Tanwir al-Hawalik Sharh Muwatta Malik
- Author died
- 911 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktabah al-Tijāriyyah al-Kubrā
Tanwir al-Hawalik Sharh Muwatta Malik (Arabic: تنوير الحوالك شرح موطأ مالك, lit. 'Illumination of the Darknesses: A Commentary on Malik’s Muwatta') is a concise hadith commentary on Malik ibn Anas’s al-Muwatta, authored by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (849–911 AH / 1445–1505 CE) .
Introduction and Method
Al-Suyuti structured the introduction of Tanwir al-Hawalik around seven scholarly points (fawa'id) :
- The biography and virtues of Malik ibn Anas .
- The recording of hadith and the texts concerning it .
- The virtue and rank of al-Muwatta among hadith works, quoting Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi that al-Muwatta is the primary foundation and core of hadith compilations upon which subsequent authors built, alongside reports describing how Malik ibn Anas rigorously edited down thousands of hadiths into the final text .
- The reason for naming the book al-Muwatta, citing Malik’s statement that seventy jurists of Medina examined and agreed upon it (wata'ani) .
- The total count of its hadiths and the differences among the transmitters who narrated it from Malik, drawing upon statements by Salah al-Din al-Ala'i and Abu al-Qasim al-Ghafiqi regarding divergent transmissions such as those of al-Qa'nabi, Abu Mus'ab al-Zuhri, and others .
- A survey of the various commentaries written on al-Muwatta and their authors .
In the main body of the work, al-Suyuti adopted the methodology of hadith scholars (manhaj al-muhaddithin), prioritizing isnad critique, textual variations among transmitters, identifying raised chains (raf' al-mawquf), finding continuous chains for unlinked reports (isnad al-mursal and wasl al-munqati'), and explaining obscure vocabulary (gharib al-alfaz) . He avoided extensive deliberation over differences among the various schools of jurisprudence (al-madhahib al-fiqhiyya) . Throughout his exposition, he frequently cited earlier scholarly works, including al-Rafi'i’s commentary on Musnad al-Shafi'i .
Structure and Editions
In historical printings, such as the 1349 AH al-Halabi edition published in Egypt in two parts bound in a single volume, the text follows the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi :
- Part One begins with the chapter on prayer times (wuqut al-salah), opening with the report on Gabriel descending to teach the prayer times, and concludes with the legal rulings regarding the inheritance of children born of li'an (mutual imprecation) or adultery .
- Part Two begins with the Book of Marriage (Kitab al-Nikah), opening with the hadith forbidding proposing marriage over the proposal of a fellow Muslim brother, and concludes with the narration detailing the names of the Prophet ﷺ: لي خمسة أسماء أنا محمد، وأنا أحمد، وأنا الماحي الذي يمحو الله بي الكفر، وأنا الحاشر الذي يحشر الناس على قدمي، وأنا العاقب ("I have five names: I am Muhammad, I am Ahmad, I am al-Mahi through whom God erases disbelief, I am al-Hashir at whose feet mankind will be gathered, and I am al-'Aqib") .
The commentary has been noted among Islamic legal scholars as an accessible work well suited for intermediate study of al-Muwatta, in contrast to more expansive reference commentaries such as Ibn Abd al-Barr’s al-Tamhid or Abu al-Walid al-Baji’s al-Muntaqa .
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