Al-Muwatta

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other commentaries, see Sharh al-Muwatta.

Part of a series on Hadith collections v • d • e
Most famous
Sunni six major collections (Al-Kutub al-Sittah): Sahih al-Bukhari Sahih Muslim al-Sunan al-Sughra Sunan Abu Da'ud Sunan al-Tirmidhi Sunan Ibn Maja/Al-Muwatta Shi'a collections: Nahj al-Balagha "The Four Books" (Al-Kutub Al-Arb'ah) Usul al-Kafi and Furu al-Kafi of Kulayni Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih of Shaikh Saduq Tahdhibu 'l-Ahkam by al-Tusi al-Istibsar by al-Tusi Ibadi collections: al-Jami' as-Sahih by al-Rabi' ibn Habib Tartib al-Musnad by al-Warijlani
Sunni collections
Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal — 780-855 Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah — 923 Sahih Ibn Hibbaan — 965 Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain — 1014 Mawdu'at al-Kubra— 1128-1217 Riyadh as-Saaliheen — 1233 - 1278 Talkhis al-Mustadrak — 1274-1348 Majma al-Zawa'id — 1335-1405 Bulugh al-Maram — 1372-1449 Kanz al-Ummal — 1500th Da'if al-Tirmidhi — 20th century Sahih al-Tirmidhi — 20th century
Shi'a collections
The book of Sulaym ibn Qays — 600th Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya — 678-713 Bihar al-Anwar — 1600s Haqq al-Yaqeen — 1600s Sharh Usul al-Kafi — ?-1081 Jesus through Shiite Narrations — ?
Mu'tazili collections
Nahj with comments — ?-1258

The Al-Muwatta (الموطأ) is an early collection of hadith of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that form the basis for the jurisprudence of the Maliki school. It was compiled and edited by Imam Malik. The Maliki school is popular in North Africa. The book covers rituals, rites, customs, traditions, norms and laws of the time of the Prophet Muhammad. The bulk of the book pertains to non-legal areas like Hajj, sacrifice, intercourse etc. This makes it valuable beyond law, for studying historical sociology of Arabs, for example.

1 Authenticity
2 Commentaries on the Al-Muwatta
3 Composition of al-Muwatta
4 External links

[edit] Authenticity

Imam Malik composed the 'Al-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 — and that is made easy and facilitated. Its high standing is such that people of every school of fiqh and all of the imams of hadith scholarship agree upon its authenticity. *Imam Shafi’i said that "There is not on the face of the earth—& after the Book of Allah—a book & which is more authentic than the book of Malik."

[edit] Commentaries on the Al-Muwatta

Sharh al-Muwatta

Due to the importance of the Al-Muwatta to Muslims it has often been accompanied by commentaries, mostly by followers of the Maliki school but not exclusively.

A Sheikh from Egypt 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 explanations of the Al-Muwatta; The Al-Tamhid and Al-Istidhkar of Yusuf ibn Abdul Bar, as well as the Al-Muntaqa of Abu Al-Walid Al-Baji (another famous Maliki scholar of Spain).

Abu Al-Walid Al-Baji (mentioned above)

Yusuf ibn Abd-al-Barr

A famous scholar of Hadith and a Maliki jurist from Andalusisa. He wrote 2 commentaries upon the Al-Muwatta each running into over 20 volumes. The first was named Al-Tamhid, and was organized according to the narrators which Malik narrates from, and includes extensive biographical information about each narrator in the chain. The second was entitled Al-Istidhkar and was more of a legal exegis on the hadith contained in the book than a critical hadith study as was the case with the former. It is said that Al-Istidhkar was written after Al-Tamhid, as Ibn abd al Bar 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 Abdul Bar also wrote a number of other important works such as the Kitab al-Kafi in Maliki jurisprudence and the 'Jami bayan al-Ilm' on the classification of knowledge.