrupulousness, good memory, knowledge and understanding, and who clearly knew that they would be accountable for what they said on the Day of Rising. Shu‘ba ibn al-Ḥajjāj, who was one of the great scholars of ḥadīth, said that Mālik was most discriminating, saying about him that: He did not write down from everyone.

Knowing, as we do, that Imām Mālik came from a family of learning and grew up in Madīna al-Munawarra which was the capital of knowledge at that time, especially the knowledge of ḥadīths, and also knowing the strength of Mālik’s predisposition for retention, understanding and taqwā and his perseverance and steadfastness in the face of all the obstacles he met in the path of knowledge, it is hardly surprising to discover that he graduated at a very young age. Reliable transmitters relate that he sat to give fatwā when he was seventeen years old. This was not from the impetuosity of youth or because of love of appearance but only after seventy Imāms had testified that he was worthy to give fatwā and teach. Such people would only testify when it was absolutely correct to do so. Indeed, the testimony of any two of them would have been sufficient.

People’s praise of him and their testimony that he was the greatest of the Imāms in knowledge

The notable scholars at the time of Mālik and those who came after him all agree about his pre-eminent worth and consider him to be a pillar of knowledge and one of its firm bulwarks, celebrated for his taqwā, his retentive memory, his reliability in transmission, and his ability in giving fatwās. He was well known for his turning towards true knowledge and away from what did not concern him, and for cutting himself off from the caliphs and amirs who would liberally bestow money on those men of knowledge who attached themselves to them. He had overwhelming respect for the ḥadīths of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and this was considered enough by the notable men of ḥadīth and fuqahā’ who related from him and used his transmission as a proof, putting it ahead of the transmission of many of his peers. They followed him in declaring different transmitters reliable or unreliable.

There is no disagreement on the fact that al-Layth, al-Awzā‘ī, the two Sufyāns, Ibn al-Mubārak, Shu‘ba ibn al-Ḥajjāj, ‘Abd ar-Razzāq and other great scholars like them transmitted from Mālik. Imām ash-Shāfi‘ī was one of his most prominent pupils as was Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, the companion of Abū Ḥanīfa. Qāḍī Abū Yūsuf, who met and spoke with him, also related from him via an intermediary. It is also true that Abū Ḥanīfa related from him as did a group of his shaykhs, including Muḥammad ibn Shihāb az-Zuhrī, Rabi‘a ibn Abī ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān, Abū al-Aswad Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd ar-Raḥmān known as the ‘orphan of ‘Urwa’, Yaḥyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Anṣārī, Ayyūb as-Sakhtiyānī and others. There were none in their time greater than these men. Some of them were fuqahā’ and others were ḥadīth relaters. Most of them were both.

Those who came after them all related from Mālik except for those who were prevented from doing so by circumstances. Why indeed should they not relate from him? Was not the Imām someone who combined justice, precision, examination, and criticism in his evaluation of men and avoided transmission from the weak? There is only one man he related from who is considered weak. He was ‘Abd al-Karīm ibn Abī al-Makhāriq al-Baṣrī, and this only happened because he was not one of the people of Mālik’s own land and Mālik was deceived by his scrupulousness and the way he performed hajj.

If you have any doubts about what we have said, then look in any of the books of ḥadīths and you will find the name of Mālik constantly repeated by the tongues and pens of the transmitters. Enough for us is the frequent repetition of his name in the Ṣaḥīḥ volumes of al-Bukhārī and Muslim. The Kitāb al-Umm of Imām ash-Shāfi‘ī and his Kitāb ar-Risāla both begin with the words, Mālik reported to us. When the Musnad of ash-Shāfi‘ī was compiled, it also began with the same words.

We find that Ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī began his great Sunan with the ḥadīth Its water is pure which is from the transmission of ash-Shāfi‘ī from Mālik and from the transmission of Abū Dāwūd from Mālik. He mentioned that ash-Shāfi‘ī said, "There is someone in the isnād whom I do not know. Then al-Bayhaqī said at the end of it, However, that which establishes the soundness of its isnād was the reliability Mālik gave it in the Muwaṭṭa’." These words indicate the position of Mālik and that the people of his time and those after them, who were not partisan, acknowledged his pre-eminence in the preservation of ḥadīth, in his ability to distinguish the sound from the weak, and in his knowledge of the science of men and their states, whether they were reliable or unreliable.

Those early Imāms were not content to remain silent about him, but spoke out using their tongues and their pens, clearly stating his eminence and the extent of his fame. In Iṣ‘āf al-mubaṭṭa bi-rijāl al-Muwaṭṭa’, Jalāl ad-Dīn as-Suyūṭī said that Bishr ibn ‘Umar az-Zahrānī said that he asked Mālik about a man and he said, Do you see him in my books? He replied, No. Mālik said, If he had been reliable, you would have seen him in my books. Ibn al-Madīnī said, "I never knew Mālik to reject a man unless there was something wrong about his ḥadīths. Ibn al-Madīnī also said, When Mālik brings you a ḥadīth from someone from Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyib, I prefer that to Sufyān from someone from Ibrāhīm. Mālik only relates from people who are reliable. Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn said, All of those from whom Mālik ibn Anas relates are reliable except for ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Baṣrī Abū Umayya."

Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ said, I do not know of anyone who was more careful in his selection of men and scholars than Mālik. I do not know of anyone who has related anything wrong about anyone among those he chose. He related from people none of whom are rejected. An-Nasā’ī said, The trustees of Allah over the knowledge of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were Shu‘ba ibn al-Ḥajjāj, Mālik ibn Anas and Yaḥyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qaṭṭān. He said, Ath-Thawrī was an Imām, but he related from weak men. It was the same with Ibn al-Mubārak. Then he indicated the pre-eminence of Mālik over Shu‘ba and Yaḥyā ibn Sa‘īd al-Qaṭṭān. He said, "There are none among the Tābi‘ūn trusted in ḥadīths more than these three, and none who had fewer weak transmissions."

Ismā‘īl ibn Abī Uways said, "I heard my uncle, Mālik, say, ‘This knowledge is a dīn, so look to those from whom you take your dīn. I met seventy men who said, The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said by these pillars... and I did not take anything from them. Yet if any one of them were to be trusted with the treasury, he would have been trustworthy. This is because they were not men of this business. But when Ibn Shihāb came to us, we crowded around his door. Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn said from Sufyān ibn ‘Uyayna, Who are we in comparison to Mālik? We merely follow in the tracks of Mālik. We looked to see if Mālik took from a shaykh. If not we left him.

Ashhab said that Mālik was asked, "Should one take from someone who does not memorise, but is reliable and accurate in writing? Can ḥadīths be taken from such a man? Mālik replied, I fear that he might add to his books at night. Al-Athrim said, I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about ‘Amr ibn Abī ‘Amr, the client of al-Muṭṭalib, and he said, ‘His transmission is excellent in my opinion. Mālik related from him.’ Abū Sa‘īd ibn al-A‘rābī said, If Mālik related from a man, Yaḥyā ibn Ma‘īn declared him reliable. More than one person was asked and said, ‘He is reliable. Mālik related from him.’"

Qarād Abū Nūḥ said, Mālik mentioned something and was asked, ‘Who related it to you?’ He said. ‘We did not use to sit with fools.’ ‘Abdullāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, "I heard my father mentioning this and he said, ‘There is no statement in the world more noble than this regarding the virtues of scholars - Mālik ibn Anas mentioned that he did not sit with fools. This statement is not valid from anyone else except Mālik.’

In Tadhkira al-Ḥuffāẓ, adh-Dhahabī mentioned some of people’s praise of him, including the famous statement of ash-Shāfi‘ī, "When the ‘ulamā’ are mentioned, Mālik is the star. Aḥmad ibn al-Khalīl said that he heard Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm (i.e. Ibn Rahwayh) say, When ath-Thawrī, Mālik and al-Awzā‘ī agree on a matter, it is sunna, even if there is no text on it."

After mentioning much of the praise of the people of knowledge for him, adh-Dhahabī said, "I put Mālik’s biography on its own in a section in my Tārīkh al-Kabīr. It is agreed that Mālik had virtues which are not known to have been combined in anyone else. The first of them was the length of his life and extent of his transmission. The second was his piercing mind. The third was the agreement of the Imāms that he is a proof, sound in transmission. The fourth is that they agree on his dīn, justice and following of the sunna. The fifth is his pre-eminence in fiqh, fatwā and the soundness of his foundations."

In Taqrīb at-Tahdhīb, Ibn Ḥajar says, "Mālik ibn Anas ibn Mālik ibn Abī ‘Āmir al-Aṣbaḥī, Abū ‘Abdullāh, al-Madanī, the faqīh, the Imām of the Abode of the Hijra, the chief of those who have taqwā and the greatest of those who are confirmed, of whom al-Bukhārī said, ‘The soundest isnāds of all are those of Mālik from Nāfi‘ from Ibn ‘Umar.’"

This is just a brief collection of a few of the things that have been said about him by scholars who do not follow the school of Mālik. Their words in no way disagree with anything that has been written by the Mālikī scholars who follow him. The reader will be able to find a lot of what they have said in the books of Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, the Tartīb al-Madārik of Qāḍī Abū al-Faḍl ‘Iyāḍ, and ad-Dībāj al-Mudhahhab by Burhān ad-Dīn ibn Farḥūn, and other books of earlier and later writers.

Among the Mālikīs and others Imām Mālik is known as the Imām of the Imāms. It is easy to see why this is so. We know that those Imāms whose schools, fatwās and transmissions are followed were his students, either directly or via an intermediary. Imām ash-Shāfi‘ī was one of Imām Mālik’s most famous students and Imām Aḥmad was one of the most famous students of ash-Shāfi‘ī. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was one of the transmitters of the Muwaṭṭa’. Abū Yūsuf also related it from Mālik via an intermediary. One scholar confirmed that Imām Abū Ḥanīfa also related from him, and no objection was made to him for stating that. Some shaykhs like Ibn Shihāb and ar-Rabī‘a related from Mālik as we have already mentioned. We also mentioned that al-Layth, al-Awzā‘ī, the two Sufyāns and Ibn al-Mubārak related from him, and there is no disagreement about that. Scholars of ḥadīths who are famous for writing in that field, or from whom others have transmitted, transmitted from him. We say that today there is no scholar of the Islamic Sharī‘a who is not a student of Mālik. That is because, first of all, it is not valid to count someone as a scholar of the Sharī‘a if he is ignorant of the Muwaṭṭa’, the Six Books, the Musnad of Aḥmad and the rest of the books which are consulted in ḥadīths. All of those who relate these books or some of them must relate from Mālik. Therefore they must respect this Imām from whom they relate and acknowledge his position and ask for mercy on him.

One of the extraordinary things about the people who came to Mālik for transmission is that there was not a single small region subject to the rule of Islam in his time but that a group of their noble sons set out to visit him. The number of those whose name was Muḥammad who related from him is more than a hundred. The number of those called ‘Abdullāh is about sixty, of those called Yaḥyā about forty, and of those called Sa‘īd more than twenty. If you were to imagine his circle of study, you would find Andalusians, Khorasanis, Syrians, Moroccans, Egyptians, Iraqis, Yemenis, and others all sitting in a circle around him with their different languages, colours, and clothing. It must have been an amazing sight. We do not believe that such a group has ever been gathered together at the feet of a scholar before or after him, in Madīna or elsewhere.

The shaykhs from whom he transmitted

It is known that Imām Mālik grew up in Madīna al-Munawwara and that those who sought knowledge travelled there from all the regions of Islam because Madīna had an unrivalled number of scholars compared with the rest of the Muslim world. In Madīna Mālik met all the great men who had a major part in the transmission of ḥadīths and the sayings of the Companions and the great Tābi‘ūn. He found such a wealth of knowledge there that he did not need to travel anywhere else. He related from nine hundred shaykhs or more and with his own hand wrote down a hundred thousand ḥadīths. His book, the Muwaṭṭa’, which we are discussing, contains eighty-four men of the Tābi‘ūn, all of whom were people of Madīna except for six. These six were Abū az-Zubayr from Makka, Ḥamīd aṭ-Ṭawīl and Ayyūb as-Sakhtiyānī from Basra, ‘Aṭā’ ibn Abī Muslim from Khorasan, ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Jazarī from Jazira (Mesopotamia) in northern Iraq, and Ibrāhīm ibn Abī ‘Abla from Syria. Mālik is famous for the fact that he did not transmit from a number of scholars whom he met, even though they were people of dīn and correct action, because he thought that they did not transmit properly.

Al-Ghāfiqī said that the number of his shaykhs whom he named (i.e. in the Muwaṭṭa’) was ninety-five.

The transmitters who transmitted from him

In the introduction to Tanwīr al-Ḥawālik, as-Suyūṭī says that so many people related from him that no other Imām is known to have had a transmission like his. He says that Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdadī devoted a book to those who transmitted from Mālik and it included 993 men. Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ mentioned that he wrote a book on those who transmitted from Mālik in which he enumerated over 1300 men. As-Suyūṭī said that he had enumerated the names of all of them in his Great Commentary. The transmitters of al-Muwaṭṭa’ alone are of a number which it is difficult to count.

Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ mentioned that the number of transmissions which he read or came across in the transmissions of his shaykhs reached twenty, and some of them mention thirty. Another thing that indicates the great number of the transmitters of the Muwaṭṭa’ is that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said, "I heard the Muwaṭṭa’ from about ten of the companions of Mālik who had mentioned it but I revised it with ash-Shāfi‘ī because I found him to be the most correct of them." Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥabīb-Allāh ibn Māyābā ash-Shinqīṭī said in Iḍā’a al-Ḥālik that Ibn Nāṣir ad-Dīn ad-Dimashqī wrote a book about the transmitters of the Muwaṭṭa’ and he mentioned that there were seventy-nine. Among those who transmitted the Muwaṭṭa’ from Mālik were his son, Yaḥyā, and his daughter, Fāṭima.

The position of the Muwaṭṭa’ and people’s concern for it

In the introduction to Tanwīr al-Ḥawālik, as-Suyūṭī said that ash-Shāfi‘ī said, After the Book of Allah, there is no book on the face of the earth sounder than the book of Mālik. In another statement he said, No book has been placed on the earth closer to the Qur’ān than the book of Mālik. In a third he said, "After the Book of Allah, there is no book more useful than the Muwaṭṭa’. ‘Alā’ ad-Dīn Maghlaṭāy al-Ḥanafī said, The first person to compile the ṣaḥīḥ was Mālik."

Ibn Ḥajar said, "The book of Mālik is sound by all the criteria that are demanded as proofs in the mursal, munqaṭi‘ and other types of transmission. Then as-Suyūṭī followed what Ibn Ḥajar said here and said, The mursal ḥadīths in it are a proof with him (ash-Shāfi‘ī) as well because the mursal is a proof with us when it is properly supported. Every mursal report in the Muwaṭṭa’ has one or more supports as will be made clear in this commentary (i.e. Tanwīr al-Ḥawālik). It is absolutely correct to say that the Muwaṭṭa’ is sound (ṣaḥīḥ) without exception."

Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr collected together all the mursal, munqaṭi‘ and mu‘ḍal ḥadīths in the Muwaṭṭa’ and said that the total number of ḥadīths in the Muwaṭṭa’ which do not have an isnād are sixty-one. He stated that he found the isnāds of all of them in other sources with the exception of four ḥadīths. The erudite scholar of ḥadīth, Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥabīb-Allāh ibn Māyābā ash-Shinqīṭī says in Iḍā’a al-Ḥālik that he had found witnesses for these four ḥadīths and he then mentioned these witnesses. He said, "Some of the people of knowledge made