Al-Imām Mālik رحمه الله; the Author of Muwaṭṭa‘

His name and lineage:

Mālik ibn Anas ibn Mālik ibn Abū ʿĀmir ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Ghaymān ibn Khathīl ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith – Dhū Aṣbaḥ –  ibn ʿAwf ibn Mālik ibn Zayd ibn Shaddād ibn Zurʿah; who was one of the allies of ʿUthmān; the brother of Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydullāh; one of the ten companions who were promise Jannah.

His birth:

There is differences of opinions with regards to his birth. Some said it was in the year 90AH. While others say 94AH, 95AH and 96AH. However, majority of historians agree that his birth was in the year 93AH in al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah. Imām al-Dhahabī said: ‘This is the most accurate.’

His teachers:

Imām Mālik رحمه الله truly lived in a gold mine of knowledge and jurisprudence. Imām al-Dhahabī said: ‘He sought knowledge at a tender age and acquired knowledge from Nāfiʿ, Saʿīd al-Maqburī, Ibn Munkadir, al-Zuhrī, ʿAbdullāh ibn Dīnār, Ayyū al-Sakhtiyānī, Rabīʿah al-Ra’y, Wahb ibn Kaysān, Abū Ziyād and others.’

Scholars’ praises towards him:

There is an innumerable amount of his praises by scholars, among them is the glad tidings of the Messenger ﷺ wherein he said: ‘The time is approaching when people would beat the hearts of camels (hastily travelling on them) in search of knowledge and they would not find anyone more knowledgeable than the scholar of Madīnah.’^[1]رواه ابن حبان في صحيحه والحاكم في المستدرك وصححه وكذا رواه الترمذي في جامعه وحسنه وغيرهم.

Ibn ʿUyaynah رحمه الله said: ‘Mālik is the scholar of al-Ḥijāz and he is the authority of their time.’

Al-Shāfiʿī رحمه الله said: ‘When scholars are mentioned, Mālik is the star.’

Ibn Wahb رحمه الله said: ‘Had I not met Mālik, I would’ve lost my way.’

Ibn Mahdī رحمه الله said: I have not seen anyone more intelligent than Mālik and no one more conscious of Allāh ﷻ.’

His demise:

He رحمه الله passed away in the year 179AH at the age of 89 and was buried in al-Baqīʿ in Madīnah.

The meaning of al-Muwaṭṭa’

Linguistically, muwaṭṭa’ means something that is made easy and ready.

According to the terminology of the muḥaddithūn, it is a book which is arranged according to juristic chapters, containing marfūʿ¹Narrations attributed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, mawqūf²Narrations attributed to the companions رضي الله عنهم (ṣaḥābah)., and maqṭūʿ³Narrations attributed to the successors رحمهم الله (tābiʿūn). narrations.

The reason behind naming this type of work ‘Muwaṭṭa’ is because the author makes it easy and prepares it for the reader.

It has been said: ‘The reason given by Imām Mālik for naming his work ‘Muwaṭṭa’’ is that he presented his book to 70 jurists of Madīnah and they all agreed with him.’ This reasoning can be understood properly through his Arabic statement.^[2]عرضت كتابي هذا على سبعين فقيها من فقهاء المدينة، كلهم واطأني عليه، فسميته الموطأ. تنوير الحوالك على موطأ … المزيد

Imām Mālik رحمه الله compiled his book based on chapters and sought out strong narrations from the aḥādīth of Ahl al-Ḥijāz. He didn’t restrict himself to only marfūʿ aḥādīth, rather he mentioned statements of the ṣaḥābah and tābiʿūn. He based his book upon approximately 100,000 which he had memorised. He scrutinised and polished his work such that it became what it is today.

His work contains 520 marfūʿ aḥādīth, 3,000 statements of the ṣaḥābah and tābiʿūn and numerous sayings and rhetorical statements of Imām Mālik himself.^[3]كما ذكره أبو عمرو الداني في الرسالة المستطرفة. The style of his book is that he mentioned the topic of a chapter and mentioned some aḥādīth attributed to the Prophet ﷺ.

Then, he mentioned that which he knew from the statements of the Prophet ﷺ, the ṣaḥābah and tābiʿūn. He would often mention his fiqh in the topics thereafter. For example, he mentioned the chapter ‘Kitāb al-Jumuʿah’ (the chapter of the Friday prayer), thereafter he mentioned ‘Bāb mā jā’a fī al-inṣāt yawm al-Jumuʿah wa al-imām yakhṭub’ (the topic of remaining silent on Friday when the imām is rendering his sermon.).

Narrators of al-Muwaṭṭa’ during his era

With regards to the era of Imām Mālik رحمه الله and those immediately after him, we find that the narrators of al-Muwaṭṭa’ on the authority of Imām Mālik himself spread from East Baghlan (a province of Afghanistan) to Lisbon (the capital of Portugal) and from Rome and the Arabian Peninsula to South Yemen.

The countries in which narrators of al-Muwaṭṭa’ were located are:

• In Baghlan (Afghanistan): Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd
• In Nishapur (Iran): Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Tamīmī
• In al-Rai (Iran): ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Yaḥyā al-Hāshimī
• In Baghdad (Iraq): Muṣʿab ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Zubayrī and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī
• In Kufah (Iraq): Abū Nuʿaym al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn
• In Baṣrah (Iraq): ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīḍ al-Qaṭṭān, ʿAbdullāh ibn Maslamah al-Qaʿnabī and Abū al-Walīd ibn ʿAbd al-Malik al-Ṭayālisī
• In al-Hadithah (Saudi Arabia): Suwayd ibn Saʿīd
• In Mosul (Iraq): Isḥāq ibn Mūsā
• In Idlib (Syria): Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr ibn Ismāʿil
• In Tarsus (Turkey): Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥunaynī
• In Adana (Turkey): Isḥāq ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ
• In Damascus: al-Walīd ibn Muslim, Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥaẓī and ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Qays al-Sulamī
• In Sur (Oman): Muḥammad ibn al-Mubārak
• In Byblos (Lebanon): ʿUbayd ibn Ḥibbān
• In Ramla (Palestine): Ayyūb ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Salamah
• In Ayla (Jordan): Khālid ibn Nizār
• In Madinah (Saudi Arabia): Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā, Saʿīd ibn Dāwūd al-Zubayrī and Abū Muṣʿab Aḥmad ibn Abū Bakr al-Zuhrī
• In Makkāh (Saudi Arabia): Yaḥyā ibn Qazaʿah
• In Sana’a (Yemen): Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Sharwas
• In Zabid (Yemen): Abū Qurrah Mūsā ibn Ṭāriq
• In Egypt: ʿAbdullāh ibn Wahb, Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī and ʿAbdullāh ibn Yazīd al-Jumaḥī al-Iskandarī
• In Tennis (Egypt): ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf al-Dimishqī
• In Tripoli (Libya): Muḥammad ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Ḥaḍramī
• In Kairouan (Tunisia): Khalad ibn Jarīr and Asad ibn al-Furāt
• In Tunisia: ʿAlī ibn Ziyād
• In Cordoba (Spain): Ziyād ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qurṭubī and Yaḥyā ibn Muḍar
• In Zaragoza (Spain): Ḥassān and Ḥafṣ ibnā ʿAbd al-Salām
• In Toledo (Spain): Saʿīd ibn ʿAbdūs al- Umawī and ʿAbd al-Raḥman ibn Hind
• In Lisbon (Portugal): ʿAbd al-Raḥman ibn ʿUbaydullāh al-Ushbūnī

As you can see, Muwaṭṭa’ Imām Malik has been spread far and wide. No other book has been narrated such as this. And a number of these narrations have been narrated during the lifetime of Imām Mālik رحهمهم الله أجمعين.

The cause for various transmissions of the Muwaṭṭa’

The cause for various transmissions “riwāyah” of the Muwaṭṭa’ can be acknowledged if one understands that Imām Mālik did not produce the Muwaṭṭa’ in one sitting. He underwent serious editorial changes over the course of forty years which are reflected in various transmissions that have survived today. The Muwaṭṭa’ in its final form is the result of lifetime spent by Imām Mālik.

Imām Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in his al-Tamhīd says:

قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو طَاهِرٍ قَالَ حَدَّثَنَا صَفْوَانُ عَنْ عُمَرَ بْنِ عَبْدِ الْوَاحِد صَاحِبِ الْأَوْزَاعِيِّ قال عَرَضْنَا عَلَى مَالِك الموطا فِي أَرْبَعِينَ يَوْمًا فَقَالَ كِتَابٌ أَلَّفْتُهُ فِي أَرْبَعِينَ سَنَةً أَخَذْتـُمُوهُ فِي أَرْبَعِينَ يَوْمًا قَلَّمَا تَفْقَهُونَ فِيهِ.^[4]التمهيد لما في الموطأ من المعاني والمسانيد. دار الكتب العلمية ص 60

ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid – the companion of al-Awzaʿī – said: We displayed al-Muwaṭṭa’ before Mālik in forty days. He [Mālik] said: “A book which I authored within forty years, you took in forty days. Little indeed is what you consider in it!”

Imām al-Daraquṭnī (350AH) compiled a book mentioning the differences found in the transmissions of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ entitled Aḥadīth al-Muwaṭṭa’ wa ittifāq al-ruwāt ʿan mālik wa ikhtilafuhum fihā ziyādatan wa naqṣan (‘The āḥadīth of al-Muwaṭṭa: The Agreement of Narrators from Mālik and Their Differences in Terms of Addition and Omission’).

Transmissions of the Muwaṭṭa‘

The amount of students who transmitted the entirety of al-Muwaṭṭa’ exceed over 90 as mentioned by Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and others.

The most important of them are listed below:

• Imām Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Laythī (d. 234AH)

This transmission has been relied upon by numerous scholars. It has been published many times but the most famous edition – though it contains mistakes – is the one which Muḥammad Fu’ād ʿAbd al-Bāqī edited and published in Muṣṭafā al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī Press – an Egyptian publishing house – in the year 1940. Perhaps the best of its editions is the second Moroccan edition by Majlis al-ʿIlmī al-Aʿlā in the year 2019.

• Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (d. 189AH)

This transmission is usually referred as “Muwaṭṭa’ Muḥammad” (i.e., Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī), rather than as his transmission of Imām Mālik’s Muwaṭṭa’. This transmission which differs remarkably from the others has also been published several times. The most famous of its editions – though it contains mistakes – is the one which Shaykh ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ʿAbd al-Laṭīf edited and published in the publishing house Lajnah Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-Islāmī, Cairo in the year 1962. Then, Shaykh Dr. Ṣafwān Dāwūdī published an excellent edition in Dar al-Qalam, Damascus in the year 2020.

• Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Bukayr (d. 231).

This transmission has been edited and published by Dr. Bashshār ʿAwwād and Muḥammad ʿAī al-Azharī at Dar al-Gharb al-Islāmī in the year 2020. They relied upon the manuscript of the University of Istanbul (Jāmiʿah Isṭanbūl). Shaykh Salmān al-Ṣamadī also edited the transmission and relied upon the manuscript of al-Fātiḥ – al-Khālisah li riwāyah al-Ghazzī ʿan Ibn Bukayr – which is the most thorough and prevalent. This will be published in Dar al-Ḥadīth al-Kittāniyah inshā’Allāh.

• ʿAlī ibn Ziyād (d. 183).

This is one of the earliest known transmissions, having been transmitted from Imām Mālik before 150AH. An early parchment fragment of this transmission has been edited and published by Shaykh Muḥammad al-Shādhilī al-Nayfur along with an excellent introduction. It was published in Dār al-Tūnisiyyah in the year 1978, then again in Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī in the year 1980.

• Al-Qaʿnabī (d. 221).

This transmission has been edited and published by ʿAbd al-Ḥafīẓ Manṣūr in Dar al-Tūnisiyyah in the year 1972. Then again in Dār al-Shurūq in Kuwait in the year 1985. ʿAbd al-Majīd Turkī also edited and published it in Dar al-Gharb al-Islāmī in the year 1999. However, both of these editions are incomplete. An more complete edition was published in Jamʿiyyah Dār al-Birr in Dubai with the edits of Shaykh ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad Āl ʿAbbās in the year 2020. Shaykh Hishām Miṣbāḥ also edited it using the manuscript of Jār Allāh. It will soon be published in Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Kittāniyyah.

• Abū Musʿab al-Zuhrī (d. 242).

Abū Musʿab is said to have been the last to have related the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Imām Mālik and his transmission is very close to that of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā. It has been edited and published by Dr. Bashshār ʿAwwād and Maḥmūd Muḥammad Khalīl in Mu’asssah al-Riṣalah in Beirut in the year 1992. Then, it was published again with revisions made by a number of scholars at Dār al-Ta’ṣīl in Riyadh in the year 2016, along with the transmission of Yaḥya al-Laythī.

• Imām Suwayd al-Ḥadathānī (d. 240).

This transmission continued to be narrated in the East even till later centuries more specifically in Syria and Egypt. However, it was not transmitted in the west. Various incomplete manuscripts of this transmission can be found today. It was published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islamī and edited by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Majīd Turkī using three manuscripts. Idārah al-Awqāf al-Sunniyyah in Bahrain also published this transmission using the manuscripts from the Ẓāhiriyyah library in Damascus. This transmission is close to that of Imam Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, but not as close to it as those of al-Qaʿnabi and Abū Muʿsab, there being greater divergence of wording and also a seemingly omission of several reports contained in the other three.

• Imām ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Qāsim ʿUtaqī (d. 191).

Imām Khalīlī in al-Irshād mentions that Ibn Qāsim was the first person to narrate the Muwaṭṭa’ in Egypt. Additionally, his transmission was from the early edition of the Muwaṭṭa. Imām al-Qābisī summarised it by restricting to only the musnad ahādīth from this transmission, thereby becoming more famous than the original. It has been published under the title Muwaṭṭa’ al-Imām Mālik ibn Anas Riwāyah Ibn al-Qāsim wa Talkhiṣ al-Qābisī. The original transmission continued to be narrated in West and East especially in Hijaz till the 9th century. Fragments of this transmission exist in a manuscript form in Kairouan, Tunisia. Dar al-Bashā’ir al-Islāmiyyah has published a large part of the section on business transactions in Beirut in the year 2012.

Chains (Asānīd) to some Transmissions (Riwāyāṭ)

A list of ten scholars with whom our beloved Shaykh Muḥammad Abū Bakr Daniel; the founder of Cordoba Academy has been honoured to have completed the Muwaṭṭa’ of Imām Mālik رحمه الله with:

1. Muḥammad Ibrāhīm al-Miyānijī al-Mīwātī
2. Muḥammad Isrā’īl al-Nadwī
3. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kittānī
4. Ẓahīr al-Dīn al-Mubārakpūrī
5. Faḍl al-Raḥmān al-Biḥārī
6. Muḥammad Idrīs al-Kittānī
7. Thanā ‘Allāh Khān al-Lāhūrī
8. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Shujabādī
9. ʿAbd al-Wakīl al-Hāshimī
10. Musayd ibn al-Bashīr al-Ḥussaynī

He took half of the work or more from the scholars listed below:

1. Bahiyyah al-Miknisiyyah
   
2. Aḥmad ʿAli al-Surtī (half)
   
3. Aḥmad Ḥasan Khān al-Tūnkī (most)
   
4. Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥujūjī (most)
   
5. Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Baqqālī (most)

Footnotes

• 1
  Narrations attributed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ
• 2
  Narrations attributed to the companions رضي الله عنهم (ṣaḥābah).
• 3
  Narrations attributed to the successors رحمهم الله (tābiʿūn).