Muwatta, Book of Divorce (talaq)

The Book of Divorce (Talaq) is the fifteenth 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), and it is in the second volume. It occupies pages 59 to 117 of the PDF pagination, and contains 181 numbered texts (1581–1761) in thirty-five chapters. It concerns divorce and its kinds, ila', zihar, khul' and li'an, and the waiting period of the divorced and widowed woman. ^{1 2}

• The irrevocable divorce and the wording of divorce (1581–1590): what takes effect by the irrevocable divorce; the words khaliyya, bariyya and ba'in; and the saying of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz that the irrevocable divorce leaves something. ^{1 3}
• Delegation and choice (1591–1633): one who gives his wife the power over herself; the choice given to a wife and what follows from it; the woman given the choice when she chooses herself; and the hadith of Barira. ^{3 4}
• Ila' and zihar (1600–1624): the period of ila', four months, and the stay; the ila' of a slave; and the zihar of a free man and of a slave, and its expiation. ^{5 6}
• Khul' and li'an (1634–1654): the hadith of Habiba bint Sahl; the waiting period of the woman who obtained khul'; the li'an of Uwaymir and Asim; and what follows from li'an. ^{4 7}
• Divorce during illness, by a virgin, a slave, and temporary divorce (1655–1686): the inheritance of a divorced woman during the husband's illness; the case of Nafi', the manumitted slave of Umm Salama; and the consolation gift. ^{8 9}
• The waiting period of the divorced woman, arbiters, and oaths of divorce (1687–1713): the waiting periods (quru'), the hadith of Fatima bint Qays, the waiting period of a slave woman, the waiting period of one who is missing, the ruling on arbiters, and an oath of divorce before marriage. ^{10 11}
• The term for one who does not touch his wife, the waiting period of the widow, withdrawal, and mourning (1714–1761): setting a term for one who does not approach his wife; the revocable divorce and retaining a wife to harm her; the divorce of one who is drunk; the waiting period of a pregnant woman; the waiting period of a mother of a child and a slave woman; what has come concerning coitus interruptus; and mourning for a deceased husband. ^{12 2}

Malik builds the rulings on divorce on the sayings of the Companions and the jurists of Medina, often saying "the matter is among us" and "the best I have heard", and combines what Umar, Uthman, Zayd ibn Thabit (may God be pleased with him), Ibn Abbas and Ibn Umar said. He sets out the disagreement, as in the waiting period of a divorced woman whose menstrual cycle is due, with a detailed account of its stages. ^{13 14}

The editor records the transmitters from Malik, and quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr on differences among the transmitters, as in the hadith of Fatima bint Qays and the name of Abu Jahm, and in the hadith of Aisha on the menstrual periods. He notes that Uthman's transmission on the inheritance of a divorced woman during illness agrees with the transmission of most of Malik's companions. ^{15 9}

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