Hermeneutics in the Genre of Mukhta?ar by Kassim Husain;

Author:Kassim, Husain;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

Chapter 6

Mālikī School of Law

Hermeneutics as Reflected in al-Khalīl’s Mukhtaṣar

A Brief Biographical Account of Mālik bin Anas

The exact date of birth of Abῡ ʻAbd Allah Mālik bin Anas ibn Mālik is not known. He died at the age of eighty-five in the year 179/795. He belonged to the Humayar who was included in the Banῡ ibn Murra. Legend is that he spent three years in his mother’s womb. The Prophet himself is said to have foretold his coming as well as that of Abῡ ῌanīfa, and al-Shāfiʻī. It is said that he wanted to become a singer but changed his career for the study of the fiqh on his mother’s advice because of his physical appearance.

Mālik ibn Anas studied fiqh with Rabiʻal-Farrῡq, who cultivated ra’y in Medina. He transmitted prophetic Ḥadīth reports from al-Zuhrī, Nāfī, Mawla ibn ʻOmar, and many others.

Mālik’s Muwațța’

The Muwațța’ of Mālik is considered one of the oldest surviving books of the Islamic legal system. Mālik is the first jurist to use the name Muwațța’. Before whom those who authored books on law in his age used to call them the Comprehensive (al-Jāmiʻ) or the Compilation (Muṣannaf). “The word muwațța’ means that which is made easy and is pruned and trimmed of superfluous matters.”1

Mālik compiled the Muwațța’ intending to include exclusively the strong prophetic Ḥadīth reports of the people of ῌijāz combined with the sayings of Companions, and Followers. According to some, Mālik’s Muwațța’ is the first recorded collection of prophetic Ḥadīth reports. In that respect, it came to be seen as the transition from the simple fiqh to the pure science of prophetic Ḥadīth reports.2

“The transformation of Mālik into the mediator (through the isnāds) of ideally prophetic authority and into an exegete (through the appended juristic dicta (qāla Mālik) are one of the key elements in the creation of hermeneutics,”3 though his dicta are entirely confined to the prophetic Ḥadīth reports. As a result, hermeneutical interpretations in it are limited to that extent. It was later that Mālikī jurists in the next succeeding generations, who developed it further with the acceptance of al-Shāfiʻī’s concept of hermeneutics.

The Muwațța’ is composed of numerous discrete items, exhibiting two basic forms. First, there are prophetic Ḥadīth reports, characterized by a formal chain of narrations (isnad, pl. of ṣanad), introduced by ḥaddatha-nī ʻan Mālik. This change of narrations may end at the Prophet, or at the Companion, or at the Follower, or an ancient Jurist. Secondly, there are juristic dicta characterized by the introductory formula qāla Mālik.4

Different Recensions of the Muwaṭṭa’5

There are about fifteen different recensions of Mālik’s Muwaṭṭa’. Some of these include version of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā (234/849), version of Abῡ Muḥammad ʻAbdalla ibn Salama al-Fikhrī al-Miṣrī ibn Wahb (197/813), version of Abῡ ʻAbd Allah ʻAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim (191/807), version of Abῡ Yaḥyā Maʻīn ʻIsā ibn Dīnār al-Madanī (198/814), version of Abῡ Muṣʻab al-Zuhrī (242/857), and version of Muḥammad ibn al Ḥasan al-Shaybānī, the disciple of Abῡ Ḥanīfa.

A Brief Account of Biography of Khalīl bin Isḥāq

Isḥāq bin Mῡsa Shuʻayb Khalīl known also as al-Jundī died in the year 776/1374.

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