Ashab al-Futya min al-Sahaba wa man badahum ala maratibihim fi kathrat al-Futya
- Author died
- 456 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Ma‘ārif
Ashab al-Futya min al-Sahaba wa man ba'dahum 'ala maratibihim fi kathrat al-futya (The Issuers of Legal Rulings among the Companions and Those After Them According to Their Tiers in the Abundance of Fatwas) is a biographical treatise by the Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm (384–456 AH / 994–1064 CE) that classifies early Islamic jurists by the volume of legal opinions transmitted from them .
Scope and Classification
The work expands upon early biographical categorizations, such as those established by Ibn Sa'd in al-Tabaqat al-kubra concerning the Companions who delivered legal rulings during the lifetime of the Prophet ﷺ . Ibn Hazm categorizes the Companions into three distinct tiers:
- The Prolific (al-mukthirun): Seven Companions from each of whom a large volume of rulings could be compiled. In the manuscript tradition of the treatise, Ibn Hazm listed them beginning with Aisha, followed by Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, Abd Allah ibn Umar, Zayd ibn Thabit, and Abd Allah ibn Abbas .
- The Intermediate (al-mutawassitun): A group of thirteen Companions from each of whom only a small tractate could be compiled, consisting of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umm Salama, Anas ibn Malik, Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, Abu Hurayra, Uthman ibn Affan, Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As, Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Salman al-Farsi, Jabir ibn Abd Allah, and Mu'adh ibn Jabal . Ibn Hazm also adds to them Talha ibn Ubayd Allah, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Imran ibn Husayn, Abu Bakrah, Ubada ibn al-Samit, and Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan .
- The Minimal (al-muqillun): Approximately 120 Companions from whom only one, two, or a few legal questions are reported—including figures such as Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Abu al-Darda', Abu Talha, and al-Miqdad ibn Amr—such that all their fatwas combined would yield only a small tractate .
Following the Companions, the treatise arranges the Successors and subsequent generations of jurists across different regions down to Ibn Hazm's own era according to the frequency of their rulings . Among the later authorities recorded are Sufyan al-Thawri, al-A'mash, Ibn Abi Layla, Abu Hanifa, Hafs ibn Ghiyath, and Waki' ibn al-Jarrah . At the end of the chain of jurists, Ibn Hazm includes his contemporary Ibn Abd al-Barr . A parallel version of this historical survey appears in Ibn Hazm's legal methodology work, al-Ihkam fi usul al-ahkam .
Reception and Transmission
Ibn al-Qayyim cited extensive passages from the treatise in I'lam al-muwaqqi'in 'an rabb al-'alamin . The manuscript copy utilized by Ibn al-Qayyim exhibited variations in ordering—such as placing Umar ibn al-Khattab first among the prolific Companions rather than Aisha—and contained minor differences in the list of names compared to the surviving manuscript . Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi noted in al-Ijabah li-irad ma istadrakat-hu 'A'ishah 'ala al-sahaba that Ibn Hazm placed Aisha ahead of all other Companions in fatwa output, indicating that al-Zarkashi consulted a copy matching the extant recension . Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani also drew upon Ibn Hazm's enumeration in Al-Isaba fi tamyiz al-sahaba when identifying which Companions were recognized as jurists .
Manuscripts and Editions
The treatise survived as an appendix to the manuscript of Ibn Hazm's Jawami' al-sira preserved in the Habibiyya Library in India, which was completed in 1354 AH . It was published as the third treatise in Jawami' al-sira wa-khams rasa'il ukhra, edited by Ihsan Abbas and Nasir al-Din al-Asad (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1956) . It was subsequently edited and published by Sayyid Kasrawi Hasan (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, 1415 AH / 1995 CE) .
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