The Kitāb Al-Āthār of Imam Abū Ḥanīfah

TITLE COPYRIGHT CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION Companions and those who narrated a great deal of hadith Imam Abū Ḥanīfah A note on qiyās – analogical deduction The eminence of Imam Abū Ḥanīfah The relationship between fiqh and hadith The history of taqlīd Imam Abū Ḥanīfah was the earliest of the four Imams The discernment (fiqh) of the Imam, his acute intelligence, astuteness and the fullness of his intellect Imam Abū Ḥanīfah’s rank as a mujtahid More on the biography of Imam Abū Ḥanīfah The lineage of Abū Ḥanīfah Abū Ḥanīfah was one of the Followers His narration of hadith in the Kitāb al-Āthār and elsewhere The description of Abū Ḥanīfah His concern for knowledge and seeking hadith and his surpassing his peers in that respect His extreme caution in narrating and drawing upon only ṣaḥīḥ hadith Refutation of some misunderstandings about Imam Abū Ḥanīfah The death of Abū Ḥanīfah Later imams’ treatment of hadith and their omission of isnads Some noted Ḥanafīs Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan from the people of Kūfa from the people of Madīnah from the people of Makkah from the people of Bara from the people of Wāsiṭ from the people of Shām from the people of Khurāsān from the people of al-Yamāmah The Imams’ praise of Imam Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan Works by Imam Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan Kitāb al-aṣl or al-Mabsūṭ al-Jāmiʿ aṣ-ṣaghīr as-Siyar aṣ-ṣaghīr al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr lvi az-Ziyādāt and Ziyādāt az-Ziyādāt as-Siyar al-kabīr Other works the Muwaṭṭa’ Kitāb al-Ḥujjah or al-Ḥujaj Kitāb al-Āthār Musnad Abī Ḥanīfah The death of Imam Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan The customary usages of the Imams in the book Types of hadith and information The structure of the Kitāb al-Āthār The technical usages of Imam Muḥammad in the book Usages of the early generations Kitāb al-Āthār PURIFICATION 1. Wuḍū’ 2. What water left by horses, mules, donkeys and cats is permissible for use in wuḍū’ 3. Wiping over leather socks 4. Wuḍū’ because of food that has been cooked over fire 5. What of kissing and vomiting breaks wuḍū’ 6. Performing wuḍū’ because of having touched the penis 7. That which nothing pollutes: water, the earth, the person in need of ghusl because of sexual relations, etc. 8. Wuḍū’ for whoever has a wound or smallpox 9. Tayammum 10. The urine of animals and others 11. Cleansing the private parts after going to the toilet 12. Wiping the face after wuḍū’ with a handkerchief and trimming the moustache 13. The tooth stick 14. A woman’s wuḍū’ and wiping over her head-covering 15. Ghusl because of sexual relations (janābah) 16. A man and woman doing ghusl because of intercourse from a single vessel 17. The ghusl of a woman with chronic menstrual bleeding and of the woman who is menstruating 18. The woman who menstruates during [the time of] the prayer 19. Women who have given birth and pregnant women who experience bleeding 20. A woman who experiences in dream what a man experiences 21. The call to prayer 22. The Times of the Prayer 23. Ghusl on the day of Jumuʿah and on the two ʿĪds THE PRAYER 24. Beginning the prayer, raising the hands and prostrating on the turban 25. Reciting aloud 26. Tashahhud 27. Reciting, “In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful” aloud 28. Recitation behind the imam and prompting him 29. Straightening the rows and the merit of the first row 30. A man leading a group of people or two men in prayer 31. Someone who prayed the obligatory prayer 32. Supererogatory prayers 33. Prayer in the miḥrāb 34. The imam saying the salām and his sitting 35. The superiority of the group prayer and of the two rakʿahs of Fajr 36. Someone who prays with a wall or a pathway between him and the imam 37. Wiping dust from the face before finishing the prayer 38. Prayer seated or leaning on something and praying towards a sutrah 39. The witr and what one recites in it 40. Whoever hears the iqāmah while in the mosque 41. Someone who misses part of the prayer 42. Someone who prays in his house without an adhān 43. What invalidates the prayer 44. Nosebleeds during the prayer and breaking wind 45. What of the prayer is repeated and what of that is disapproved 46. A man experiencing moisture during the prayer 47. Prolonged intense laughter in the prayer, and what is disliked in prayer 48. Sleeping before prayer and breaking one’s wuḍū’ by doing so 49. The prayer of someone who faints 50. Forgetfulness in the prayer 51. Someone who greets people during the Khuṭbah or the Prayer 52. Lightening the prayer 53. Prayer while travelling 53. The prayer of fear 54. The prayer of someone who fears hypocrisy 55. Asking for blessings on someone who sneezes 56. The prayer on the day of Jumuʿah and the Khuṭbah 57. The prayer of the two ʿĪds 58. Women going out to attend the two ʿĪds, and sighting the new moon 59. Someone who eats before going out to the place of prayer (muṣallā) 60. Saying takbīr during the days of tashrīq 61. The prostration in [Sūrah] Ṣād 62. The qunūt supplication in prayer 63. A woman leading other women in prayer, and how a woman sits in prayer 64. The prayer of slave women 65. Prayer during the solar eclipse 66. Funerals and washing the dead 67. Washing a [deceased] woman and shrouding her 68. Taking a ghusl because of having washing someone deceased 69. Carrying the bier 70. Prayer over the deceased 71. Entering the deceased into the grave 72. The prayer over deceased men and women 73. Walking with the funeral 74. Building a mound over the grave and plastering it with gypsum 75. Who has more right to lead the prayer over the deceased 76. The newborn baby crying out at birth, and saying the prayer over it [if it dies] 77. The ghusl of the shahīd 78. Visiting graves 79. Recitation of the Qur’ān 80. Recitation of the Qur’ān in the public baths, and by the person in need of a ghusl because of sexual relations FASTING 81. Fasting while travelling and breaking the fast 82. A fasting person kissing or embracing 83. What breaks the fast 84. The merit in fasting ZAKĀH 85. Zakāh on gold and silver and orphans’ property 86. Zakāh on Jewellery 87. Zakāt al-Fiṭr and slaves 88. Zakāh on working animals 89. Zakāt on crops and the tenth 90. How zakāh is given 91. The zakāh of camels 92. Zakāh on sheep and goats 93. Zakāh on oxen 94. A man who gives all his wealth for the bereft THE BOOK OF THE RITES (OF HAJJ) 95. Iḥrām and calling out Labbayk 96. The qirān [Hajj] and the merit of iḥrām 97. Ṭawāf and recitation at the Kaʿbah 98. When does one cease the Labbayk? And making stipulations concerning the Hajj 99. ʿUmrah in the months of the Hajj and at other times 100. Prayer at ʿArafah and Muzdalifah (Jamʿ) 101. Someone who has sexual intercourse with his wife while in iḥrām 102. Whoever sacrifices has become free of iḥrām 103. Someone who is cupped while in iḥrām and shaving the head 104. Whoever becomes in need because of some illness while in iḥrām 105. Hunting in iḥrām 106. Someone whose hady offering dies on the journey 107. What clothing and scent are permissible for the person in iḥrām 108. What animal life the person in iḥrām may kill 109. A person in iḥrām contracting a marriage 110. Buying houses in Makkah and renting them IMĀN 111. Īmān 112. Intercession 113. Affirmation of the Decree MARRIAGE 114. What marriage is permitted to a free man 115. Who a slave is permitted to marry 116. A man who marries away his umm walad 117. A person, male or female, who marries having a defect 118. What marriage is forbidden, and consulting a virgin 119. Someone who marries without setting an amount of his wife’s dowry before he dies 120. Someone who marries a woman during her ʿiddah and then later divorces her 121. What happens if each of two women is made to go into [where] the other woman’s husband is 122. Someone who marries a woman who was divorced at her own request for some compensation paid by her (khulʿ) or who was divorced 123. Whoever marries a Jewish or Christian woman, she does not confer the status of being muḥṣan 124. Someone who marries while associating partners with Allah and then later accepts Islam 125. A man marries a slave woman and then purchases her or she is set free 126. Someone marries and then either of the couple commits adultery 127. Temporary (mutʿah) marriage 128. What marriage is forbidden to men 129. The marriage of an inebriated person 130. Marrying a woman and finding that she is not a virgin 131. Marriage of equals and the husband’s rights over the wife 132. Someone who marries a woman who has been informed of the death of her husband 133. Withdrawal (coitus interruptus), and what forms of sexual relations with women are forbidden 134. What is abhorent of sexual intercourse with two slave women who are sisters, and other things 135. A slave woman who is sold or given as a gift while having a husband DIVORCE 136. Divorce and the ʿiddah 137. Someone who divorces his wife while she is pregnant 138. Divorce of a slave girl who has not menstruated and her ʿiddah 139. A divorcee, whose wife remarries and later returns to him 140. A divorcee who takes his wife back; from where does she begin her ʿiddah? 141. Someone who divorces three times before consummating the marriage 142. Someone who divorces during his illness before or after consummating the marriage 143. The ʿiddah of a divorced woman who despairs of menstrual periods 144. The ʿiddah of the divorced woman whose menstruation has ceased 145. The ʿiddah of the divorced woman who is pregnant 146. The ʿiddah of a woman with chronic menstrual bleeding 147. Someone who divorces and then takes his wife back during the ʿiddah 148. Someone who divorces his wife and then takes her back, but she does not learn of it until after she has remarried 149. Someone who divorces three times or divorces once but intending three times 150. Taking back a wife one has divorced 151. A man who divorces a slave woman with a divorce in which he retains the right to take her back 152. Divorce obtained by a woman in return for compensation paid to the husband (khulʿ) 153. Impotence 154. A man who divorces and then denies it 155. Someone who divorces as a joke 156. Irrevocable divorce 157. Someone who writes about divorcing his wife 158. The divorce of the person suffering from pleurisy, the inebriated person and the person asleep 159. Someone whom the ruler forces to pronounce divorce or to free a slave 160. What types of divorce are deplored 161. Someone who says, “If I marry so-and-so then she is divorced.” 162. Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians who divorce their wives 163. The ʿiddah of the divorced woman and the woman whose husband has died 164. Making exceptions in pronouncements of divorce 165. A man who says to his wife, “Observe the ʿiddah!” 166. The ʿiddah of the umm walad 167. The maintenance of a woman with whom marriage has not been consummated 168. The woman divorced at her own request for compensation, which she pays (khulʿ) 169. Someone who says to his wife, “You are ḥarām to me.” 170. Liʿān 171. The woman being given the choice [of divorce] and [the statement] “Your affair is in your own hands” 172. Īlā’ [divorce brought about because the husband swears to abstain from sexual intercourse with his wife for four months] 173. Someone who swears to abstain from intercourse with his wife and then divorces her 174. Ẓihār [divorce by the man pronouncing “To me you are as my mother’s back” 175. Declaring Ẓihār from a slave COMPENSATORY PAYMENTS AND RETALIATION 176. Compensatory payments (diyāt) for fatalities and what is due from people who use silver [as currency] and those for whom cattle [are wealth] 177. The compensatory payment for that of which a man only owns one 178. Compensatory payment for teeth, the eyelashes and fingers 179. Those things for which one is unable to retaliate 180. Compensatory payment for an involuntary act and that which the ʿāqilah pay 181. People who dig [under] a wall, which falls on them 182. Compensatory payment for women and their injuries 183. Injuries to slaves 184. Crimes of slaves for whom has been written a contract for them to purchase their freedom, slaves to be set free on the deaths of their owners, and slave women who are mothers of heirs (umm walad) 185. Compensatory payment for a non-Muslim living under Muslim rule ḤADD PUNISHMENTS 186. A woman who reneges on Islam 187. Someone who kills and then one of the heirs pardons him 188. Someone who kills his slave or a member of his close family 189. Someone who is found killed in his house 190. Liʿān and repudiation of a child 191. Someone who accuses a whole people of sexual impropriety, and the ḥadd punishment for a free man and a slave 192. Discretionary punishments (taʿzīr) 193. Punishments for contravention of the limits which when gathered together include among them capital punishment 194. Rape of women 195. Witnesses who testify to a woman’s adultery, one of whom is her husband 196. A virgin man who fornicates with a virgin woman 197. The punishment for the sodomite 198. The punishment for a slave woman who fornicates or commits adultery 199. Someone who has sexual intercourse because of a mistaken understanding 200. Averting ḥadd punishments 201. The punishment for someone who is intoxicated 202. The ḥadd punishment for a highway robber or thief 203. The punishment for graverobbers TESTIMONY 204. Testimony of people of the dhimmah against Muslims 205. The testimony of someone who has received a ḥadd punishment 206. False testimony 207. What testimony of women is valid or invalid 208. Someone whose testimony is not accepted because he is a close relative or for other reasons 209. The testimony of small children INHERITANCE AND BEQUESTS 210. Invalid bequests 211. A man who makes bequests or bequeaths the setting free of a slave 212. The merit of setting slaves free 213. Freeing a slave on the death of his master or an umm walad 214. A slave jointly owned by two men one of whom sets his portion free 215. Someone who sets a half of his slave free 216. A slave who is owned by two men one of whom writes a contract with the slave to purchase his freedom in his share 217. The contract written with the slave to purchase his freedom 218. The slave who writes a contract to purchase his freedom from whom is taken a surety 219. The inheritance of a killer 220. Someone who dies without leaving a Muslim heir 221. A man who dies leaving behind his wife but the two [heirs] differ over the effects 222. Inheritance of freed slaves [mawlās] 223. The inheritance of a couple who have engaged in liʿān and the son of the wife 224. Property whose use is granted to someone for life [ʿumrā] 225. The inheritance of a child carried by a woman [ḥamīl] and the child whose paternity two men claim 226. Who has more right to a child and who is to be compelled to spend on maintenance 227. A wife’s gift to her husband a husband’s to his wife OATHS AND VOWS 228. Oaths and their expiations 229. What emancipation [of slaves] suffices in expiation of an oath 230. Making exceptions in oaths 231. Vowing to be disobedient 232. The choice of [the form of] expiation, and someone who dedicates his wealth to the very poor 233. Someone who imposes on himself to walk [on Hajj or ʿUmrah] 234. Whoever imposes on himself to sacrifice his son or to sacrifice himself 235. Whoever swears an oath when he has been wronged SALES 236. Trade, and stipulations in sales 237. Someone who sells fecundated date-palms or a slave who has property 238. Someone who purchases goods and finds a defect in them or a pregnancy 239. Separating a slave woman, her husband her child 240. Advance payments for something that is measured or weighed 241. Advance payment for fruit “until the cutting [of the fruit]” and other things 242. Advance payment for animals 243. Security and a pawned item made in advance payment 244. Advance payment for which one takes part of it [the items being bought] and part of one’s capital sum 245. Advance payment for fabric 246. Offering to buy on top of one’s brother’s offer to buy 247. Conveying trade to land at war (dār al-ḥarb) 248. Trading in pressed fruit juices and wine 249. The sale of game in reed thickets, fish and bamboo 250. The purchase of gold and silver set in something of good appearance (sibr), and jewels 251. Purchasing heavy dirhams with light ones, and usury 252. Loans 253. Properties and pre-emption 254. Profit-sharing transactions for a third, and profit-sharing transactions with the property of orphans, and becoming partners with them 255. Someone who has money as a profit-sharing investment or a deposit held on trust 256. Crop-sharing for a third or a quarter [of the crop] 257. What is abhored of renting out something for more than that for which one rented it 258. If a slave’s owner gives him permission to trade, he [the owner] is the guarantor 259. The standing surety of a shared hired man 260. On pawned items, borrowed things, and things deposited for safekeeping of animals and other things LEGAL JUDGEMENTS 261. Someone who makes a claim of a right from another man 262. Whoever does something outside of his forecourt is responsible for it SACRIFICES AND SLAUGHTERING ANIMALS 263. The sacrifice of ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā, and castration of male animals 264. Slaughtering for meat 265. Slaughtering a foetus, and the ʿaqīqah FOOD AND DRINK 266. What things are abhored of sheep and goats, and blood and other things 267. What [creatures] of the land and sea are [permitted] to be eaten 268. What is abhored of eating the meat of predators and the milk of donkeys 269. Eating cheese 270. Game which one shoots 271. Game caught by a dog 272. Drinks, nabīdh drinks, drinking standing, and those drinks which are abhorent 273. Strong nabīdh 274. Cooked nabīdh and pressed fruit juice 275. Strong pressed date-juice and wine 276. Drinking from vessels, receptacles, and ceramic pots etc. 277. Drinking from gold and silver vessels CLOTHING 278. Wearing silk, dressing ostentatiously, and fabrics woven of both wool and silk 279. Wearing fox-pelts and tanning hides 280. Wearing signet-rings of gold, iron and other materials, and having engravings on a signet-ring JIHAD 281. Jihad in the Way of Allah and calling those whom the call has not reached [to Allah] MISCELLANEOUS 282. The merits of the Companions, and those of the Companions of the Prophet who used to confer with each other on fiqh 283. Truthfulness, lying, backbiting and slander 284. Joining ties of kinship and treating one’s parents well 285. What of your children’s property is permissible for you 286. One who shows the way to good action is the same as someone who does it 287. The Wedding Feast 288. Doing without (zuhd) 289. Invitations 290. The hospitality of governors 291. Gentle conduct and meanness 292. Amulets and incantations used as protection against the [evil] eye, and cauterisation 293. Maintenance of a foundling 294. The reward for a runaway slave 295. Someone who finds lost property which he makes known 296. Tattoos, hairpieces, removing facial hair, and one who renders ḥalāl 297. Plucking out (ḥaff) the hair of the face 298. Dyeing with henna and indigo 299. Drinking remedies, cow’s milk and cauterisation 300. Recording knowledge 301. A dhimmī greeting a Muslim who returns the greeting 302. Laylat al-Qadr – the Night of the Decree 303. Whoever does an action which he conceals, Allah will clothe him in its outer wrap; and show mercy to the two weak beings: women and children 304. Amirate, and “whoever establishes a sunnah which those after him acted upon” APPENDICES APPENDIX I: CASES IN WHICH IMAM MUḤAMMAD AND/OR IMAM ABŪ ḤANĪFAH DIFFERED FROM IBRĀHĪM AN-NAKHAʿĪ OR SOME OF THE COMPANIONS APPENDIX II: HIS NARRATIONS FROM SHAYKHS OTHER THAN IMAM ABŪ ḤANĪFAH APPENDIX III: IMAM ABŪ ḤANĪFAH’S SHAYKHS QUOTED IN AL-ĀTHĀR APPENDIX IV: GLOSSARY APPENDIX V: RIJĀL – NARRATORS, AND THE MAJOR HADITH COLLECTORS WHO TRANSMITTED THEIR HADITH INDEXES INDEX OF THE VERDICTS OF THE COMPANIONS AND EARLY MUSLIMS SUBJECT INDEX Back Cover This quote from one of the greatest authorities on hadith of all time is sufficient recommendation. The version of the Muwatta narrated by Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, one of the two leading pupils of Imam Abu Hanifah, directly from his three years of study with Imam Malik will be of particular interest not only to students of Hanafi fiqh, but also to students of hadith in general. Imam Malik composed the Muwatta' over a period of forty years to represent the "well-trodden path" of the people of Madina. Its name also means that it is the book that is "many times agreed upon" about whose contents the people of Madina 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, "There is not on the face of the earth after the Book of Allah a book which is more sahih than the book of Malik." Shah Wali Allah Dihlawi (1114-1176 AH) said, "My breast expanded and I became certain that the Muwatta' is the most sahih book to be found on the earth after the Book of Allah." -- Amazon.com