Muwatta, Book of Prayer

The Book of Prayer is the first book of the Muwatta in the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi from Malik ibn Anas, as edited by Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf in 1997 for Dar al-Gharb al-Islami. It occupies the first volume from page 33 to page 303 in the PDF pagination, and in this edition contains 590 numbered texts, among them ahadith traced to the Prophet ﷺ, reports of Companions, reports cut off in the chain (balaghat), and sayings of Malik, arranged in 139 chapters ^{1 2}.

The book does not stop at the form of the prayer alone. It brings together everything connected to it, in an order that begins with the times and ends with remembrance and supplication:

• Times (hadiths 1–31): the times of prayer, the time of Friday, one who catches a rak'a of a prayer, sleeping through the prayer, and the prohibition of praying at the height of noon. It opens with the hadith of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and Urwa on the descent of Gabriel, who led the Prophet in the prayers at their times ^{1 3}.
• Purity (32–171): action in ablution, what does not require ablution, not renewing ablution after what fire has touched, wiping over the leather socks, nosebleed, madhy, touching the private parts, washing from major impurity, tayammum, the chapters on menstruation and irregular bleeding, a boy's urine, and the toothstick ^{4 5}.
• The call, opening the prayer, and recitation (172–234): the call to prayer, the call on a journey, the time of the pre-dawn meal relative to the call, opening the prayer, recitation in the sunset, night and dawn prayers, the Mother of the Book, reciting behind the imam, and saying "amin" ^{6 7}.
• Sitting, the testimony, and forgetfulness (235–265): action in sitting, the testimony (tashahhud), one who raises his head before the imam, one who gives the salam after two rak'as in forgetfulness, doubt in the prayer, and looking during prayer at what distracts from it ^{8 9}.
• Friday (266–298): washing on Friday, silence while the imam is preaching, one who catches a rak'a, going to the prayer, the hour on Friday, stepping over people's necks, and recitation in the Friday prayer ^{10 11}.
• Night prayer, witr, and the two rak'as of dawn (299–340): encouragement to pray in Ramadan, the night prayer in Ramadan, the night prayer, the Prophet's prayer of witr, the command to pray witr, and witr after dawn ^{12 13}.
• Congregation, shortening, and combining (341–414): the merit of congregational prayer, the night and dawn prayers, repeating the prayer with the imam, the imam praying seated, the middle prayer, praying in one garment, combining the two prayers, shortening the prayer on a journey, and voluntary prayer on a mount ^{14 15}.
• The forenoon, the screen, and comprehensive chapters (415–486): the forenoon prayer, the strictness about passing in front of one who prays and his screen, straightening the rows, placing the hands, the qunut, waiting for the prayer and walking to it, turning the head and clapping, blessing the Prophet, and then two comprehensive chapters on the prayer and encouragement to it ^{16 17}.
• The two festivals, fear, eclipse, and rain-prayer (487–518): washing for the two festivals, praying before the sermon, eating before going out on the feast morning, the prayer of fear, the eclipse prayer, the prayer for rain, and seeking rain by the stars ^{18 19}.
• The qibla and the Prophet's mosque (519–529): the prohibition of facing the qibla when relieving oneself and the leave given for it, the prohibition of spitting toward the qibla, what is related about the qibla, and the merit of praying in the Prophet's Mosque ^{19 20}.
• Women, mosques, and the Qur'an (530–559): women going out to the mosques, the command to perform ablution for one who touches the Qur'an and the leave given to recite it without ablution, dividing the Qur'an into portions, and a comprehensive chapter on the Qur'an that contains the hadith of the seven modes and the hadith of how revelation comes to you, the prostration of recitation, and the merit of the two surahs of Sincerity and the Kingdom ^{20 21}.
• Remembrance and supplication (560–583): the remembrance of God, and what is related about supplication and action in it ^{21 22}.
• Closing of the book (584–590): the prohibition of prayer after dawn and after the afternoon prayer. Its last text is the report of al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid that Umar struck al-Munkadir for praying after the afternoon prayer ^{23 2}.

Malik opens each chapter with a hadith traced to the Prophet where one exists, then with reports from the Companions and the Successors of Medina. He often closes a chapter with his own statement. Yahya introduces these with the words "Malik said" or "Malik was asked", and Malik frequently uses the expressions "the matter agreed upon among us" and "this is not the practice". The book contains many reports cut off in the chain, which Malik relates with the words "it reached him that". The editor notes in his footnotes which of these were connected by authors of the six books and others ^{24 20}.

Under each text the editor records those among Malik's students who transmitted it, such as Abu Mus'ab al-Zuhri, Suwayd ibn Sa'id, al-Qa'nabi, Abdallah ibn Yusuf al-Tinnisi and Yahya ibn Yahya al-Naysaburi. He refers to their places in the two Sahihs, the Sunan and the Musnad al-Jami', and quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr in al-Tamhid and al-Istidhkar on connection and cutting, and on the differences among the transmitters of the Muwatta. He records the variant readings of the manuscripts he relied on. These notes are kept in the museum's records under the editor's name, and no hadith is graded in the museum except as attributed to the one who said it ^{1 25}.

Each of the 590 texts of the book has its own record in the museum. It gives, in their own wording, what the text says, names its highest narrator and its chapter, and records the editor's takhrij, with a short excerpt from the text where it suits. See Prayer and Purity ¹.