Asila wa Ajwiba fi al-Muamalat - dimn "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dar Alam al-Fawa'id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
As’ilah wa-Ajwibah fi al-Mu‘amalat (Questions and Answers on Financial Transactions) is an unfinished jurisprudential treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Mu‘allimi (1313–1386 AH / 1895–1966 CE; also reported as born in 1312 AH), composed in a pedagogical question-and-answer format to explain the rules of Islamic commercial law . It was published as part of his collected works (Athar al-Mu‘allimi) within the compendium of his legal treatises (Majmu‘ Rasa’il al-Fiqh) .
Background and Manuscript
Al-Mu‘allimi did not provide an explicit title on his original manuscript . The work was preserved among his papers in the library of the Grand Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki) under microfilm number 3555, spanning seven folios . In the library catalog, it was designated as Risalat As’ilah wa-Ajwibah fi al-Bay‘ (Treatise of Questions and Answers on Sale) . It was later edited and published under the title As’ilah wa-Ajwibah fi al-Mu‘amalat as the twenty-second treatise in his collection of legal writings .
Structure and Content
The treatise adopts a catechistic style to clarify transactions (mu‘amalat), a subject often considered among the most intricate fields of jurisprudence . It was structured across several topics:
- Sale (al-Bay‘): Opens with the definition of sale in language and Islamic law—citing Ibn Qudamah's al-‘Umdah—and specifies what may or may not be sold (such as dogs, wine, unowned goods, non-existent items, and uncertain sales), along with forbidden commercial practices mentioned in hadiths and their explanations .
- Usury (al-Riba): Defines usury, enumerates the six commodities specified in prophetic tradition (gold, silver, wheat, barley, dates, and salt), outlines the rules governing exchanges of like items, and addresses extensions of these rules to weighed and measured commodities .
- Subsequent Chapters: Covers the sale of estates and produce (Bay‘ al-Usul wa-l-Thimar), contractual options (al-Khiyar) detailing its seven categories, forward sales (al-Salam), loans (al-Qard), and debt rulings (Ahkam al-Dayn) .
The text concludes abruptly with an empty heading titled Bab al-Hawalah wa-l-Daman (Chapter on Debt Transfer and Suretyship), beneath which al-Mu‘allimi wrote nothing further .
Method and Assessment
The work was intended to assist students who encounter difficulties with condensed jurisprudential primers (al-mutun al-mukhtasarah), which are frequently characterized by dense phrasing, intricate qualifications, and extensive doctrinal debates . By relying on straightforward questions and answers, al-Mu‘allimi presented the principal rulings and primary definitions directly without engaging in dialectical disputes or divergent juristic disagreements (ikhtilafat al-fuqaha’) . Editors of his corpus noted that despite remaining incomplete, the text serves as a model for introductory and intermediate instruction in Islamic legal transactions .
Answer updated