Wasl Balaghat al-Muwatta Ibn al-Salah
- Author died
- 643 AH
- Editions
- al-Maṭbū‘āt al-Islāmiyyah
Wasl Balaghat al-Muwatta (Connecting the Interrupted Reports of al-Muwatta), also known as Wasl al-Balaghat al-Arba'ah fi al-Muwatta, is a specialized hadith monograph by the Shafi'i scholar and traditionist Ibn al-Salah (d. 643 AH / 1245 CE), devoted to investigating four specific disconnected reports (balaghat) found in the Muwatta Imam Malik .
Background and Purpose
In al-Muwatta, Imam Malik ibn Anas frequently recorded narrations with missing links, introduced by phrases such as "it has reached me" (balaghani) or "from one whom I trust" ('an al-thiqah 'indahu) . The Andalusian traditionist Ibn Abd al-Barr, in his work al-Tamhid, successfully traced continuous chains of transmission (isnad) for sixty-one of these reports through pathways other than Malik's, but concluded that four specific balaghat could not be found with connected chains in any external source outside al-Muwatta . Ibn al-Salah composed this epistle in response to a request by students of hadith seeking an investigation into the status of these four problematic narrations .
Contents and Structure
Ibn al-Salah opens the work by narrating all four reports through his own high isnad back to al-Muwatta via the transmission of Abu Mus'ab Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Zuhri :
- The report on forgetfulness in prayer: Malik reported that it reached him that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: إني لا أنسى ولكن أُنسّى لأَسُنّ ("I do not forget, but I am made to forget so that I may establish a sunna") .
- The report on rain clouds: Malik reported that it reached him that the Prophet ﷺ used to say: إذا نشأت بحرية، ثم تشاءمت فتلك عين غديقة ("If a cloud rises from the sea and turns toward Sham, then it is a source of abundant rain") .
- The report on the lifespans of prior nations and Laylat al-Qadr: Malik transmitted from a trustworthy source that the Prophet ﷺ was shown the lifespans of people before him, and finding the lifespans of his own community short in comparison, God granted him the Night of Decree (Laylat al-Qadr), which is better than a thousand months .
- The report on Mu'adh ibn Jabal's counsel: Malik narrated from Yahya ibn Sa'id that Mu'adh ibn Jabal said: آخر ما أوصاني به رسول الله ﷺ حين جعلت رجلي في الغرز أن قال: حسّن خلقك للناس يا معاذ بن جبل ("The last counsel the Messenger of Allah ﷺ gave me when I placed my foot in the stirrup was: Make your character good toward people, O Mu'adh ibn Jabal") .
For each narration, Ibn al-Salah provides grammatical and lexical commentary on difficult vocabulary (such as variants between nasha'at and ansha'at, the meaning of ghudayqah, and the definition of al-gharz), quotes the remarks of earlier authorities such as Abu Mansur al-Azhari, al-Harawi, al-Qadi Iyad, and Hamza al-Kattani, and documents parallel routes in other hadith compilations .
Critical Verdicts and Reception
Ibn al-Salah presents a decisive verdict (al-qawl al-fasl) regarding the external transmission of the four reports:
- None of the four narrations was ever transmitted with the exact wording found in al-Muwatta outside of al-Muwatta .
- Only the rain narration (idha ansha'at bahriyyah) was transmitted outside al-Muwatta with its complete meaning intact—found in Ibn Abi al-Dunya's Kitab al-Matar and an interrupted chain in al-Shafi'i—yet both external chains are unestablished and weak .
- The other three narrations have only portions of their meanings corroborated elsewhere: the Laylat al-Qadr report through an unauthentic (ghayr sahih) route; the forgetfulness report through an authentic (sahih) route in its core concept; and Mu'adh's counsel of good character through a good (hasan) route .
Later scholars frequently cited the treatise when debating the status of al-Muwatta. Salih al-Fulani and Muhammad Habib Allah al-Shinqiti asserted that because Ibn al-Salah had connected all four balaghat, the entire contents of al-Muwatta were fully connected and equal in standing to Sahih al-Bukhari . However, traditionists such as Ahmad Shakir, Muhammad Fu'ad 'Abd al-Baqi, and the treatise's editor pointed out that this was an inaccurate reading of Ibn al-Salah's conclusion, as Ibn al-Salah explicitly classified two of the external narrations as unestablished and weak, while affirming only partial meanings for the other two .
The text of the treatise was transmitted down through a chain of Syrian and Egyptian scholars, descending from Ibn al-Salah through al-Nawawi, Ibn al-Attar, al-Tanukhi, 'Alam al-Din al-Bulqini, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, and subsequent authorities .
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