on his father's authority said his grandfather reported: He was a Companion of the Messenger of Allah (saws) said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) say: When Allah has previously decreed for a servant a rank which he has not attained by his action, He afflicts him in his body, or his property or his children.

Abu Dawud said: Ibn Nufail added in his version: "He then enables him to endure that." The agreed version goes: "So that He may bring him to the rank previously decreed from him by Allah."

The Messenger of Allah (saws) as saying: No one withholds goods till their price rises but a sinner. I said to Sa'id (b. al-Musayyab): You withhold goods till their price rises. He said: Ma'mar used to withhold goods till their price rose.

Abu Dawud said: I asked Ahmad (b. Hanbal): What is hoarding (hukrah) ? He replied: That on which people live.

Abu Dawud said: Al-Auza'i said: A muhtakir (one who hoards) is one who withholds supply of goods in the market.

Ibn ‘Awn said “I wrote to Nafi’ asking him about summoning the polytheists (to Islam) at the time of fighting. So, he wrote to me “This was in the early days of Islam. The Prophet of Allaah(saws) attacked Banu Al Mustaliq while they were inattentive and their cattle were drinking water. So their fighters were killed and the survivors (i.e., women and children) were taken prisoners. On that day Juwairiyyah daughter of Al Harith was obtained. ‘Abd Allaah narrated this to me, he was in that army.”

Abu Dawud said “This is a good tradition narrtted by Ibn ‘Awn from Nafi’ and no one shared him in narrating it.”

Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Abdullah ibn Umar was asked about what a pregnant woman should do if the fast became difficult for her and she feared for her child, and he said, "She should break the fast and feed a poor man one mudd of wheat in place of every day, using the mudd of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace."

Malik said, "The people of knowledge consider that she has to make up for each day of the fast that she misses as Allah, the Exalted and Glorified, says, 'And whoever of you is sick or on a journey should fast an equal number of other days, ' and they consider her pregnancy and her concern for her child as a sickness."

I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "Three men from among those who were before you, set out together till they reached a cave at night and entered it. A big rock rolled down the mountain and closed the mouth of the cave. They said (to each other), Nothing could save you from this rock but to invoke Allah by giving reference to the righteous deed which you have done (for Allah's sake only).' So, one of them said, 'O Allah! I had old parents and I never provided my family (wife, children etc.) with milk before them. One day, by chance I was delayed, and I came late (at night) while they had slept. I milked the sheep for them and took the milk to them, but I found them sleeping. I disliked to provide my family with the milk before them. I waited for them and the bowl of milk was in my hand and I kept on waiting for them to get up till the day dawned. Then they got up and drank the milk. O Allah! If I did that for Your Sake only, please relieve us from our critical situation caused by this rock.' So, the rock shifted a little but they could not get out." The Prophet added, "The second man said, 'O Allah! I had a cousin who was the dearest of all people to me and I wanted to have sexual relations with her but she refused. Later she had a hard time in a famine year and she came to me and I gave her one-hundred-and-twenty Dinars on the condition that she would not resist my desire, and she agreed. When I was about to fulfill my desire, she said: It is illegal for you to outrage my chastity except by legitimate marriage. So, I thought it a sin to have sexual intercourse with her and left her though she was the dearest of all the people to me, and also I left the gold I had given her. O Allah! If I did that for Your Sake only, please relieve us from the present calamity.' So, the rock shifted a little more but still they could not get out from there." The Prophet added, "Then the third man said, 'O Allah! I employed few laborers and I paid them their wages with the exception of one man who did not take his wages and went away. I invested his wages and I got much property thereby. (Then after some time) he came and said to me: O Allah's slave! Pay me my wages. I said to him: All the camels, cows, sheep and slaves you see, are yours. He said: O Allah's slave! Don't mock at me. I said: I am not mocking at you. So, he took all the herd and drove them away and left nothing. O Allah! If I did that for Your Sake only, please relieve us from the present suffering.' So, that rock shifted completely and they got out walking.

"I narrated heard the Messenger of Allah (saws) saying: 'Whoever seperates a mother from her child, Allah seperates him and his most beloved on the Day of Judgement.'"

[Abu 'Eisa said:] This Hadith is Hasan Gharib.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Thawr ibn Zayd ad-Dili that Abdullah ibn Abbas said, "The milk which a child under two years old sucks, even if it is only one suck, makes the foster relatives haram."

Malik related to me that he had heard that al-Maqburi said that Abu Hurayra was asked whether a man who had to free a slave, could free an illegitimate child to fulfil that obligation. Abu Hurayra said, "Yes. That will give satisfaction for him."

[Al-Bukhari and Muslim].

"The Messenger of Allah (saws) gave me two boys who were brothers, so I sold one of them, and the Messenger of Allah (saws) said to me: 'O, 'Ali! What happened to your boy?' So I informed him, and he said: 'Return him, return him.'"

[Abu 'Eisa said:] This Hadith is Hasan Gharib. Some of the people of knowledge among the Companions of the Prophet (saws) and others, disliked separating between the captives when selling them.

Some of the people of knowledge permitted separating the children that were born in the land of Islam, but the first view is more correct. It has been related that Ibrahim An-Nakha'i seperated a mother and her child in a sale, so he was asked about that. He said: "I sought her permission for that and she approved."

"I was informed by As-Sa'b bin Jaththamah who said: " I said: "O Messenger of Allah our horses trampled over women and children of the idolaters." He said: "They are from their fathers.'"

[Abu 'Eisa said:] This Hadith is Hasan Sahih.

'Umar asked about the decision of the Prophet (saws) about that (i.e. abortion). Haml b. Malik b. al-Nabhigah got up and said: I was between two women. One of them struck another with a rolling-pin killing both her and what was in her womb. So the Messenger of Allah (saws) gave judgement that the bloodwit for the unborn child should be a male or a female slave of the best quality and the she should be killed.

Abu Dawud said: Al-Nadr b. Shumail said: Mistah means a rolling-pin.

Abu Dawud said: Abu 'Ubaid said: Mistah means a pole from the tent-poles.

Abu Dawud said: This tradition was read out to al-Harith b. Miskin and I was witness. It was said to him that Ibn Qasim told him that Malik was asked about evil omen in a horse and in a house. He replied: There are many houses in which people lived and perished and again others lived therein and they also perished. This is its explanation so far as we know. Allah knows best.

Abu Dawud said: 'Umar (ra) said: A mat in a house better than a woman who does not give birth to a child.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Yahya ibn Said that Said ibn al-Musayyab said, "It is forbidden to be married to a woman and her paternal or maternal aunt at the same time, and for a man to have intercourse with a female slave who is carrying another man's child."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi from Ibn Umar that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, saw the corpse of a woman who had been slain in one of the raids, and he disapproved of it and forbade the killing of women and children.