Muwatta, Book of Vows and Oaths (nudhur wal-ayman)

The Book of Vows and Oaths is the eighth book of the Muwatta in the transmission of Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi from Malik ibn Anas, in the edition of Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf (1997). It occupies pages 605 to 618 of the first volume in the PDF pagination, and contains 36 numbered texts (1351–1386) in nine chapters. It concerns what is binding of vows, especially a vow to walk to the House of God, and what a person binds himself to by oath or what passes without intent, and the expiation for an oath. ^{1 2}

• Vows to walk (1351–1361): fulfilling a vow on behalf of a dead person; whether one person may walk on behalf of another; the ruling on one who is unable to walk, who rides and then returns to walk from the point where he was unable, and who owes an offering if he cannot. ^{1 3}
• Action in walking to the Ka'ba, and vows that may not be fulfilled when they are disobedience to God (1362–1365): the ruling on one who breaks a vow to walk to the House; that a vow in disobedience is not to be fulfilled; and the hadith of the man who vowed to stand in the sun, not to speak and not to sit. ^{4 5}
• Idle oaths and binding oaths (1366–1372): idle oaths; a binding oath for which expiation is due; a false oath; and disbelief in God in an oath. ^{6 7}
• Expiation and emphasis in oaths (1373–1376): the hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) on swearing an oath and then seeing something better than it; and that emphasis in one oath carries one expiation. ^{7 8}
• Practice in the expiation of oaths, and its summary (1377–1386): how Ibn Umar used to make expiation; the clothing of men and women; the prohibition on swearing by one's fathers; and the hadith of Abu Lubaba and the third of his property. ^{9 2}

Malik begins with what is binding in a vow from the sayings of the people of Medina, and often says "the matter is among us" in most questions. He relies on the apparent sense of the hadith texts, as in the hadith "whoever vows to disobey God, let him not disobey Him", which Yahya did not include in his version alongside what is transmitted from Talha ibn Abd al-Malik al-Ayli. He distinguishes between the emphatic oath and others in the matter of expiation, and refers to the sayings of Ibn Umar, Umar and Ibn Abbas. ^{5 9}

The editor records the transmitters from Malik, and quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr on additions and omissions in Yahya's transmission, such as the hadith of Talha ibn Abd al-Malik al-Ayli, which was not in Yahya's version. The editor notes that many transmissions from Malik on vows agree with Yahya's transmission, and that the hadith of Ibn Abbas on zihar is transmitted by Ikrima in al-Bukhari. ^{10 5}

Each text of the book has its own record. It gives the highest narrator and the chapter of the text, presents the substance of the report in the museum's wording, and records the editor's takhrij where it is needed. See Vows and Expiation for the places where the book's rulings appear. ¹