Muwatta, Book of the Aqiqa

The Book of the Aqiqa is the twelfth and last book of the first volume 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 645 to 647 of the PDF pagination, and contains eight numbered texts (1441–1448) in two chapters. It concerns the aqiqa for a newborn, the weighing of its hair and giving silver in charity for it, and Malik's ruling on it. ^{1 2}

• What has come concerning the aqiqa (1441–1443): the Prophet's saying that he does not love disobedience to parents, and that whoever wishes to offer a sacrifice for his child may do so; and Fatima's weighing of the hair of al-Hasan and al-Husayn and her giving its weight in silver in charity. ^{1 3}
• Practice in the aqiqa (1444–1448): the practice of Ibn Umar and Urwa ibn al-Zubayr of a sheep for each child, male or female; the aqiqa of al-Hasan and al-Husayn; and Malik's saying that it is recommended and not obligatory, and that it has the rulings of the sacrifice. ^{3 2}

Malik quotes the Prophet's hadiths, then the practices of the Companions, the family of the Prophet and the Successors, and closes with his own ruling, which is the practice among the people of Medina. He does not make the aqiqa obligatory, and holds that it is among the matters that people have always followed in his view. ²

The editor records the transmitters from Malik. He quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr that the hadith on the aqiqa is known in its meaning from the Prophet only through the route of Zayd ibn Aslam, and he notes the hadith of Amr ibn Shu'ayb from his father from his grandfather, and the sound hadith of Dawud ibn Qays. Abu Dawud transmitted with a sound chain that the Prophet made the aqiqa for al-Hasan and al-Husayn, a ram for each. ^{1 2}

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 Aqiqa for the places where the book's rulings appear. ¹