Malik said, "That is the sunna about which there is no dispute among us."

Yahya related to me from Malik that Yahya ibn Said heard Jamil ibn Abd ar-Rahman the Muadhdhin say to Said ibn al-Musayyab, "I am a man who buys whatever Allah wills of the receipts for the provisions which people are offered at al-Jar. I want to take payment for goods that I guarantee to deliver at a future date." Said said to him, "Do you intend to settle these things with receipts for provisions you have bought?" He said, "Yes." So he forbade that.

Malik said, "The generally agreed on way of doing things among us in which there is no dispute, about buying food - wheat, barley, durra-sorghum, pearl millet, or any pulse or anything resembling pulses on which zakat is obliged, or condiments of any sort - oil, ghee, honey, vinegar, cheese, sesame oil, milk and so on, is that the buyer should not re- sell any of that until he has taken possession and complete delivery of it.

Yahya related to me from Malik that he had heard that Abdullah ibn Abbas used to say, "The least difficult thing acceptable as a sacrificial animal is a sheep."

Malik said, "That is what I like most out of what I have heard about the matter, because Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, says in His Book, 'O you who trust, do not kill game while you are in ihram. Whoever of you kills it intentionally, there shall be repayment the like of what he has slain, from livestock, as shall be judged by two men of justice among you, a sacrificial animal which will reach the Kaba, or food for poor people, or the equivalent of that in fasting,' (Sura 5 ayat 95) and a sheep is one of the animals which is judged to be acceptable as a sacrifice. Allah has called it a sacrificial animal, and there is no dispute among us about the matter. How, indeed, could anyone be in doubt about the matter? A sheep is the kaffara for anything which does not reach the extent of something for which a camel or a cow would be the kaffara, and the kaffara for something which does not reach the extent of something for which a sheep would be the kaffara is fasting, or feeding poor people."

He replied: Urwah ibn az-Zubayr reports a tradition from Sahl ibn Abi Hathmah on the authority of Zayd ibn Thabit who said: The people used to sell fruits before they were clearly in good condition. When the people cut off the fruits, and were demanded to pay the price, the buyer said: The fruits have been smitten by duman, qusham and murad fruit diseases on which they used to dispute. When their disputes which were brought to the Prophet (saws) increased, the Messenger of Allah (saws) said to them as an advice: No, do not sell fruits till they are in good condition, due to a large number of their disputes and differences.

I was in the company of Jabir bin `Abdullah on a journey and he used to serve me though he was older than I. Jarir said, "I saw the Ansar doing a thing (i.e. showing great reverence to the Prophet ) for which I have vowed that whenever I meet any of them, I will serve him."

Today a man came to me and asked me a question which I did not know how to answer. He said, "Tell me, if a wealthy active man, well-equipped with arms, goes out on military expeditions with our chiefs, and orders us to do such things as we cannot do (should we obey him?)" I replied, "By Allah, I do not know what to reply you, except that we, were in the company of the Prophet and he used to order us to do a thing once only till we finished it. And no doubt, everyone among you will remain in a good state as long as he obeys Allah. If one is in doubt as to the legality of something, he should ask somebody who would satisfy him, but soon will come a time when you will not find such a man. By Him, except Whom none has the right to be worshipped. I see that the example of what has passed of this life (to what remains thereof) is like a pond whose fresh water has been used up and nothing remains but muddy water."

Yahya related to me from Malik from a reliable source of his who had heard Said ibn al-Musayyab say, ''Umar ibn al-Khattab refused to let anyone inherit from the non-arabs except for one who was born among the arabs."

Malik said, "If a pregnant woman comes from the land of the enemy and gives birth in arab land so that he is her (an arab) child, he inherits from her if she dies, and she inherits from him if he dies, by the Book of Allah."

Malik said, "The generally agreed on way of doing things among us and the sunna in which there is no dispute, and what I saw the people of knowledge in our city doing, is that a Muslim does not inherit from a kafir by kinship, clientage (wala'), or maternal relationship, nor does he (the Muslim) overshadow any (of the kafirs) from his inheritance.

Malik said, "Similarly, someone who forgoes his inheritance when he is the chief heir does not overshadow anyone from his inheritance."

Malik said, "The generally agreed on way of doing things among us in which there is no dispute and which I saw the people of knowledge in our citydoing, is that the child of the half-sibling by the mother, the paternal grandfather, the paternal uncle who is the maternal half- brother of the father, the maternal uncle, the great-grandmother who is the mother of the mother's father, the daughter of the full- brother, the paternal aunt, and the maternal aunt do not inherit anything by their kinship."

Malik said, "The woman who is the furthest relation of the deceased of those who were named in this book, does not inherit anything by her kinship, and women do not inherit anything apart from those that are named in the Qur'an. Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, mentioned in His Book the inheritance ofthe mother from her children, the inheritance of the daughters from their father, the inheritance of the wife from her husband, the inheritance of the full sisters, the inheritance of the half-sisters by the father and the inheritance of the half-sisters by the mother. The grandmother is made an heir by the example of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, made about her. A woman inherits from a slave she frees herself because Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, said in His Book, 'They are your brothers in the deen and your mawali.' "

`Abdullah used to give a religious talk to the people on every Thursday. Once a man said, "O Aba `Abdur-Rahman! (By Allah) I wish if you could preach us daily." He replied, "The only thing which prevents me from doing so, is that I hate to bore you, and no doubt I take care of you in preaching by selecting a suitable time just as the Prophet used to do with us, for fear of making us bored."

Anas said, "I will leave no stone unturned in making you offer the prayer as I have seen the Prophet making us offer it." Anas used to do a thing which I have not seen you doing. He used to stand after the bowing for such a long time that one would think that he had forgotten (the prostrations) and he used to sit in-between the prostrations so long that one would think that he had forgotten the second prostration.

who was one of those who used to write the Divine Revelation: Abu Bakr sent for me after the (heavy) casualties among the warriors (of the battle) of Yamama (where a great number of Qurra' were killed). `Umar was present with Abu Bakr who said, `Umar has come to me and said, The people have suffered heavy casualties on the day of (the battle of) Yamama, and I am afraid that there will be more casualties among the Qurra' (those who know the Qur'an by heart) at other battle-fields, whereby a large part of the Qur'an may be lost, unless you collect it. And I am of the opinion that you should collect the Qur'an." Abu Bakr added, "I said to `Umar, 'How can I do something which Allah's Apostle has not done?' `Umar said (to me), 'By Allah, it is (really) a good thing.' So `Umar kept on pressing, trying to persuade me to accept his proposal, till Allah opened my bosom for it and I had the same opinion as `Umar." (Zaid bin Thabit added:) `Umar was sitting with him (Abu Bakr) and was not speaking. me). "You are a wise young man and we do not suspect you (of telling lies or of forgetfulness): and you used to write the Divine Inspiration for Allah's Apostle. Therefore, look for the Qur'an and collect it (in one manuscript). " By Allah, if he (Abu Bakr) had ordered me to shift one of the mountains (from its place) it would not have been harder for me than what he had ordered me concerning the collection of the Qur'an. I said to both of them, "How dare you do a thing which the Prophet has not done?" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah, it is (really) a good thing. So I kept on arguing with him about it till Allah opened my bosom for that which He had opened the bosoms of Abu Bakr and `Umar. So I started locating Qur'anic material and collecting it from parchments, scapula, leaf-stalks of date palms and from the memories of men (who knew it by heart). I found with Khuza`ima two Verses of Surat-at-Tauba which I had not found with anybody else, (and they were):-- "Verily there has come to you an Apostle (Muhammad) from amongst yourselves. It grieves him that you should receive any injury or difficulty He (Muhammad) is ardently anxious over you (to be rightly guided)" (9.128) The manuscript on which the Qur'an was collected, remained with Abu Bakr till Allah took him unto Him, and then with `Umar till Allah took him unto Him, and finally it remained with Hafsa, `Umar's daughter.

The Prophet said, "Soon others will be preferred to you, and there will be things which you will not like." The companions of the Prophet asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What do you order us to do (in this case)? " He said, "(I order you) to give the rights that are on you and to ask your rights from Allah."

I heard Um Ad-Darda' saying, "Abu Ad-Darda' entered the house in an angry mood. I said to him. 'What makes you angry?' He replied, 'By Allah! I do not find the followers of Muhammad doing those good things (which they used to do before) except the offering of congregational prayer." (This happened in the last days of Abu Ad-Darda' during the rule of `Uthman) .

When the news of the arrival of the Prophet at Medina reached `Abdullah bin Salam, he went to him to ask him about certain things, He said, "I am going to ask you about three things which only a Prophet can answer: What is the first sign of The Hour? What is the first food which the people of Paradise will eat? Why does a child attract the similarity to his father or to his mother?" The Prophet replied, "Gabriel has just now informed me of that." Ibn Salam said, "He (i.e. Gabriel) is the enemy of the Jews amongst the angels. The Prophet said, "As for the first sign of The Hour, it will be a fire that will collect the people from the East to the West. As for the first meal which the people of Paradise will eat, it will be the caudate (extra) lobe of the fish-liver. As for the child, if the man's discharge proceeds the woman's discharge, the child attracts the similarity to the man, and if the woman's discharge proceeds the man's, then the child attracts the similarity to the woman." On this, `Abdullah bin Salam said, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped except Allah, and that you are the Apostle of Allah." and added, "O Allah's Apostle! Jews invent such lies as make one astonished, so please ask them about me before they know about my conversion to I slam . " The Jews came, and the Prophet said, "What kind of man is `Abdullah bin Salam among you?" They replied, "The best of us and the son of the best of us and the most superior among us, and the son of the most superior among us. "The Prophet said, "What would you think if `Abdullah bin Salam should embrace Islam?" They said, "May Allah protect him from that." The Prophet repeated his question and they gave the same answer. Then `Abdullah came out to them and said, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped except Allah and that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah!" On this, the Jews said, "He is the most wicked among us and the son of the most wicked among us." So they degraded him. On this, he (i.e. `Abdullah bin Salam) said, "It is this that I was afraid of, O Allah's Apostle.

The Messenger of Allah (saws) used to say: "O Allah, I seek refuge in Thee from four things: Knowledge which does not profit, a heart which is not submissive, a soul which has an insatiable appetite, and a supplication which is not heard."

The delegates of `Abd-ul-Qais came to Allah's Apostle and said, "O Allah's Apostle! We are from the tribe of Rabi`a and the infidels of Mudar tribe stand between us and you, so that we cannot come to you except in the Sacred Months. Therefore we would like you to give us some instructions which we may follow and convey to our people staying behind us." The Prophet said, "I order you to observe four things and forbid you (to do) four things: (I order you) to believe in Allah testifying that None has the right to be worshipped except Allah; to offer the prayer perfectly; to pay the Zakat; and to give one-fifth of the war booty to Allah. And I forbid you to use Ad-Dubba, Al-Hantam, An-Naqir and Al- Muzaffat." (These are names of utensils in which alcoholic drinks were served.)

I never saw the Messenger of Allah (saws) that some dispute which involved retaliation was brought to him but he commanded regarding it for remission.

Malik said, "The generally agreed on way of doing things among us is that some one who buys some fruit, fresh or dry, should not resell it until he gets full possession of it. He should not barter things of the same type, except hand to hand. Whatever can be made into dry fruit to be stored and eaten, should not be bartered for its own kind, except hand to hand, like for like, when it is the same kind of fruit. In the case of two different kinds of fruit, there is no harm in bartering two of one kind for one of another, hand to hand on the spot. It is not good to set delayed terms. As for produce which is not dried and stored but is eaten fresh like water melon, cucumber, melon, carrots, citron, medlars, pomegranates, and soon, which when dried no longer counts as fruit, and is not a thing which is stored up as is fruit, I think that it is quite proper to barter such things two for one of the same variety hand to hand. If no term enters into it, there is no harm in it."

My uncle Zuhair said, "Allah's Apostle forbade us to do a thing which was a source of help to us." I said, "Whatever Allah's Apostle said was right." He said, "Allah's Apostle sent for me and asked, 'What are you doing with your farms?' I replied, 'We give our farms on rent on the basis that we get the yield produced at the banks of the water streams (rivers) for the rent, or rent it for some Wasqs of barley and dates.' Allah's Apostle said, 'Do not do so, but cultivate (the land) yourselves or let it be cultivated by others gratis, or keep it uncultivated.' I said, 'We hear and obey.'

Ibn `Umar intended to perform Hajj in the year of the Hajj of Al-Harawriya during the rule of Ibn Az- Zubair. Some people said to him, "It is very likely that there will be a fight among the people, and we are afraid that they might prevent you (from performing Hajj)." He replied, "Verily, in Allah's Apostle there is a good example for you (to follow). In this case I would do the same as he had done. I make you witness that I have intended to perform `Umra." When he reached Al-Baida', he said, "The conditions for both Hajj and `Umra are the same. I make you witness that I have intended to perform Hajj along with `Umra." After that he took a garlanded Hadi (to Mecca) which he bought (on the way). When he reached (Mecca), he performed Tawaf of the Ka`ba and of Safa (and Marwa) and did not do more than that. He did not make legal for himself the things which were illegal for a Muhrim till it was the Day of Nahr (sacrifice), when he had his head shaved and slaughtered (the sacrifice) and considered sufficient his first Tawaf (between Safa and Marwa), as a (Sa`i) for his Hajj and `Umra both. He then said, "The Prophet used to do like that."

The things which annul the prayers were mentioned before me. They said, "Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people)." I said, "You have made us (i.e. women) dogs. I saw the Prophet praying while I used to lie in my bed between him and the Qibla. Whenever I was in need of something, I would slip away. for I disliked to face him."

The things which annul prayer were mentioned before me (and those were): a dog, a donkey and a woman. I said, "You have compared us (women) to donkeys and dogs. By Allah! I saw the Prophet praying while I used to lie in (my) bed between him and the Qibla. Whenever I was in need of something, I disliked to sit and trouble the Prophet. So, I would slip away by the side of his feet."

This hadith was mentioned through another chain.

When the time of the death of the Prophet approached while there were some men in the house, and among them was `Umar bin Al-Khatttab, the Prophet said, "Come near let me write for you a writing after which you will never go astray." `Umar said, "The Prophet is seriously ill, and you have the Qur'an, so Allah's Book is sufficient for us." The people in the house differed and disputed. Some of them said, "Come near so that Allah's Apostle may write for you a writing after which you will not go astray," while some of them said what `Umar said. When they made much noise and differed greatly before the Prophet, he said to them, "Go away and leave me." Ibn `Abbas used to say, "It was a great disaster that their difference and noise prevented Allah's Apostle from writing that writing for them.

The delegates of `Abdul Qais came to Allah's Apostle and said, "The pagans of the tribe of Mudar intervene between you and us therefore we cannot come to you except in the Holy months. So please order us to do something good (Religious deeds) by which we may enter Paradise (by acting on them) and we may inform our people whom we have left behind to observe it." The Prophet said, "I order you to do four things and forbid you from four things: I order you to believe in Allah. Do you know what is meant by belief in Allah? It is to testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, to offer prayers perfectly, to give Zakat, and to give Al-Khumus (one-fifth of the war booty) (in Allah's Cause). And I forbid you four things, (i.e., Do not drink alcoholic drinks) Ad-Dubba, An- Naqir, (pitched water skins), Az-Zuruf, Al-Muzaffat and Al--Hantam (names of utensils used for the preparation of alcoholic drinks)." (See Hadith No. 50, Vol. 1)

Allah's Apostle used to send the Hadi from Medina and I used to twist the garlands for his Hadi and he did not keep away from any of these things which a Muhrim keeps away from.

Allah's Apostle said, "Allah said, "I have prepared for My Pious slaves things which have never been seen by an eye, or heard by an ear, or imagined by a human being." If you wish, you can recite this Verse from the Holy Qur'an:--"No soul knows what is kept hidden for them, of joy as a reward for what they used to do." (32.17)

I went to the Prophet along with a group of Al-Ash`ariyin in order to request him to provide us with mounts. He said, "By Allah, I will not provide you with mounts and I haven't got anything to mount you on." Then we stayed there as long as Allah wished us to stay, and then three very nice looking she-camels were brought to him and he made us ride them. When we left, we, or some of us, said, "By Allah, we will not be blessed, as we came to the Prophet asking him for mounts, and he swore that he would not give us any mounts but then he did give us. So let us go back to the Prophet and remind him (of his oath)." When we returned to him (and reminded him of the fact), he said, "I did not give you mounts, but it is Allah Who gave you. By Allah, Allah willing, if I ever take an oath to do something and then I find something else than the first, I will make expiation for my oath and do the thing which is better (or do something which is better and give the expiation for my oath).

Malik related to me that he heard Ibn Shihab say, "The precedent of the sunna is that when a slave is freed, his property follows him."

Malik said, "One thing which makes clear that the property of a slave follows him when he is freed is that when the contract (mukatab) is written for his freedom, his property follows him even if he did not stipulate it. That is because the bond of kitaba is the bond of wala' when it is complete. The property of a slave and a mukatab is not treated in the same way as any children they may have. Their children are only treated in the same way as their own slaves, not in the same way as their property. This is because the sunna, in which there is no dispute, is that when a slave is freed, his property follows him and his children do not follow him, and when a mukatab writes the contract for his freedom, his property follows him and his children do not follow him."

Malik said, "One thing which makes that clear is that when a slave or a mukatab are bankrupt, their property is taken but the mothers of their children and their children are not taken because they are not their property."

Malik said, "Another thing which makes it clear is that when a slave is sold and the person who buys him stipulates the inclusions of his property, his children are not included in his property."

Malik said, "Another thing which makes it clear is that when a slave does injure some one, he and his property are taken, and his children are not taken."

We used to participate in the holy wars carried on by the Prophet and we had no women (wives) with us. So we said (to the Prophet ). "Shall we castrate ourselves?" But the Prophet forbade us to do that and thenceforth he allowed us to marry a woman (temporarily) by giving her even a garment, and then he recited: "O you who believe! Do not make unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you."