Muwatta, Book of Bequests (wasiyya)

The Book of Bequest (Wasiyya) is the twenty-third 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), in the second volume. It occupies pages 309 to 321 in the PDF pagination, and contains 26 numbered texts (2214–2239) in ten chapters. It concerns bequest limited to a third, what may not be bequeathed to an heir, and gifts to children. ^{1 2}

• The command to make a bequest, and its permissibility for the weak and the young (2214–2218): writing a bequest, what a testator may change in it, and the bequest of a young person, a weak person and a person of unsound judgement. ^{1 3}
• A bequest does not exceed a third (2219–2221): the report of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas on the Prophet ﷺ's visit to him, and the ruling on a bequest of more than a third. ^{3 4}
• The pregnant woman, the sick, and the combatant (2222–2223): bequests of a third in pregnancy, in a dangerous illness, and in the battle line. ^{4 5}
• Bequest to an heir, possession and gifts (2224–2239): there is no bequest to an heir unless the heirs permit it, what gifts to children are permitted, and the ruling on a gift the recipient has not taken possession of. ^{6 2}

Malik takes the permission of the heirs into account, makes a third the limit of a bequest unless they permit more, and holds that a testator in good health owns all his property. He returns gifts to the rule of possession and witnessing. ^{6 2}

The editor quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr on the chain of the hadith of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, and the words of al-Zuhri on part of the report. He points out that the transmissions of Ayyub, Ubayd Allah ibn Umar and others from Nafi' on the hadith of bequest agree. ^{7 1}

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