Mulhaq Fatawa li-Ibn Qaddah lam tatadammanha Masa'iluhu
- Author died
- 734 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Muṣṭafā lil-Dirāsāt al-Islāmiyyah (ELGA Publications)
Mulhaq Fatawa li-Ibn Qaddah lam tatadammanha Masa'iluhu (Supplement of Fatwas of Ibn Qaddah Not Included in His Masa'il) is a collection of legal responsa (fatwas) and judicial rulings issued by the Maliki jurist and judge of Tunis, Ibn Qaddah (Abu Ali Umar ibn Ali al-Hawwari, d. 734 AH / 1333–1334 CE; also reported 736 AH / 1335 CE), that were omitted from his primary compilation, Masa'il Ibn Qaddah.
Transmission and Context
The supplement brings together discrete rulings delivered by Ibn Qaddah during his tenure in Tunis—where he served as judge of marriages and as chief judge (qadi al-jama'a)—alongside consultations involving contemporary scholars such as Ibn Abd al-Salam, Abu al-Hasan al-Muntasir, and Ibn Rashid. The text records judicial precedents transmitted through contemporaneous queries, including those posed by the master builder Muhammad ibn al-Rami and the jurist Ibn Arafa, as well as citations by later Maliki authorities such as al-Burzuli and Abu al-Qasim Uzzum.
Contents and Legal Issues
The collection comprises specific case rulings across various chapters of Maliki jurisprudence:
- Scribal practices: When asked about writing Quranic verses or blessings on the Prophet ﷺ in gold ink within certificates of transmission (ijazat), Ibn Qaddah stated that honoring the text entails adhering to the Sunnah by writing purely in black, though he noted seeing precedents where senior scholars allowed gold framing by analogy to the embellishment of the Quran.
- Commercial and property transactions: Cases include purchasing agricultural tithes from an unlawful usurper, and permitting the repayment of a loan of clarified butter (samn) with olive oil (zayt).
- Public morality and belief: In response to listening to folk romances such as the tales of Antara and Delhemma, reading astrological manuals, or using incantation books containing incomprehensible words, Ibn Qaddah ruled that individuals engaged in these falsehoods could neither lead prayer as imams nor provide valid legal testimony.
- Ritual purity and prayer: Inquiries cover the validity of prayer while shifting or leaning against potentially impure footwear; whether wiping over the head out of illness during ritual bath (janabah) suffices if done during ablution (wudu); and how an unwashed spot (lum'ah) from a major ritual bath is resolved if ritual impurity (hadath) occurs prior to completing full purification.
- Criminal law and covenant breaches: During the reign of the Hafsid ruler Amir Abu Yahya, Ibn Qaddah and Ibn Abd al-Salam were consulted concerning a non-Muslim subject (dhimmi) who kidnapped Muslim children to sell them into enemy territory; Ibn Qaddah ruled that the offender be executed by the sword for breaching his covenant.
- Slaughtering (dhakah): The ruling on an escaped bull whose throat was partially cut in the slaughterhouse before escaping across roughly three hundred cubits to the public square (al-rahba), where the slaughter was completed; Ibn Qaddah permitted the sale and consumption of its meat.
- Municipal infrastructure costs: In an inquiry submitted by the builder Muhammad ibn al-Rami regarding compelling unwilling residents to contribute toward building defensive walls, gates, or trenches, Ibn Qaddah held that unwilling individuals may be compelled for the public good, with costs divided equally among the houses.
- Family law: The collection includes rulings on a wife's legal entitlement to remain in a locality staffed by a resident judge when claiming mistreatment by her husband, as well as rulings on implicit conditional statements of marital prohibition (tahrim).
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