Category: Usul al-Fiqh

Q: Is it true Imam Malik shied away from narrating hadith about Ali (رضي الله عنه) in the Muwatta because Malik feared the Umayyads?

A: That is incorrect for three reasons:

1. Historically inaccurate: Imam Malik started writing the Muwatta around 147 AH, finishing it around 158 AH. That was well after the Umayyads were gone. They fell around 132 AH. Sheikh Abdul Fattah Abu Ghudda – may Allah have mercy on him – writes: “Malik’s compilation of Al-Muwatta’ took place after the year 146 or 147 AH, and its completion was after the year 158 AH with certainty.”
2. Imam Malik was a student of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, who encouraged people to take Malik as an Imam. Imam al-Zawawi mentioned in his book “The Merits of Imam Malik – may Allah have mercy on him” that “some people from the people of Kufa entered upon Ja’far al-Sadiq during his illness, in which he passed away – may Allah have mercy on him – and they asked him to appoint a man for them after him whom they could return to regarding their religious matters. He said: ‘Adhere to the sayings of the people of Medina, for it purifies it as alkali purifies iron; adhere to the traditions of those who have passed; for I assure you that I am a follower, not an innovator. Adhere to the understanding of the people of Hijaz; adhere to the blessed Mu’min in Islam, who followed the traditions of the Messenger of Allah – peace be upon him – as I have examined him and found him to be a knowledgeable and virtuous scholar, following him willingly, not inclining to desires nor belittling by necessity, and he narrates only from the virtuous companions of the Messenger of Allah – peace be upon him – for if you follow him, you will grasp your share of Islam, and if you oppose him, you will be misguided and doomed. Do you not say that I am filled with knowledge, not in need of anyone from the creatures, as I have taken from me everything they need, so that desires do not lead you to destruction, I warn you of Allah’s punishment on the Day of Resurrection, a day when neither wealth nor sons will be of any avail, except for those who come to Allah with a sound heart… They asked: Who is he? He said: Malik ibn Anas.”
3. Imam Malik narrated numerous hadiths from Ahl al-Bayt – may Allah honor them. For example, he often narrated hadiths from Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari through Ja’far ibn Muhammad from his father. He also narrated hadiths to Sayyidina Ali, Allah be pleased with him.

Here are several  narrations from the Muwatta of Yahya from Ali, Allah be pleased with him:

1. He narrated – with an explicit statement – that he did not perform ablution from what touched fire. Malik reported to me that it reached him that Ali ibn Abi Talib and Abdullah ibn Abbas did not perform ablution from what touched fire. (Al-Muwatta 1/26 Hadith number: 52).

2. He narrated – as a Musnad hadith – the ruling of ablution from pre-seminal fluid. Yahya reported to me from Malik from Abu al-Nadr, the freed slave of Umar ibn Ubaydullah, from Sulayman ibn Yasar, from Muqdad ibn al-Aswad, that Ali ibn Abi Talib ordered him to ask the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, about a man who approached his family and then experienced pre-seminal fluid. Ali said: “I have a daughter of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and I am ashamed to ask him.” Muqdad said: “So, I asked the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, about it, and he said: ‘If one of you experiences that, let him wash his private parts with water and perform ablution for prayer.'” (Al-Muwatta 1/4, Hadith number 84).

3. He narrated in the chapter of Recitation in Prayer: Yahya reported to me from Malik from Nafi from Ibrahim ibn Abdullah ibn Hunayn from his father from Ali ibn Abi Talib that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, forbade wearing rough garments during prayer, wearing gold rings, and reciting the Quran while bowing. (Al-Muwatta 1/8, Hadith number 176).

4. He narrated – with an explicit statement – in the chapter of the Middle Prayer: Malik reported to me that it reached him that Ali ibn Abi Talib and Abdullah ibn Abbas used to say that the Middle Prayer is the Fajr prayer. Malik said: “The statement of Ali and Ibn Abbas is what I prefer in this matter.” (Al-Muwatta 1/139, Hadith number 316).

5. Mentioned in the Hadith of Umm Hani’ in (The Duha Prayer): Narrated to me by Malik from Abu al-Nadr, the freed slave of Umar ibn Ubayd Allah, that Abu Murrah, the freed slave of Aqil ibn Abi Talib, informed him that he heard Umm Hani’ bint Abi Talib saying: “I went to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, in the year of the conquest, and found him performing ghusl while Fatimah, his daughter, was covering him with a garment.” She said: “So I greeted him, and he said: ‘Who is this?’ I said: ‘Umm Hani’ bint Abi Talib.’ So he said: ‘Welcome, Umm Hani’.’ When he finished his ghusl, he stood and prayed eight rak’ahs, wrapped in one garment. Then he left. So I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, my maternal uncle Ali claims that he fought a man whom so-and-so hired.’ So the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: ‘We will pay him from what he was paid, O Umm Hani’.’ Umm Hani’ said: “That was the Duha prayer.” (Al-Muwatta 1/152 Hadith number 356).

6. Mentioned in (The Permissibility of Passing in Front of the Worshipper): Narrated to me by Malik that it reached him that Ali ibn Abi Talib said: “Nothing should cut off the prayer from what passes in front of the worshipper.” (Al-Muwatta 1/156 Hadith number 368).

7. Mentioned in (The Eid Prayer): Abu Ubaid said: “Then I witnessed the Eid prayer with Ali ibn Abi Talib and Uthman, who was restricted, and he came, prayed, then departed, and he delivered a sermon.” (Al-Muwatta 1/179).

8. Mentioned in (Standing at Funerals): Yahya narrated to me from Malik, from Yahya ibn Said, from Waqid ibn Amr ibn Sad ibn Muadh, from Nafi ibn Jubayr ibn Mut’im, from Mas’ud ibn al-Hakam, from Ali ibn Abi Talib, that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, used to stand at funerals, then he would sit afterward. (Al-Muwatta 1/232 Hadith number 551).

9. Mentioned in (The Chapter of Visiting Graves): Narrated to me by Malik, that it reached him that Ali ibn Abi Talib used to rest on graves and recline on them. Malik said: “We disapprove of sitting on graves, as we view it according to the schools of thought.” (Al-Muwatta 1/233 Hadith number 552).

10. Mentioned in (The Chapter of Reciting Quran During Hajj): Yahya narrated to me from Malik, from Ja’far ibn Muhammad, from his father, that al-Miqdad ibn al-Aswad entered upon Ali ibn Abi Talib with water for him to perform ablution, and he had dough and dates ready for him. He said: “This is Uthman ibn Affan prohibiting connecting Hajj and Umrah together.” So Ali ibn Abi Talib went out, and traces of dough and dates were on his hands. He never forgot the traces of dough and dates on his arms until he met Uthman ibn Affan. Then he said: “Are you prohibiting connecting Hajj and Umrah?” Uthman said: “That is my opinion.” So Ali left angrily, saying: “Here I am, O Allah, here I am, with Hajj and Umrah combined.” (Al-Muwatta 1/336 Hadith number 742).

11. Mentioned in (The Chapter of Tawaf): Narrated to me by Malik, from Ja’far ibn Muhammad, from his father, that Ali ibn Abi Talib used to perform Tawaf with Hajj until the sun declined on the Day of Arafat, then he would perform the Tawaf. (Al-Muwatta 1/338 Hadith number 746).

12. Mentioned in (The Chapter of Sacrifice of the Haram Animals): Yahya narrated to me from Malik, from Ja’far ibn Muhammad, from his father, that Ali ibn Abi Talib said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, sacrificed some of his sacrificial animals and others were sacrificed by others.” (Al-Muwatta 1/394 Hadith number 883).

13. Also mentioned in the Chapter of the Inheritance of Non-Muslims: Yahya narrated to me from Malik, from Ibn Shihab, from Ali ibn Husayn ibn Ali, from Umar ibn Uthman ibn Affan, from Usamah ibn Zayd, that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: “A Muslim does not inherit from a disbeliever.” Malik narrated to me from Ibn Shihab, from Ali ibn Abi Talib, that he informed him: “Aqil and Talib inherited from Abu Talib, but Ali did not inherit from him.” He said: “So we left our share of the property.” (Al-Muwatta 2/519 Hadith numbers 1.82 and 1.83).

14. Mentioned in the Book of Marriage (Chapter on What is Disliked Regarding Marrying Two Sisters through the Right of Possession): Yahya narrated to me from Malik, from Ibn Shihab, from Qubaysah ibn Dhu’ayb, that a man asked Uthman ibn Affan about marrying two sisters through the right of possession, if it is permissible. Uthman said: “Allah made one lawful and the other unlawful. As for me, I do not like to do that.” He said: “So the man left him and met a man from the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and asked him about that, and he said: ‘If I had any authority in the matter and found anyone doing that, I would punish him.’” Ibn Shihab said: “I think it was Ali ibn Abi Talib.” (Al-Muwatta 2/538 Hadith number 1122).

15. Mentioned in (The Chapter of Temporary Marriage): Yahya narrated to me from Malik, from Ibn Shihab, from Abdullah and al-Hasan, the sons of Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, from their father, from Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, forbade temporary marriage on the day of Khaybar, and eating the meat of domesticated camels. (Al-Muwatta 2/548 Hadith number 1129).

Q: Why is the Muwatta not filled with narrations about Sayydina Ali, Allah bless him?

A: This is more geographical than political, and your question is framed wrong for a number of reasons. In short: Malik narrated what he had access to; all of the narrators in the Muwatta were from Medina except six or seven. For that reason, his narrations of the companions who lived outside of Medina were limited. Ali, Allah bless him, being one of them. Another example is. Abdullah bin Masud; Malik did not narrate a lot on his behalf. Harun Rashid asked Malik a similar question. The Imam responded that his geographical location limited him to the scholars he had access to.

Allah knows best,

Suhaib Webb

Methods of Usuli Derivation

There are methods of usuli derivation that are common among the different jurisprudential schools. These methods are not exclusive to any particular school; rather, they are pathways for derivation used by scholars of each school to understand, validate, and debate the principles of their respective Imams. Some of these methods include:

Explicit Reference:

This method involves the Imam explicitly stating that a certain principle is one of his foundational principles and It is divided into two categories:

1. Explicit

   An example of this is Imam Malik explicitly stating that the practice of the people of Medina is a legitimate legal proof and a considered evidence, as mentioned in his letter to Al-Layth ibn Sa’d. This type is the highest rank, the most esteemed path, and the rarest. Its inclusion here involves some leniency.

2. Implicit 

   An example of this is Imam Malik’s statement about the equivalence between a woman’s life and a man’s in terms of injuries, based on the verse:

   “And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution. But whoever gives [up his right as] charity, it is an expiation for him..” (Quran 5: 45).

From this reasoning, Ibn al-Qassar inferred that Imam Malik advocated for adhering to the Sharia of the prophets before us. However, many within the school do not consider this method as part of explicit mention, instead seeing it as derived through a different approach (1).

Second Method: Extraction (Dependent Relationships)

This method is divided into two categories:

1. Deriving a Principle from a Specific Case

 An example is Ibn al-Qassar deriving Imam Malik’s position that a command implies immediate action from his statement on the immediacy of Hajj. Ibn al-Qassar said: “Imam Malik did not explicitly state that Hajj should be performed immediately, but his school indicates it should be immediate because the command implies immediacy” (2).

2. Deriving a Principle from Another Principle

This method involves deriving one principle from another, based on their relationship. It is further divided into three types depending on the relationship between the derived principle and the principle it is derived from:

The First Type:  Dependent Relationship

An example is the principle of istihsan (juridical preference) being dependent on the principle of allowing the specification of a legal text’s underlying cause. There is debate over the validity of this type of relationship, as it is not universally accepted that advocating istihsan necessitates allowing the specification of the cause.

The Secomd Type: Stronger Implication Relationship

An example is that if one considers the implications of a description (mafhum al-sifah), they would consider the implication of a condition (mafhum al-shart) even more so, as it is agreed to be stronger than the description (3).

The Third Type: Necessary Consequence Relationship:

An example is that anyone who holds that a command implies immediacy must also necessarily hold that it implies repetition, due to the inherent logical connection between them (4).

Third Method: Analogical Reasoning Qiyas (Resemblance Relationships)

This relationship is one of similarities, not dependency!  For instance, the ruling that the waiting period for a widow starts from the time of death or divorce, not from the time of knowing about it. Similarly, the agent’s dismissal takes effect upon the death of the principal or the dismissal notice, not from the time the agent learns about it (5).

The Fourth Method: Consensus within the School

The apparent agreement among the scholars of the school on a principle suggests that there must be a basis for it from the Imam, whether explicitly mentioned or not. This underscores the importance of ensuring accurate transmission and explicit citation. Some Maliki jurists, like Abu al-Walid al-Baji and al-Mazari, insist on this, while others rely on the precedents set by earlier scholars. 

References

1. Imam Malik’s “Al-Muwatta,” 2/872, Book of Penalties: Chapter on Retribution for Killing, Hadith No. 2560. Hatim Bay: “Al-Tahqiq fi Masa’il al-Usul,” p. 71.

2. Ibn al-Qassar: “Al-Muqaddima fi al-Usul,” p. 231.

3. Hatim Bay: “Al-Tahqiq fi Masa’il al-Usul,” p. 47.

4. “Al-Usul al-Mutafaq alayha bayn al-Hanafiyya wa al-Malikiyya: Dirasa Ta’siliya Tatbiqiya,” p. 171.

5. Ibn Rushd al-Jadd: “Al-Muqaddimat al-Mumahhidat,” p. 58, First Edition, 1988, Dar al-Gharb al-Islami.

6. Hatim Bay: “Al-Tahqiq fi Masa’il al-Usul,” p. 71.

The Maliki madhhab originated in Medina, but it quickly spread to many parts of the world, with varying degrees of prevalence. The rapid and robust spread of the madhhab is largely attributed to the esteemed reputation and distinguished scholarly status of Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him. Students of knowledge traveled from all corners of the earth to learn from him, and upon returning to their homelands, they became ambassadors of the Maliki madhhab, establishing its foundations in various regions.

Among these students, distinct groups emerged, each characterized by unique features influenced by their environments and personal interactions with Imam Malik. These variations led to the formation of independent schools within the Maliki madhhab, all adhering to the core principles and foundational teachings of Imam Malik’s school.

The Notable Schools within the Maliki Madhhab

1. The Madinan School

The Madinan School was established by some of the most prominent students of Imam Malik in Medina. These scholars were renowned for their extensive knowledge during Imam Malik’s lifetime and continued teaching and issuing fatwas after his death. Notable figures include:

• Uthman ibn Isa ibn Kinanah (d. 185/186 AH): A respected jurist in Medina who was close to Imam Malik. He assumed a significant role in the legal council after Imam Malik’s death.
• Abdullah ibn Nafi al-Saigh (d. 206 AH): Appointed by Imam Malik as his successor, he accompanied him for forty years, known for his exceptional memory despite being illiterate.
• Mughira ibn Abdulrahman al-Makhzumi (d. 188/186 AH): A jurist who provided fatwas during Imam Malik’s lifetime and continued his legacy after his death.

2. The Egyptian School

The Egyptian School emerged as the first Maliki school outside Medina, founded by students of Imam Malik who returned to Egypt to spread his teachings. Key figures include:

• Uthman ibn al-Hakam al-Judami: Known for his narrations from Imam Malik, he contributed significantly to the dissemination of Maliki teachings in Egypt.
• Abdurrahman ibn Khalid al-Jumahi: A notable transmitter of Imam Malik’s “Muwatta,” his teachings were widely recognized and continued by his students.
• Abdullah ibn Wahb (d. 163 AH): A distinguished student of Imam Malik, his extensive narrations from the “Muwatta” played a crucial role in the school’s development.

The true founders and prominent figures of the Egyptian School, such as Abdurrahman ibn al-Qasim, Ashhab, and Abdullah ibn Abdulhakam, studied under Imam Malik to deepen their knowledge and then returned to Egypt to spread the Maliki teachings.

3. The Iraqi School

The Iraqi School of the Maliki madhhab developed through the efforts of Imam Malik’s students who traveled to Iraq. Key figures include:

• Abdurrahman ibn Mahdi (d. 198 AH): A close student of Imam Malik, he studied both jurisprudence and hadith.
• Abdullah ibn Maslamah al-Qa’nabi (d. 220 AH): Spent twenty years with Imam Malik and was known for his dedication to the “Muwatta.”
• Ismail ibn Ishaq al-Qadi (d. 282 AH): One of the prominent jurists after Imam Malik, recognized for his contributions to the Maliki madhhab in Iraq.

4. The Maghrebi School

The Maliki madhhab spread throughout the western Islamic world, including Andalusia, Morocco, Tunisia, and surrounding regions, largely through the efforts of about thirty of Imam Malik’s students who traveled from these regions to study with him. These students then returned to their homelands and established the Maliki madhhab.

Among the prominent figures of this school were:

• Ali ibn Ziyad (d. 183 AH): A scholar from Ifriqiya (modern-day Tunisia).
• Abdullah ibn Ghanim (d. 190 AH).
• Abdurrahim ibn Ashras and Bahlul ibn Rashid (d. 183 AH).

Their students continued their legacy, with notable figures such as:

• Asad ibn al-Furat (d. 213 AH): Played a significant role in documenting the school’s jurisprudence through his book “Al-Asadiyya.”
• Imam Sahnun (d. 240 AH): Revitalized the school during his time, refining and verifying the “Mudawwana” under the guidance of his teacher Ibn al-Qasim, spreading the Maliki madhhab through the Qayrawani School in Tunisia.

These schools, along with others that emerged, maintained adherence to the core principles and foundational teachings of Imam Malik, yet developed distinct characteristics influenced by their environments and personal interactions with the Imam.