al-Masa'il al-Fiqhiyya li-Ibn Qaddah
- Author died
- 734 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Muṣṭafā lil-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah (ELGA Publications)
al-Masa'il al-Fiqhiyya (Arabic: المسائل الفقهية, lit. 'The Jurisprudential Issues'), commonly known as Masa'il Ibn Qaddah, is a collection of legal rulings and fatwas in Maliki jurisprudence by the Tunisian scholar and chief judge Ibn Qaddah (d. 734 AH / 1333–1334 CE; also reported as d. 736 AH / 1335 CE) .
Background and Compilation
The work consists of legal questions and opinions issued by Abu Ali (also referred to as Abu Hafs) Umar ibn Ali ibn Qaddah al-Hawwari al-Tunisi . Ibn Qaddah served as a judge and mufti in Tunis, where the central authority of issuing legal verdicts was shared primarily between him and Ibn Abd al-Rafi' . It was his regular custom every Friday after prayer to sit against one of the pillars of the Al-Zaytuna Mosque, where members of the public presented legal queries to him; once he had answered forty questions, he would conclude the session . His rulings were subsequently recorded and transmitted as an established corpus of masa'il (legal inquiries) .
Content and Method
The text focuses on practical legal problems solved in accordance with the prevalent and authoritative position (al-mashhur) of the Maliki school . It spans various standard chapters of substantive law, including ritual purity (al-tahara), prayer (al-salat), funerals (al-jana'iz), and financial transactions . Among the specific rulings preserved in the text are questions addressing whether a latecomer joining prayer behind an imam who prayed part of the prayer inside its time and part outside should intend fulfillment (ada') or make-up (qada'), cases of coughing or throat-clearing during prayer, laws governing prayer purity, and the permissibility of markers and inscriptions upon graves .
Reception and Transmission
Masa'il Ibn Qaddah became an authoritative reference for later North African Maliki jurists and commentators . It is frequently cited and discussed by Abu al-Qasim al-Burzuli in his compilation of fatwas, Ibn Arafa in his al-Mukhtasar al-Fiqhi, Ibn Naji in his commentary on al-Mudawwana, and al-Hattab in Mawahib al-Jalil .
Manuscript copies of the work have been preserved across several libraries, including the University of al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez (MS 2/393) and the Vatican Library (MS Borg. 163/3) .
Answer updated