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The Muwa??a is an early statement of Muslim law, compiled and edited by Imam Malik. It is considered the earliest extant source of hadith
Hadith

Hadith are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad. Hadith collections are regarded by all traditional madhab as important tools for determining the Muslim way of life, the sunnah....
, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad

Muhammad Patronymic#Arabic Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib , is the founder of the Major religious groups of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as a Rasul and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of prophets....
 that form the basis of Islamic jurisprudence
Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal philosophers, hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions....
 alongside the Qur'an. Nonetheless is not properly speaking a collection of hadith; many of the legal precepts it contains are based not on hadith at all. The book covers rituals, rites, customs, traditions, norm
Norm (sociology)

A Social norm is the sociology term for the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors....
s and laws of the time of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad

Muhammad Patronymic#Arabic Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib , is the founder of the Major religious groups of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as a Rasul and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of prophets....
.






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The Muwa??a is an early statement of Muslim law, compiled and edited by Imam Malik. It is considered the earliest extant source of hadith
Hadith

Hadith are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad. Hadith collections are regarded by all traditional madhab as important tools for determining the Muslim way of life, the sunnah....
, the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad

Muhammad Patronymic#Arabic Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib , is the founder of the Major religious groups of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as a Rasul and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of prophets....
 that form the basis of Islamic jurisprudence
Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal philosophers, hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions....
 alongside the Qur'an. Nonetheless is not properly speaking a collection of hadith; many of the legal precepts it contains are based not on hadith at all. The book covers rituals, rites, customs, traditions, norm
Norm (sociology)

A Social norm is the sociology term for the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors....
s and laws of the time of the Prophet Muhammad
Muhammad

Muhammad Patronymic#Arabic Abd Allah ibn Abd al Muttalib , is the founder of the Major religious groups of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as a Rasul and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of prophets....
. Much of the book pertains to areas which are not properly "legal" in the western sense, such as Hajj
Hajj

The Hajj is a pilgrimage to Mecca . It is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so....
, sacrifice, intercourse etc. This makes it valuable beyond law, for studying historical sociology
Sociology

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
 of the Arab
Arab

An Arab is a person who Identity as such on linguistic or cultural grounds. The plural form, Arabs , refers to the Ethnocultural group at large....
s, for example.

Authenticity

Imam Malik composed the 'Muwatta' over a period of forty years to represent the "well-trodden path" of the people of Madinah. Its name also means that it is the book that is "many times agreed upon"- about whose contents the people of Madinah were unanimously agreed. Its high standing is such that people of every school of fiqh
Fiqh

Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the Sharia Islamic law?based directly on the Quran and Sunnah?that complements Shariah with evolving Fatwa/interpretations of Ulema....
 and all of the imams of hadith scholarship agree upon its authenticity. Imam Shafi'i
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i

Al-Shafi'i, Arabic jurist . He was active in juridical matters and his teaching eventually led to the Shafi'i school of fiqh named after him....
 famously said, "There is not on the face of the earth a book - after the Book of Allah - which is more authentic than the book of Malik."

Commentaries on the Al-Muwatta

  • Sharh al-Muwatta
    Sharh al-Muwatta

    There are several commentaries on Al-Muwatta . The most important are:*Al-Musaffa Sharh al-Muwatta, Shah Waliullah .*Al-Muntaq? sharh al-Muwatta? of Abu al-Walid al-Baji , the Andalusian M?lik? Q?d?, ...
Due to the importance of the Al-Muwatta to Muslim
Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
s it has often been accompanied by commentaries, mostly but not exclusively by followers of the Maliki
Maliki

The Maliki madhhab is one of the four madhab of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the third-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 15% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa and West Africa....
 school.
  • Al-Jaza al-Masalik by Mu?ammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi
    Mu?ammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi

    Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya bin Muhammad Yahya bin Muhammad Ismail Kandhlawi was a prominent Sunni Muslim scholar of the Indian subcontinent. He was a nephew of Maulana Ilyas, the founder of the Tablighi Jamaat....
  • Sharh al-Muwatta al-Malik
    Sharh al-Muwatta al-Malik (al-Zurqani)

    Sharh al-Muwatta al-Malik is a book by Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Zurqani. It is a commentary on Al-Muwatta .A Sheikh from Egypt, he wrote a commentary in 4 volumes on the Al-Muwatta that is extremely popular due to its simplicity....
     by Muhammad al-Zurqani
    Muhammad al-Zurqani

    Muhammad al-Zurqani was an Sunni Maliki Islamic scholar....
    .
A Sheikh
Sheikh

Sheikh, also rendered as Sheik, Shaykh, Shaikh, Cheikh, and other variants , is a word or honorific term in the Arabic language that literally means "Elder "....
 from Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 he wrote a commentary in 4 volumes on the Al-Muwatta that is extremely popular due to its simplicity. 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
Abu al-Walid al-Baji

Abu al-Walid al-Baji or Sulayman ibn Khalaf ibn Sa`d or Sa`dun ibn Ayyub, al-Qadi Abu al-Walid al-Tujaybi al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi al-Baji al-Tamimi al-Dhahabi al-Maliki was a famous Maliki scholar and poet from Al-Andalus....
 (another famous Maliki
Maliki

The Maliki madhhab is one of the four madhab of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the third-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 15% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa and West Africa....
 scholar of Spain
Spain

Spain or the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though Espa?a , Estado espa?ol and Naci?n espa?ola are used interchangeably....
).


  • Yusuf ibn Abd al Barr
A famous scholar of Hadith and a Maliki jurist from Andalusisa. He wrote two commentaries upon the Muwatta each running into over 20 volumes. The first was named Al Tamhid, and was organized according to the narrator
Narrator

A narrator is, within any story , the entity that tells the story to the audience. The narrator --or, the archaic female equivalent, narratress-- is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind....
s which Malik narrates from, and includes extensive biographical information about each narrator in the chain. The second was entitled the Istidhkar and was more of a legal exegis on the hadith
Hadith

Hadith are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad. Hadith collections are regarded by all traditional madhab as important tools for determining the Muslim way of life, the sunnah....
 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.
Yusuf ibn Abd al Barr also wrote a number of other important works such as the Kitab al-Kafi
Kitab al-Kafi

The Kitab al-Kafi is a Twelver hadith collection compiled by Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni. It is divided into three sections: Usul al-Kafi, which is concerned with the principle of religion, Furu al-Kafi, which is concerned with the details of religious law, and Rawdat al-Kafi, which is concerned with various religious...
 in Maliki jurisprudence
Jurisprudence

Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal philosophers, hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions....
 and the 'Jami bayan al-Ilm' on the classification of knowledge.

  • Imam as-Suyuti
    Suyuti

    Imam Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti also known as Ibn al-Kutb was an Egyptians writer, religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher whose works deal with a wide variety of subjects in Islamic theology....
A famous Sheikh
Sheikh

Sheikh, also rendered as Sheik, Shaykh, Shaikh, Cheikh, and other variants , is a word or honorific term in the Arabic language that literally means "Elder "....
 from Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 who although a follower of the Shafi school wrote a small commentary to the Al-Muwatta.


Composition of the Muwatta

The Muwatta consists of approximately 1720 hadith
Hadith

Hadith are oral traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad. Hadith collections are regarded by all traditional madhab as important tools for determining the Muslim way of life, the sunnah....
s divided as follows:

  • 600 marfu
    MARFU

    The Mid-Atlantic Rugby Football Union is an Voluntary association of youth, high school, collegiate, and adult men's and women's rugby teams in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States....
     hadiths
  • 613 mauquf hadiths
  • 285 maqtu hadiths
  • 222 mursal
    Mursal (hadith)

    Mursal is an Islamic term used in the science of Hadith....
     hadiths


See also


List of Sunni books
List of Sunni books

Hadith collectionsPrimary sources*Sahih al-Bukhari of Muhammad al-Bukhari*Sahih Muslim of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj*Sunan al-Sughra of Al-Nasa'i...


External links

  • Online from the MSA hadith database