The Muwatta of Imam Muhammad al-Shaybani (Darul Ishaat)

ISBN: None
Author: Muhammad Ibn al Hasan ash Shaybani
Publisher: Darul Ishaat (2005)
Pages: 622 Binding: Hardcover

Description from the publisher:

Imam Muhammad al-Shaybani -- He is Abu ĉAbdullah Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Farqad al-Shaybani. Muhammad was born in Wasit in 132 AH, and grew up in Kufa. He was a pupil of Abu Hanifah. Imam ShafiĈi said, "I have not seen anyone more eloquent than him. I used to think when I saw him reciting the QurĈan that it was as if the QurĈan had been revealed in his language." He also said, "I have not seen anyone more itelligent than Muhammad ibn al-Hasan." Dhahabi said, "He narrated from Malik ibn Anas and others, and he was one of the great oceans of knowledge and fiqh, and he was strong [when he narrated] from Malik." Muhammad said, "I stood at MalikĈs door for three years and I heard [the MuwattaĈ] from him [with] more than seven hundred hadith." He died in Rayy in 189 AH.

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 MuwattaĈ 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"ù about whose contents the people of Madina were unanimously agreedùand 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 ShafiĈi said, "There is not on the face of the earthùafter the Book of Allahùa 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 MuwattaĈ is the most sahih book to be found on the earth after the Book of Allah."

Imam Malik -- Imam Malik is the imam of the imams, the leader of the people of knowledge of Madinah, Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn Abi ĉAmir al-Asbahi al-Madani, born in 94 AH, 95 AH or even 99 AH. He was called the Man of Knowledge of Madina. People of knowledge understood that it was him the Prophet saw indicated in the hadith from Abu Hurayra, "People will soon beat the livers of their camels [in travelling in search of knowledge] but they will not find a man of knowledge more knowledgeable than the man of knowledge of Madina." Among his pupils were the Imams Sufyan ath-Thawri, SaĈid ibn Mansur, ĉAbdullah ibn al-Mubarak, ĉAbd ar-Rahman al-AwzaĈI who was older than him, Layth ibn SaĈd who was one of his peers, Imam al-ShafiĈi, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, the Malikis ĉAbd ar-Rahman ibn al-Qasim, Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, Ibn Wahb, and DhuĈn-Nun al-Misri. He died in 179 AH on the morning of the 14th of RabiĈ al-Awwal.