''Al-Muwaṭṭaʾ'' (, 'the approved') or ''Muwatta Imam Malik'' () of

Imam Malik Malik ibn Anas (; –795) also known as Imam Malik was an Arab Islamic scholar and traditionalist who is the eponym of the Maliki school, one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence in Sunni Islam.Schacht, J., "Mālik b. Anas", in: ''En ...

(711–795) written in the 8th-century, is one of the earliest collections of

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

texts comprising the subjects of

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

, compiled by the

Imam Imam (; , '; : , ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a prayer leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Salah, Islamic prayers, serve as community leaders, ...

Malik ibn Anas Malik ibn Anas (; –795) also known as Imam Malik was an Arab Islamic scholar and traditionalist who is the eponym of the Maliki school, one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence in Sunni Islam.Schacht, J., "Mālik b. Anas", in: ''E ...

. It is also the earliest extant example of a musannaf, referring to a genre of hadith compilation which arranges hadith topically. Malik's best-known work, ''Al-Muwatta'' was the first legal work to incorporate and combine hadith and

fiqh ''Fiqh'' (; ) is the term for Islamic jurisprudence.Fiqh
Encyclopædia Britannica ''Fiqh'' is of ...

Description

It is considered to be from the earliest extant collections of hadith that form the basis of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

alongside the

Qur'an The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...

."The Hadith for Beginners", Dr. Muhammad Zubayr Siddiqi, 1961 (2006 reprint), Goodword Books It includes reliable hadith from the people of the

Hijaz Hejaz is a historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al-Bahah. It is thus known as the "Western Province ...

, as well as sayings of the companions, the followers and also those who came after them. The book covers rituals, rites, customs, traditions,

norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

s and laws of the time of the

Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam () are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers (; sing. , ), those who transmit divine revelation, mos ...

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

. It is reported that Imam Malik selected for inclusion into the Muwatta just over 1900 narrations, from the 100,000 narrations he had available to him.As-Suyuti in Tanwir al-Hawalik as quoted in Ash-Shaybani, M. (2004). The Muwatta of Imam Muhammad (p. 11). Turath Publishing.

History

Due to increase in juristic differences, the

Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

of the time, Abū Ja‘far al-Manṣūr, requested Imām Mālik to produce a standard book that could be promulgated as law in the country. The Imam refused this in 148 AH (765/766 CE), but when the Caliph again came to the

Ḥijāz Hejaz is a historical region of the Arabian Peninsula that includes the majority of the western region of Saudi Arabia, covering the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif and Al-Bahah. It is thus known as the "Western Province" ...

in 163 AH (779/780 CE), he was more forceful and said:

“O Abū ‘Abd Allāh, take up the reign of the discipline of fiqh in your hands. Compile your understanding of every issue in different chapters for a systematic book free from the harshness of ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Umar, concessions and accommodations of ‘Abd Allāh b. ‘Abbās and unique views of ‘Abd Allāh b. Mas‘ūd. Your work should exemplify the following principle of the Prophet: “The best issues are those which are balanced.” It should be a compendium of the agreed upon views of the Companions and the elder imāms on the religious and legal issues. Once you have compiled such a work then we would be able to unite the Muslims in following the single fiqh worked by you. We would then promulgate it in the entire Muslim state. We would order that no body acts contrary to it.”

Historical reports attest that another ‘Abbāsī caliph

Harun al-Rashid Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ar-Rāshīd (), or simply Hārūn ibn al-Mahdī (; or 766 – 24 March 809), famously known as Hārūn al-Rāshīd (), was the fifth Abbasid caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from September 786 unti ...

too expressed similar wishes before Imām Mālik who remained unmoved. He, however, compiled Muwaṭṭa’, keeping before himself the target of removing the juristic differences between the scholars.

Authenticity

The work was composed over a forty-year period. According to Abu Hatim al-Razi it was called 'Muwatta' from the Arabic ("watta'a") meaning easy for the people. Malik said, "I showed this book of mine to seventy of the fuqaha of

Madinah Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

and all of them agreed with me ("wata'a") about it and so I called it the Muwatta. The Muslim Jurist,

Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i Al-Shafi'i (; ;767–820 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, muhaddith, traditionist, theologian, ascetic, and eponym of the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. He is known to be the first to write a book upon the principles of Isl ...

also called Imam Al Shafi`i famously said, "There is not on the face of the earth a book – after the Book of

Allah Allah ( ; , ) is an Arabic term for God, specifically the God in Abrahamic religions, God of Abraham. Outside of the Middle East, it is principally associated with God in Islam, Islam (in which it is also considered the proper name), althoug ...

– which is more authentic than the book of Malik." Over one thousand disciples of Malik have transmitted this work from him throughout his life, which resulted in differences in the text. There are many editions of the work - with sixteen being known today - of which the most famous is the one transmitted by

Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi Abu Muhammad Yahya ibn Yahya ibn Kathir ibn Wislasen ibn Shammal ibn Mangaya al-Laythi () (born: 769 / died: 848), better known as Yahya ibn Yahya, was a prominent Andalusian Muslim scholar. He was responsible for spreading the Maliki school of ...

, who studied and received the Muwatta in the last year of Malik's life. Al-Laythi's

recension Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author. The term is derived from the Latin ("review, analysis"). In textual criticism (as is the ...

is considered the 'vulgate' or standard version in the Maliki school of law. The recension of the Muwatta produced by

Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Zuhri Abū Muṣʿab Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥārith al-Zuhri (), 767–856 CE / 150–242 AH, was a Muslim scholar and judge () who was a student of Malik ibn Anas.. He was born and lived in Medina, where he wrote a work called ...

is approximately five to ten percent larger than the recension of al-Laythi.

Composition of al-Muwatta

Al-Muwatta consists of approximately 1,720 hadith divided amongst the following

hadith terminology Hadith terminology () is the body of terminology in Islam which specifies the acceptability of the sayings (''hadith'') attributed to the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad by other early Islamic figures of significance such as the compa ...

as follows: * 600 '' marfu`'' hadith * 613 '' mawquf'' hadith * 285 ''maqtu hadith * 222 '' mursal'' hadiths

Distinguishing characteristics

Amin Ahsan Islahi has listed several distinguishing characteristics of the Muwatta:''Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Hadith'',

Amin Ahsan Islahi Amin Ahsan Islahi (; 1904 – 15 December 1997), was a Pakistani Islamic scholar best known for his Urdu exegesis of the Quran, '' Tadabbur-i-Quran'' ("Pondering on the Quran"), which he based on Hamiduddin Farahi's (1863 – 1930), id ...

# Its briefness (in size) yet comprehensiveness (in coverage). # Malik did not accept any marfū‘ hadīth (ascribed to the Prophet) if it was not verbatim transmission of the words of the Muslim prophet Muhammad (he even gave consideration to letters, prepositions and particles like wāw, tā, bā etc. in them). # No acceptance of Hadith from any innovator - this is a stricter standard than many other ''

muhaddithun Hadith studies is the academic study of hadith, a literature typically thought in Islamic religion to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval of the Muhammad as transmitted through chains of narrators. A major area of intere ...

''. # Highly literary form of the classical Arabic. This helps readers develop the ability to understand the language of the prophetic traditions.

Commentaries on Al-Muwatta

Due to the importance of the Al-Muwatta to

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s it has often been accompanied by commentaries, mostly but not exclusively by followers of the

Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...

school. It's said that on the version transmitted by Yahya al-Laithi alone there are around a hundred commentaries. *'' Al Tamhid'' by

Yusuf ibn abd al-Barr Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Abū ʿUmar al-Namarī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī al-Mālikī, commonly known as Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr ()

is organized according to the

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

s which Malik narrates from, and includes extensive biographical information about each narrator in the chain. *''al-Istidhkar'', also by Ibn Abd al-Barr is more of a legal

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...

on the hadith contained in the book than a critical hadith study, as was the case with the former. It is said that the Istidhkar was written after the Tamhid, as Ibn Abd al Barr himself alludes to in the introduction. However, through close examination it is apparent that the author made revisions to both after their completion due to the cross referencing found in both. *''Kitab al-Qabas fi Sharh Muwatta Malik ibn Anas '' by

Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi (; –1148) was a Muslim judge and scholar of Maliki law from al-Andalus. Like Al-Mu'tamid ibn Abbad, Ibn al-Arabi was forced to migrate to Morocco during the reign of the Almoravids. It is reported that he was a student o ...

. It is considered one of the best commentaries done on Muwatta Malik. *The explanation of

Al-Suyuti Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (; 1445–1505), or al-Suyuti, was an Egyptians, Egyptian Sunni Muslims, Muslim polymath of Persians, Persian descent. Considered the mujtahid and mujaddid of the Islamic 10th century, he was a leading Hadith studies, muh ...

, who although a follower of the

Shafi`i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al ...

school, wrote a small commentary to the Al-Muwatta. *''Al-Musaffa Sharh al-Muwatta'', Shah Wali Allah Dahlawi (al-Musaffa Sharh al-Muwatta in Persian). Shah Waliullah attached great importance to the Muwatta and penned another commentary in Urdu too. *''Al-Muntaqâ sharh al-Muwatta'' of

Abu al-Walid al-Baji Abu al-Walid al-Baji, full name Sulayman ibn Khalaf ibn Saʿd (or Saʿdun) ibn Ayyub al-Qadi Abu al-Walid al-Tujaybi al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi al-Baji al-Tamimi al-Dhahabi al-Maliki (28 May 1013 – 21 December 1081), was a Sunni scholar from Beja ...

, the Andalusian Mâlikî Qâdî, (Abû al-Walîd Sulaymân ibn Khalaf al-Bâjî, al-Muntaqâ sharh Muwatta’ Mâlik, edited by Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qâdir Ahmad ‘Atâ, Beirut: Dâr al-Kutub al-‘Ilmiyyah, 1420/1999) Sharh al-Muwatta' has two versions: al-Istifa' and its abridgment al-Muntaqa. *'' Awjāz-ul-Masālik ilá Muwattā' Imām Mālik'' is a

Deobandi The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the nam ...

commentary written by great scholar

Muhammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi Zakariyya Kandhlawi (; 3 February 1898 – 24 May 1982) was a mid-twentieth-century traditionalist Sunni scholar and an authority in the study of hadith, also known as Sheikh al-Hadith, hailing from India. He was an influential member and ideol ...

. He began the work in 1927 in Medina while only 29 years old. It is said regarding this commentary that Muhammad Ibn Al-Hasan Al-Alawi Al-Māliki said after reading this book that if the author did not mention in the introduction that he is a

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

I would not have known. Such was the brilliance of this work. It is also said that upon seeing the commentary, the Maliki scholars said, Qad Hannafal Muwatta, as a word of praise (meaning: that Shaykh Zakariya al-Kandahlawi wrote the book Awjāz-ul-Masālik ilá Muwattā' Imām Mālik in such a way that it seems like the Muwatta has become a Hanafi book). *''Sharh Muwatta al-Malik'' by

Muhammad al-Zurqani Muhammad al-Zurqani (1645–1710 CE ) () was a Sunni Maliki Islamic scholar. Name His full name was Imam Ab (Semitic), Abu-Abd-Allah "Ibn Fujlah" Muhammad (name), Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Bāqī al-Azhari al-Zurqani (nesbat), Zurqānī al-M ...

. It is considered to be based on three other commentaries of the Muwatta; the Tamhid and the Istidhkar of Yusuf ibn Abd al Barr, as well as the Al-Muntaqa of Abu al-Walid al-Baji. *''Al-Imla' fi Sharh al-Muwatta'' in 1,000

folio The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for ...

s, by

Ibn Hazm Ibn Hazm (; November 994 – 15 August 1064) was an Andalusian Muslim polymath, historian, traditionist, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in the Córdoban Caliphate, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpre ...

. *''Sharh Minhaaj'' by Subki. *''Sharh Muwatta'' by

Ali al-Qari Nur ad-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Sultan Muhammad al-Hirawi al-Qari (; d. 1605/1606), known as Mulla Ali al-Qari () was an Afghan Islamic scholar. He was born in Herat, where he received his basic Islamic education. Thereafter, he travelled to M ...

References

Source

* *

External links

*
Online preview with introduction

full English text, including some corrections and changes to the original translation.

full English text, originally from the CMJEbr>online translation
by Aisha Abdarahman at-Tarjumana Bewley and Yaqub Johnson. {{Authority control Sunni literature 8th-century Arabic-language books Muwatta