Malik said, "The inheritance of a husband from a wife when she leaves no children or grandchildren through sons is a half. If she leaves children or grandchildren through sons, male or female, by her present or previous husbands, the husband has a quarter after bequests or debts. The inheritance of a wife from a husband who does not leave children or grandchildren through sons is a quarter. If he leaves children or grandchildren through sons, male or female, the wife has an eighth after bequests and debts. That is because Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted! said in His Book, 'You have a half of what your wives leave if they have no children. If they have children, you have a fourth of what they leave after bequests and debts. They have a fourth of what you leave if you have no children. If you have children, they have an eighth after bequests or debts.' " (Sura4ayat 11).

It is the Prophet's tradition that if someone marries a virgin and he has already a matron wife then he should stay for seven days with her (the virgin) and then by turns; and if someone marries a matron and he has already a virgin wife then he should stay with her (the matron) for three days, and then by turns.

The Prophet used to kiss and embrace (his wives) while he was fasting, and he had more power to control his desires than any of you. Said Jabir, "The person who gets discharge after casting a look (on his wife) should complete his fast."

`Umar said, "I agreed with Allah in three things," or said, "My Lord agreed with me in three things. I said, 'O Allah's Apostle! Would that you took the station of Abraham as a place of prayer.' I also said, 'O Allah's Apostle! Good and bad persons visit you! Would that you ordered the Mothers of the believers to cover themselves with veils.' So the Divine Verses of Al-Hijab (i.e. veiling of the women) were revealed. I came to know that the Prophet had blamed some of his wives so I entered upon them and said, 'You should either stop (troubling the Prophet ) or else Allah will give His Apostle better wives than you.' When I came to one of his wives, she said to me, 'O `Umar! Does Allah's Apostle haven't what he could advise his wives with, that you try to advise them?' " Thereupon Allah revealed:-- "It may be, if he divorced you (all) his Lord will give him instead of you, wives better than you Muslims (who submit to Allah).." (66.5)

A woman came to the Prophet (saws) while we were with him.

She said: Messenger of Allah, my husband, Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal, beats me when I pray, and makes me break my fast when I keep a fast, and he does not offer the dawn prayer until the sun rises.

He asked Safwan, who was present, about what she had said. He replied: Messenger of Allah, as for her statement "he beats me when I pray", she recites two surahs (during prayer) and I have prohibited her (to do so).

He (the Prophet) said: If one surah is recited (during prayer), that is sufficient for the people.

(Safwan continued:) As regards her saying "he makes me break my fast," she dotes on fasting; I am a young man, I cannot restrain myself.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said on that day: A woman should not fast except with the permission of her husband.

(Safwan said:) As for her statement that I do not pray until the sun rises, we are a people belonging to a class, and that (our profession of supplying water) is already known about us. We do not awake until the sun rises. He said: When you awake, offer your prayer.

Khawlah was the wife of Aws ibn as-Samit; he was a man immensely given to sexual intercourse. When his desire for intercourse was intensified, he made his wife like his mother's back. So Allah, the Exalted, sent down Qur'anic verses relating to expiation for zihar.

(the daughter of Muawwidh bin Afra) After the consummation of my marriage, the Prophet came and sat on my bed as far from me as you are sitting now, and our little girls started beating the tambourines and reciting elegiac verses mourning my father who had been killed in the battle of Badr. One of them said, "Among us is a Prophet who knows what will happen tomorrow." On that the Prophet said, "Leave this (saying) and keep on saying the verses which you had been saying before."

The Messenger of Allah (saws) said: If you gain a victory over the men of Jews, kill them. So Muhayyisah jumped over Shubaybah, a man of the Jewish merchants. He had close relations with them. He then killed him. At that time Huwayyisah (brother of Muhayyisah) had not embraced Islam. He was older than Muhayyisah. When he killed him, Huwayyisah beat him and said: O enemy of Allah, I swear by Allah, you have a good deal of fat in your belly from his property.

A man said, "O Allah's Apostle! If a man finds another man with his wife, (committing adultery) should the husband kill him?" Later on I saw them (the man and his wife) doing Li`an in the mosque (taking oaths, one accusing, and the other denying adultery).

At the time of giving the pledge of allegiance to the Prophet one of the conditions was that we would not wail, but it was not fulfilled except by five women and they are Um Sulaim, Um Al-`Ala', the daughter of Abi Sabra (the wife of Mu`adh), and two other women; or the daughter of Abi Sabra and the wife of Mu`adh and another woman.

Yahya related to me from Malik from more than one source that when Abdullah ibn Masud was in Kufa, he was asked for an opinion about marrying the mother after marrying the daughter when the marriage with the daughter had not been consummated. He permitted it. When Ibn Masud came to Madina, he asked about it and was told that it was not as he had said, and that this condition referred to foster-mothers. Ibn Masud returnedto Kufa,and he had just reached his dwelling when the man who had asked him for the opinion came to visit and he ordered him to separate from his wife.

Malik said that if a man married the mother of a woman who was his wife and he had sexual relations with the mother then his wife was haram for him, and he had to separate from both of them. They were both haram to him forever, if he had had sexual relations with the mother. If he had not had relations with the mcther, his wife was not haram for him, and he separated from the mother.

Malik explained further about the man who married a woman, and then married her mother and cohabited with her, "The mother will never be halal for him, and she is not halal for his father or his son, and any daughters of hers are not halal for him and so his wife is haram for him."

Malik said, "Fornication however, does not make any of that haram because Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, mentioned 'the mothers of your wives,' as one whom marriage made haram, and he didn't mention the making haram by fornication. Every marriage in a halal manner in which a man cohabits with his wife, is a halal marriage. This is what I have heard, and this is how things are done among us."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from Salim ibn Abdullah that his father Abdullah ibn Umar used to say, "A man's kissing his wife and fondling her with his hands are part of intercourse. Someone who kisses his wife or fondles her with his hand must do wudu."

Regarding the explanation of the following verse:-- "If a wife fears Cruelty or desertion On her husband's part." (4.128) A man may dislike his wife and intend to divorce her, so she says to him, "I give up my rights, so do not divorce me." The above verse was revealed concerning such a case.

The Prophet said, "No man should stay with a lady in seclusion except in the presence of a Dhu- Muhram." A man stood up and said, "O Allah's Apostle! My wife has gone out intending to perform the Hajj and I have been enrolled (in the army) for such-and-such campaign." The Prophet said, "Return and perform the Hajj with your wife."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Hisham ibn Urwa from his father that A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say, "If you have intercourse with your wife and then wish to go to sleep before doing ghusl, do not sleep until you have done wudu as for prayer."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab from Said ibn al- Musayyab that Nufay, a mukatab of Umm Salama, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, divorced his free wife twice, so he asked Uthman ibn Affan for an opinion, and he said, "She is haram for you."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that Said al-Musayyab and Abu Bakr ibn Abd ar-Rahman said about a man who made a vow to abstain from intercourse with his wife, "If four months pass it is a divorce. The husband can go back to his wife as long as she is in her idda."

(the wife of the Prophet) Allah's Apostle came to me when Allah ordered him to give option to his wives. So Allah's Apostle started with me, saying, "I am going to mention to you something but you should not hasten (to give your reply) unless you consult your parents.' He knew that my parents would not order me to leave him. Then he said, "Allah says:-- "O Prophet! Say to your wives..." (33.28-29) On that I said to him, "Then why should I consult my parents? Verily, I seek Allah, His Apostle and the Home of the Hereafter."

Allah's Prophet Solomon who had sixty wives, once said, "Tonight I will have sexual relation (sleep) with all my wives so that each of them will become pregnant and bring forth (a boy who will grow into) a cavalier and will fight in Allah's Cause." So he slept with his wives and none of them (conceived and) delivered (a child) except one who brought a half (body) boy (deformed). Allah's Prophet said, "If Solomon had said; 'If Allah Will,' then each of those women would have delivered a (would-be) cavalier to fight in Allah's Cause." (See Hadith No. 74 A, Vol. 4).

Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu'z-Zinad from Sulayman ibn Yasar that Nufay, a mukatab of Umm Salama the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, or her slave, had a free woman as a wife. He divorced her twice, and then he wanted to return to her. The wives of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, ordered him to go to Uthman ibn Affan to ask him about it. He found him at ad-Daraj with Zayd ibn Thabit. He asked them, and they both anticipated him and said, "She is haram for you. She is haram for you."

Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said said that he had heard al-Qasim ibn Muhammad say that Zayd ibn Abd al-Malik separated some men and their wives who were slave-girls who had borne children to men who had died, because they had married them after one or two menstrual periods. He separated them until they had done an idda of four months and ten days. Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad said, "Glory be to Allah! Allah says in His Book, 'Those of you who die, leaving wives, they are not wives.' "

A mukhannath (eunuch) used to enter upon the wives of Prophet (saws). They (the people) counted him among those who were free of physical needs. One day the Prophet (saws) entered upon us when he was with one of his wives, and was describing the qualities of a woman, saying: When she comes forward, she comes forward with four (folds in her stomach), and when she goes backward, she goes backward with eight (folds in her stomach). The Prophet (saws) said: Do I not see that this (man) knows what here lies. Then they (the wives) observed veil from him.

(the wife of the Prophet) Safiya bin Huyai, the wife of the Prophet menstruated during Hajjat-ul- Wada` The Prophet said, "Is she going to detain us?" I said to him, "She has already come to Mecca and performed the Tawaf (ul-ifada) around the Ka`ba, O Allah's Apostle." The Prophet said, " Let her then proceed on (to Medina).

Allah's Apostle took an oath that he would not visit his wives for one month, and he sat in an upper room belonging to him. Then, on the twenty ninth day he came down. It was said, "O Allah's Apostle! You had taken an oath not to visit your wives for one month." He said, "The (present) month is of twenty-nine days."

The daughter of Abi Umaiyya, was the wife of 'Umar bin Al-Khattab. 'Umar divorced her and then Mu'awiyya bin Abi Sufyan married her. Similarly, Um Al-Hakam, the daughter of Abi Sufyan was the wife of 'Iyad bin Ghanm Al-Fihri. He divorced her and then 'Abdullah bin 'Uthman Al-Thaqafi married her.

Yahya related to me from Malik from Nafi that Abdullah ibn Umar divorced one of his wives in the house of Hafsa, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while he was on the way to the mosque. He went another route from behind the houses being averse to ask permission to enter until he returned to her.

Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Abdullah ibn Umar and Abu Hurayra were asked about a man who gave his wife power over herself, and she returned it to him without doing anything with it. They said that there was no divorce. (i.e. The man's giving his wife power over herself was not interpreted as a desire for divorce on his part.)

One morning we saw the wives of the Prophet weeping, and everyone of them had her family with her, I went to the mosque and found that it was crowded with people. Then `Umar bin Al-Khattab came and went up to the Prophet who was in his upper room. He greeted him but nobody answered. He greeted again, but nobody answered. Then the gatekeeper called him and he entered upon the Prophet, and asked, "Have you divorced your wives?" The Prophet, said, "No, but I have taken an oath not to go to them for one month." So the Prophet stayed away (from his wives) for twenty nine days and then entered upon them.

The wives of the Prophet used to go to Al-Manasi, a vast open place (near Baqi` at Medina) to answer the call of nature at night. `Umar used to say to the Prophet "Let your wives be veiled," but Allah's Apostle did not do so. One night Sauda bint Zam`a the wife of the Prophet went out at `Isha' time and she was a tall lady. `Umar addressed her and said, "I have recognized you, O Sauda." He said so, as he desired eagerly that the verses of Al-Hijab (the observing of veils by the Muslim women) may be revealed. So Allah revealed the verses of "Al-Hijab" (A complete body cover excluding the eyes).

Zaid bin Haritha came to the Prophet complaining about his wife. The Prophet kept on saying (to him), "Be afraid of Allah and keep your wife." Aisha said, "If Allah's Apostle were to conceal anything (of the Qur'an he would have concealed this Verse." Zainab used to boast before the wives of the Prophet and used to say, "You were given in marriage by your families, while I was married (to the Prophet) by Allah from over seven Heavens." And Thabit recited, "The Verse:-- 'But (O Muhammad) you did hide in your heart that which Allah was about to make manifest, you did fear the people,' (33.37) was revealed in connection with Zainab and Zaid bin Haritha."

(the wife of the Prophet) Allah's Apostle used to pray (at night) in Ramadan.

(the wife of the Prophet) The Prophet ordered all his wives to finish their Ihram during the year of Hajjat-ul-Wada`. On that, I asked the Prophet "What stops you from finishing your lhram?" He said, "I have matted my hair and garlanded my Hadi. So I will not finish my Ihram unless I have slaughtered my Hadi."

We presented ourselves along with Ibn `Abbas at the funeral procession of Maimuna at a place called Sarif. Ibn `Abbas said, "This is the wife of the Prophet so when you lift her bier, do not Jerk it or shake it much, but walk smoothly because the Prophet had nine wives and he used to observe the night turns with eight of them, and for one of them there was no night turn."

Yahya related to me from Malik from Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Qasim that his father told him that A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, admitted those whom her sisters and the daughters of her brother had nursed, and she did not admit those who were nursed by the wives of her brothers.

The Prophet (saws) said: If anyone resorts to a diviner and believes in what he says (according) to the version of Musa), or has intercourse with his wife (according to the agreed version) when she is menstruating, or has intercourse with his wife through her anus, he has nothing to do with what has been sent down to Muhammad (saws) - according to the version of Musaddad.

That during the Mina days, Abu Bakr came to her, while there where two girls with her, beating drums, and the Prophet was (lying) covering himself with his garment. Abu Bakr rebuked the two girls, but the Prophet uncovered his face and said, "O Abu Bakr! Leave them, for these are the days of Id (festival)." Those days were the days of Mina-. `Aisha added, "I was being screened by the Prophet while I was watching the Ethiopians playing in the Mosque. `Umar rebuked them, but the Prophet said, "Leave them, O Bani Arfida! Play. (for) you are safe."

I suffered from drought; so I entered a garden of Medina, and rubbed an ear-corn. I ate and carried in my garment. Then its master came, he beat me and took my garment. He came to the Messenger of Allah (saws) who said to him: You did not teach him if he was ignorant; and you did not feed him if he was hungry. He ordered him, so he returned my garment to me, and gave me one or half a wasq (sixty or thirty sa's) of corn.

I can still picture myself looking at the Messenger of Allah (saws) who was among the camps of the Companions seeking the camp of Khalid ibn al-Walid, when a man who had drunk wine was brought before him. He asked the people: Beat him. Some struck him with sandals, some with sticks and some with fresh branches of the palm-tree (mitakhah). Ibn Wahb said: This (mitakhah) means green palm fronds. Then the apostle of Allah (saws) took some dust from the ground and threw it on his face.

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."

I married a woman and then a black lady came to us and said, "I have suckled you both (you and your wife)." So I came to the Prophet and said, "I married so-and-so and then a black lady came to us and said to me, 'I have suckled both of you.' But I think she is a liar." The Prophet turned his face away from me and I moved to face his face, and said, "She is a liar." The Prophet said, "How (can you keep her as your wife) when that lady has said that she has suckled both of you? So abandon (i.e., divorce) her (your wife).

(the wife of the Prophet) `Umar bin Al-Khattab used to say to Allah's Apostle "Let your wives be veiled" But he did not do so. The wives of the Prophet used to go out to answer the call of nature at night only at Al-Manasi.' Once Sauda, the daughter of Zam`a went out and she was a tall woman. `Umar bin Al-Khattab saw her while he was in a gathering, and said, "I have recognized you, O Sauda!" He (`Umar) said so as he was anxious for some Divine orders regarding the veil (the veiling of women.) So Allah revealed the Verse of veiling. (Al-Hijab; a complete body cover excluding the eyes). (See Hadith No. 148, Vol. 1)

Regarding the Verse: "And among men is he who worships Allah's as it were on the very edge." (22.11). A man used to come to Medina as if his wife brought a son and his mares produces offspring. He would say, "This religion (Islam) is good," but if his wife did not give birth to a child and his mares produced no offspring, he would say, "This religion is bad."

Anas bin Malik said, "The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number." I asked Anas, "Had the Prophet the strength for it?" Anas replied, "We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of thirty (men)." And Sa`id said on the authority of Qatada that Anas had told him about nine wives only (not eleven).

The Prophet said, "A Muhrim can kill (five kinds of animals.)"