I was sitting with some of the companions of Allah's Apostle and we were discussing about the way of praying of the Prophet. Abu Humaid As-Sa`idi said, "I remember the prayer of Allah's Apostle better than any one of you. I saw him raising both his hands up to the level of the shoulders on saying the Takbir; and on bowing he placed his hands on both knees and bent his back straight, then he stood up straight from bowing till all the vertebrate took their normal positions. In prostrations, he placed both his hands on the ground with the forearms away from the ground and away from his body, and his toes were facing the Qibla. On sitting In the second rak`a he sat on his left foot and propped up the right one; and in the last rak`a he pushed his left foot forward and kept the other foot propped up and sat over the buttocks."

Allah's Apostle sent Abu Musa and Mu`adh bin Jabal to Yemen. He sent each of them to administer a province as Yemen consisted of two provinces. The Prophet said (to them), "Facilitate things for the people and do not make things difficult for them (Be kind and lenient (both of you) with the people, and do not be hard on them) and give the people good tidings and do not repulse them. So each of them went to carry on his job. So when any one of them toured his province and happened to come near (the border of the province of) his companion, he would visit him and greet him. Once Mu`adh toured that part of his state which was near (the border of the province of) his companion Abu Musa. Mu`adh came riding his mule till he reached Abu Musa and saw him sitting, and the people had gathered around him. Behold! There was a man tied with his hands behind his neck. Mu`adh said to Abu Musa, "O `Abdullah bin Qais! What is this?" Abu Musa replied. "This man has reverted to Heathenism after embracing Islam." Mu`adh said, "I will not dismount till he is killed." Abu Musa replied, "He has been brought for this purpose, so come down." Mu`adh said, "I will not dismount till he is killed." So Abu Musa ordered that he be killed, and he was killed. Then Mu`adh dismounted and said, "O `Abdullah (bin Qais)! How do you recite the Qur'an ?" Abu Musa said, "I recite the Qur'an regularly at intervals and piecemeal. How do you recite it O Mu`adh?" Mu`adh said, "I sleep in the first part of the night and then get up after having slept for the time devoted for my sleep and then recite as much as Allah has written for me. So I seek Allah's Reward for both my sleep as well as my prayer (at night).

When Abu Bakr; sent me to (collect the Zakat from) Bahrain, he wrote to me the following:-- (In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful). These are the orders for compulsory charity (Zakat) which Allah's Apostle had made obligatory for every Muslim, and which Allah had ordered His Apostle to observe: Whoever amongst the Muslims is asked to pay Zakat accordingly, he should pay it (to the Zakat collector) and whoever is asked more than that (what is specified in this script) he should not pay it; for twenty-four camels or less, sheep are to be paid as Zakat; for every five camels one sheep is to be paid, and if there are between twenty-five to thirty-five camels, one Bint Makhad is to be paid; and if they are between thirty-six to forty-five (camels), one Bint Labun is to be paid; and if they are between forty-six to sixty (camels), one Hiqqa is to be paid; and if the number is between sixty-one to seventy-five (camels), one Jadha is to be paid; and if the number is between seventy-six to ninety (camels), two Bint Labuns are to be paid; and if they are from ninety-one to one-hundredand twenty (camels), two Hiqqas are to be paid; and if they are over one-hundred and-twenty (camels), for every forty (over one-hundred-and-twenty) one Bint Labun is to be paid, and for every fifty camels (over one-hundred-and-twenty) one Hiqqa is to be paid; and who ever has got only four camels, has to pay nothing as Zakat, but if the owner of these four camels wants to give something, he can. If the number of camels increases to five, the owner has to pay one sheep as Zakat. As regards the Zakat for the (flock) of sheep; if they are between forty and one-hundred-and-twenty sheep, one sheep is to be paid; and if they are between one-hundred-and-twenty to two hundred (sheep), two sheep are to be paid; and if they are between two-hundred to three-hundred (sheep), three sheep are to be paid; and for over three-hundred sheep, for every extra hundred sheep, one sheep is to be paid as Zakat. And if somebody has got less than forty sheep, no Zakat is required, but if he wants to give, he can. For silver the Zakat is one-fortieth of the lot (i.e. 2.5%), and if its value is less than two-hundred Dirhams, Zakat is not required, but if the owner wants to pay he can.'

The Prophet (saws) said: In the morning alms are due from every bone in man's fingers and toes. Salutation to everyone he meets is alms; enjoining good is alms; forbidding what is disreputable is alms; removing what is harmful from the road is alms; having sexual intercourse with his wife is alms. The people asked: He fulfils his desire, Messenger of Allah; is it alms? He replied: Tell me if he fulfilled his desire where he had no right, would he commit a sin ? He then said: Two rak'ahs which one prays in the forenoon serve instead of all that.

Abu Dawud said: Hammad did not mention enjoining good and forbidding what is disreputable.

The Prophet used to invoke Allah with the following invocation: 'Rabbi-ghfir-li Khati 'ati wa jahli wa israfi fi `Amri kullihi, wa ma anta a'lamu bihi minni. Allahumma ighfirli khatayaya wa 'amdi, wa jahli wa jiddi, wa kullu dhalika'indi. Allahumma ighrifli ma qaddamtu wa ma akhartu wa ma asrartu wa ma a'lantu. Anta-l-muqaddimu wa anta-l-mu'akh-khiru, wa anta 'ala kulli shai'in qadir.'

The Prophet sent (an army unit under the command of) Khalid bin Al-Walid to fight against the tribe of Bani Jadhima and those people could not express themselves by saying, "Aslamna," but they said, "Saba'na! Saba'na! " Khalid kept on killing some of them and taking some others as captives, and he gave a captive to everyone of us and ordered everyone of us to kill his captive. I said, "By Allah, I shall not kill my captive and none of my companions shall kill his captive!" Then we mentioned that to the Prophet and he said, "O Allah! I am free from what Khalid bin Al-Walid has done," and repeated it twice.

(The clerk of Al-Mughira) Muawiya wrote to Al-Mughira 'Write to me what you have heard from Allah's Apostle.' So he (Al-Mughira) wrote to him: Allah's Prophet used to say at the end of each prayer: "La ilaha illalla-h wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahul Mulku, wa lahul Hamdu wa hula ala kulli shai'in qadir. 'Allahumma la mani' a lima a'taita, wala mu'tiya lima mana'ta, wala yanfa'u dhuljadd minkal-jadd." He also wrote to him that the Prophet used to forbid (1) Qil and Qal (idle useless talk or that you talk too much about others), (2) Asking too many questions (in disputed Religious matters); (3) And wasting one's wealth by extravagance; (4) and to be undutiful to one's mother (5) and to bury the daughters alive (6) and to prevent your favors (benevolence to others (i.e. not to pay the rights of others (7) And asking others for something (except when it is unavoidable).

Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah ibn Umar, when asked about the fear prayer said, "The imam and a group of people go forward and the imam prays a raka with them, while another group, who have not yet prayed, position themselves between him and the enemy. When those who are with him have prayed a raka they draw back to where those who have not prayed are, and do not say the taslim. Then those who have not prayed come forward and pray a raka with him. Then the imam leaves, as he has now prayed two rakas. Everyone else in the two groups stands and prays a raka by himself after the imam has left. In this way each of the two groups will have prayed two rakas. If the fear is greater than that, then the men pray standing on their feet or mounted, either facing the qibla or otherwise."

Yahya related to me from Malik that he heard Rabia ibn Abd ar- Rahman say that a slave could marry four women.

Malik said, "This is the best of what I have heard about the matter."

Malik said, "The slave differs with the muhallil if the slave is given permission by his master for his ex-wife. If his master does not give him permission, he separates them. The muhallil is separated in any case if he intends to make the woman halal by marriage."

Malik said, "When a slave is owned by his wife or a husband owns his wife, the possession of each of them is rendered void without divorce. If a man, for instance, is married to a slave-girl, and then he buys her, he must divorce her as a matter of course. They can then re- marry. If they re-marry afterwards, that separation was not divorce."

Malik said, "When a slave is freed by his wife who owns him and she is in the idda-period from him, they can only return to each other after she has made another marriage."

In the year of the Conquest of Mecca, the tribe of Khuza`a killed a man from the tribe of Bam Laith in revenge for a killed person belonging to them in the Pre-lslamic Period of Ignorance. So Allah's Apostle got up saying, "Allah held back the (army having) elephants from Mecca, but He let His Apostle and the believers overpower the infidels (of Mecca). Beware! (Mecca is a sanctuary)! Verily! Fighting in Mecca was not permitted for anybody before me, nor will it be permitted for anybody after me; It was permitted for me only for a while (an hour or so) of that day. No doubt! It is at this moment a sanctuary; its thorny shrubs should not be uprooted; its trees should not be cut down; and its Luqata (fallen things) should not be picked up except by the one who would look for its owner. And if somebody is killed, his closest relative has the right to choose one of two things, i.e., either the Blood money or retaliation by having the killer killed." Then a man from Yemen, called Abu Shah, stood up and said, "Write that) for me, O Allah's Apostle!" Allah's Apostle said (to his companions), "Write that for Abu Shah." Then another man from Quraish got up, saying, "O Allah's Apostle! Except Al- Idhkhir (a special kind of grass) as we use it in our houses and for graves." Allah's Apostle said, "Except Al-idhkkir."

Allah's Apostle addressed the people saying, "Don't you know what is the day today?" They replied, "Allah and His Apostle know better." We thought that he might give that day another name. The Prophet said, "Isn't it the day of An-Nahr?" We replied, "Yes. O Allah's Apostle." He then said, "What town is this? Isn't it the forbidden (Sacred) Town (Mecca)?" We replied, "Yes, O Allah's Apostle." He then said, "Your blood, your properties, your honors and your skins (i.e., bodies) are as sacred to one another like the sanctity of this day of yours in this month of yours in this town of yours. (Listen) Haven't I conveyed Allah's message to you?" We replied, "Yes" He said, "O Allah! Be witness (for it). So it is incumbent upon those who are present to convey it (this message of mine) to those who are absent because the informed one might comprehend what I have said better than the present audience who will convey it to him.)" The narrator added: In fact, it was like that. The Prophet added, "Beware! Do not renegade as disbelievers after me by striking (cutting) the necks of one another."

In the year of the Conquest of Mecca, the tribe of Khuza`a killed a man from the tribe of Bani Laith in revenge for a killed person, belonging to them. They informed the Prophet about it. So he rode his Rahila (she-camel for riding) and addressed the people saying, "Allah held back the killing from Mecca. (The sub-narrator is in doubt whether the Prophet said "elephant or killing," as the Arabic words standing for these words have great similarity in shape), but He (Allah) let His Apostle and the believers over power the infidels of Mecca. Beware! (Mecca is a sanctuary) Verily! Fighting in Mecca was not permitted for anyone before me nor will it be permitted for anyone after me. It (war) in it was made legal for me for few hours or so on that day. No doubt it is at this moment a sanctuary, it is not allowed to uproot its thorny shrubs or to uproot its trees or to pick up its Luqat (fallen things) except by a person who will look for its owner (announce it publicly). And if somebody is killed, then his closest relative has the right to choose one of the two-- the blood money (Diyya) or retaliation having the killer killed. In the meantime a man from Yemen came and said, "O Allah's Apostle! Get that written for me." The Prophet ordered his companions to write that for him. Then a man from Quraish said, "Except Al-Idhkhir (a type of grass that has good smell) O Allah's Apostle, as we use it in our houses and graves." The Prophet said, "Except Al-Idhkhir i.e. Al-Idhkhir is allowed to be plucked."

A man came to the Prophet (saws) and said: How do you fast, Messenger of Allah? The Messenger of Allah (saws) became angry at what he said.

When Umar observed this (his anger), he said: We are satisfied with Allah as Lord, with Islam as religion, and with Muhammad as Prophet. We seek refuge in Allah from the anger of Allah, and from the anger of His Apostle. Umar continued to repeat these words till his anger cooled down. He then asked: Messenger of Allah, what is the position of one who observes a perpetual fast?

He replied: May he not fast or break his fast. Musaddad said in his version: He has neither fasted nor broken his fast. The narrator, Ghaylan, doubted the actual wordings.

He asked: What is the position of one who fasts two days and does not fast one day?

He said: Is anyone able to do that? He asked: What is the position of one who fasts every second day (i.e. fasts one day and does not fasts the next day)?

He (the Prophet) said: This is the fast that David observed.

He asked: Messenger of Allah, what is the position of one who fasts one day and breaks it for two days? He replied: I wish I were given the power to observe that. Then the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: The observance of three days' fast every month and of one Ramadan to the other (i.e. the fast of Ramadan every year) is (equivalent to) a perpetual fast. I seek from Allah that fasting on the day of Arafah may atone for the sins of the preceding and the coming year, and I seek from Allah that fasting on the day of Ashura' may atone for the sins of the preceding year.

Yahya related to me from Malik that Yazid ibn Abdullah ibn Qusayt saw Said ibn al-Musayyab sell gold counterpoising for gold. He poured his gold into one pan of the scales, and the man with whom he was counterpoising put his gold in the other pan of the scale and when the tongue of the scales was balanced, they took and gave.

Malik said, "According to the way things are done among us there is no harm in selling gold for gold, and silver for silver by counterpoising weight, even if 11 dinars are taken for 10 dinars hand to hand, when the weight of gold is equal, coin for coin, even if the number is different. Dirhams in such a situation are treated the same way as dinars."

Malik said, "If, when counterpoising gold for gold or silver for silver, there is a difference of weight, one party should not give the other the value of the difference in silver or something else. Such a transaction is ugly and a means to usury because if one of the parties were permitted to take the difference for a separate price, it could be as if he had bought it separately, so he would be permitted. Then it would be possible for him to ask for many times the value of the difference in order to permit the completion of the transaction between the two parties.

Malik said, "If he had really been sold the difference without anything else with it, he would not have taken it for a tenth of the price for which he took it in order to put a 'legal front' on the transaction. This leads to allowing what is forbidden . The matter is forbidden."

Malik said that it was not good when counterpoising to give good old gold coins and put along with them unminted gold in exchange for worn kufic gold, which was unpopular and to then treat the exchange as like for like.

Malik said, "The commentary on why that is disapproved is that the owner of the good gold uses the excellence of his old gold coins as an excuse to throw in the unminted gold with it. Had it not been for the superiority of his (good) gold over the gold of the other party, the other party would not have counterpoised the unminted gold for his kufic gold, and the deal would have been refused.

"It is like a man wanting to buy three sa of ajwa dried dates for two sa and a mudd of kabis dates, and on being told that it was not good, then offering two sa of kabis and a sa of poor dates desiring to make the sale possible. That is not good because the owner of the ajwa should not give him ...

The Messenger of Allah (saws) prescribed this sadaqah as one sa' of dried dates or barley, or half a sa' of wheat payable by every freeman or slave, male or female, young or old. When Ali came (to Basrah), he found that price had come down. He said: Allah has given prosperity to you, so give one sa' of everything (as sadaqah).

The narrator Humayd said: Al-Hasan maintained that the sadaqah at the end of Ramadan was due on a person who fasted.

The Prophet sent Khalid bin Al-Walid to the tribe of Jadhima and Khalid invited them to Islam but they could not express themselves by saying, "Aslamna (i.e. we have embraced Islam)," but they started saying "Saba'na! Saba'na (i.e. we have come out of one religion to another)." Khalid kept on killing (some of) them and taking (some of) them as captives and gave every one of us his Captive. When there came the day then Khalid ordered that each man (i.e. Muslim soldier) should kill his captive, I said, "By Allah, I will not kill my captive, and none of my companions will kill his captive." When we reached the Prophet, we mentioned to him the whole story. On that, the Prophet raised both his hands and said twice, "O Allah! I am free from what Khalid has done."

Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Abdullah ibn Umar used to say, "(Voluntary) prayer in both the day and night is two at a time with a taslim after every 2 raka'ahs."

Malik said, "That is the custom among us."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah ibn Umar said that statements like "I cut myself off from you",or"You are abandoned", were considered as three pronouncements of divorce.

Malik said that any strong statements such as these or others were considered as three pronouncements of divorce for a woman whose marriage had been consummated. In the case of a woman whose marriage had not been consummated, the man was asked to make an oath on his deen, as to whether he had intended one or three pronouncements of divorce. If he had intended one pronouncement, he was asked to make an oath by Allah to confirm it, and he became a suitor among other suitors, because a woman whose marriage had been consummated, required three pronouncements of divorce to make her inaccessible for the husband, whilst only one pronouncement was needed to make a woman whose marriage had not been consummated inaccessible.

Malik added, "That is the best of what I have heard about the matter."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Zurayq ibn Hayyan, who was in charge of Egypt in the time of al-Walid, Sulayman, and Umar ibn Abd al-'Aziz, mentioned that Umar ibn Abd al- Aziz had written to him saying, "Assess the muslims that you come across and take from what is apparent of their wealth and whatever merchandise is in their charge, one dinar for every forty dinars, and the same proportion from what is less than that down to twenty dinars, and if the amount falls short of that by one third of a dinar then leave it and do not take anything from it. As for the people of the Book that you come across, take from the merchandise in their charge one dinar for every twenty dinars, and the same proportion from what is less than that down to ten dinars, and if the amount falls short by one third of a dinar leave it and do not take anything from it. Give them a receipt for what you have taken f rom them until the same time next year."

Malik said, "The position among us (in Madina) concerning goods which are being managed for trading purposes is that if a man pays zakat on his wealth, and then buys goods with it, whether cloth, slaves or something similar, and then sells them before a year has elapsed over them, he does not pay zakat on that wealth until a year elapses over it from the day he paid zakat on it. He does not have to pay zakat on any of the goods if he does not sell them for some years, and even if he keeps them for a very long time he still only has to pay zakat on them once when he sells them."

Malik said, "The position among us concerning a man who uses gold or silver to buy wheat, dates, or whatever, for trading purposes and keeps it until a year has elapsed over it and then sells it, is that he only has to pay zakat on it if and when he sells it, if the price reaches a zakatable amount. This is therefore not the same as the harvest crops that a man reaps from his land, or the dates that he harvests from his palms."

Malik said, "A man who has wealth which he invests in trade, but which does not realise a zakatable profit for him, fixes a month in the year when he takes stock of what goods he has for trading, and counts the gold and silver that he has in ready money, and if all of it comes to a zakatable amount he pays zakat on it."

Malik said, "The position is the same for muslims who trade and muslims who do not. They only have to pay zakat once in any one year, whether they trade in ...

Ahmad and Ishaq said: "When a man stands up after two Rak'ah, then he performs the prostrations for As-Sahw before the Salam according to the Hadith of Ibn Buhainah."

'Abdullah bin Buhainah is 'Abdullah bin Malik [so he is] Ibn Buhainah (because) Malik is his father and Buhainah is his mother.

I was informed of this by Ishaq bin Mansur from 'Ali [bin 'Abdullah] bin Al-Madini.

Abu 'Eisa said: The people of knowledge differ over when a man is to perform the prostrations of As-Sahw, is it before the Salam or after it. Some of them thought that her performs them after the Salam. This is the view of Sufyan Ath-Thawri and the people of Al-Kufah. Some of them said he performs them before the Salam. This is the view of most of the Fuqaha among the people of Al-Madinah, like Yahya bin Sa'eed, Rabi'ah, and others. This is also the saying of Ash-Shafi'i.

Some of them said when he adds to the Salat, then it is after the Salam, and when he leaves something out, then before the Salam. This is the view of Malik bin Anas.

Ahmad said: "Whatever is reported from the Prophet (saws) about the prostrations from As-Sahw then it is acted upon in either case." He saw that when one stands after Rak'ah then according to the Hadith of Ibn Buhainah, he is to perform the prostrations before the Salam. When he prays five for Zuhr, then performs the prostrations after the Salam, and if he says Salam after two Rak'ahs of Zuhr or 'Asr then he performs the prostrations after the Salam. All of them are to be acted upon depending upon the case, and in the cases where nothing is reported from the Prophet (saws), then two prostrations are performed for As-Sahw before the Salam.

Ishaq said the same as Ahmad about all of this, with the exception that he said that for every case of As-Sahw that is not mentioned from the Prophet (saws), then if it is an addition to the Salat, then prostrations are performed after the Salam, and ...