al-Arbaun min Riwayat Malik an Nafi lil-Suyuti
- Author died
- 911 AH
- Editions
- al-Ṣaḥābah lil-Turāth
al-Arbaun min Riwayat Malik an Nafi (Forty Hadiths from the Transmission of Malik from Nafi‘), also referred to as Arba‘un Hadithan min Riwayat Malik ‘an Nafi‘ ‘an Ibn ‘Umar, is a specialized hadith tract compiled by al-Jalal al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE) . The work gathers forty prophetic traditions transmitted through the celebrated chain of narration linking Imam Malik ibn Anas, his teacher Nafi‘, and the Companion Abdullah ibn Umar .
Transmission and Structure
Al-Suyuti constructs the collection around a single unbroken chain of transmission (isnad) running from himself to Imam Malik . He begins the work by detailing his own transmission line for the first hadith, which he read directly to Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Umar al-Fawi . Through al-Fawi, the chain proceeds through successive authorities—including Ahmad ibn Hasan al-Suwayda'i, Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Fariqi, Abd al-Samad ibn Muhammad al-Harastani, al-Mu'ayyad al-Tusi, Abd Allah ibn Sahl al-Saydi, Sa'id ibn Muhammad al-Nujayrami, Zahir ibn Ahmad al-Sarakhsi, and Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Samad al-Hashimi—to Abu Mus'ab Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Zuhri, who narrated directly from Malik . For the remaining thirty-nine narrations, al-Suyuti relies upon this identical chain without repeating its full intermediate lineage .
Contents
The forty narrations encompass a variety of legal, ritual, and behavioral rulings derived from the prophetic tradition:
- Ritual Purity and Prayer: Rules on communal ablution, the severe warning against missing the afternoon (‘asr) prayer, times when prayer is prohibited, calling the adhan to pray in dwellings during cold and rainy weather, the virtues and structure of night prayers (qiyam al-layl), the superiority of congregational prayer, the Friday bath (ghusl), and regular voluntary prayers .
- Fasting, Zakat, and Hajj: The obligation of Zakat al-Fitr, sighting the crescent moon for Ramadan, the prohibition of continuous fasting (wisal), seeking Laylat al-Qadr in the final seven nights, designated stations of pilgrimage (mawaqit), the wording of the talbiyah, clothing restrictions during ihram, animals permissible to kill in the sacred precinct, and the Prophet's ﷺ actions upon entering the Kaaba .
- Military Conduct, Ethics, and Transactions: The prohibition of killing women and children in warfare, the prohibition against carrying copies of the Quran into enemy territory, the ethics of private conversations among groups, regulations regarding dogs, marriage proposals, the prohibition of shighar marriages, marital oaths of condemnation (li‘an), and commercial laws such as possession before resale and the contractual option to rescind a sale prior to parting (khiyar al-majlis) .
Preservation and Publication
Manuscript copies of the treatise are preserved in the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya) and the Khedivial Library in Cairo, as well as the Berlin State Library . A printed edition of the text was published in Egypt by Dar al-Sahabah lil-Turath in Tanta .
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