Muwatta, Book of Miscellaneous (al-jami')

The Book of Miscellany (Jami') is the thirty-first 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 461 to 604 in the PDF pagination, and contains 272 numbered texts (2590–2861) in eighty-nine chapters. It is the last book of the Muwatta text in this volume; the general indexes follow it. It gathers scattered hadiths and reports on Medina and its people, fate, character, dress, food and drink, medicine, greeting and seeking permission, travel, slaves, charity, knowledge, and the names of the Prophet ﷺ. ^{1 2}

• Medina and its people (2590–2615, chapters 1–7): supplication for Medina and its people, living in it and leaving it, its sanctity, its plague, the expulsion of the Jews from it, and the plague. ^{1 3}
• Fate (2616–2625, chapters 8–9): the prohibition of speaking about fate, and what is reported about its adherents. ^{4 5}
• Good character, modesty, anger, emigration and handshaking (2626–2643, chapters 10–14). ^{5 6}
• Dress and adornment (2644–2664, chapters 15–22): wearing clothes for beauty, dyed cloth, gold and silk, what is disliked for women, letting the garment hang down, and sandals. ^{6 7}
• The description of the Prophet, fitra, eating and drinking (2665–2701, chapters 23–32): the description of the Prophet, the description of Jesus and the Antichrist, the fitra, the prohibition of eating with the left hand, the poor, the stomach of the unbeliever, drinking from silver vessels, drinking while standing, and the Sunna in drinking. ^{7 8}
• Food, medicine and visiting the sick (2702–2724, chapters 33–42): eating meat, wearing a ring, removing the hanging amulets, ablution from the evil eye, incantation, the reward of the sick, seeking refuge, treating the sick, bathing in water for fever, visiting the sick, and omens. ^{9 10}
• Poetry, mutual love, dreams and backgammon (2725–2755, chapters 43–49). ^{10 11}
• Greeting, seeking permission, blessing the sneezer, and images (2756–2773, chapters 50–55): working at greeting, greeting people of the Book, general reports on greeting, seeking permission, saying a blessing for one who sneezes, and pictures and statues. ^{11 12}
• Animals, travel, cupping, ill omen and the killing of snakes (2774–2803, chapters 56–66): eating the dhabb lizard, the matter of dogs and sheep, a mouse in clarified butter, ill omen, disliked names, cupping, the east, killing snakes, and travelling alone. ^{12 13}
• Travel, slaves, the pledge and the dangers of the tongue (2804–2827, chapters 67–76): working on a journey, kindness to slaves, the gift of a slave, the pledge, what is disliked in speech and caution in it, backbiting, and the prohibition of private conversation between two people to the exclusion of a third. ^{14 15}
• Truthfulness, lying, squandering property and the two-faced (2828–2836, chapters 77–79). ^{16 17}
• Piety, thunder, the Prophet's estate and the description of hell (2837–2843, chapters 80–83). ^{17 18}
• Charity and abstaining from asking (2844–2858, chapters 84–86): encouragement to charity, abstaining from asking, and what is disliked in charity. ^{19 20}
• Seeking knowledge, the supplication of the wronged, and the names of the Prophet (2859–2861, chapters 87–89). ^{21 2}

Malik gives many reports in this book as "balaghat" (reports that reached him without a named chain), and transmits about forty texts in the wording "it reached him" or "it reached me". Among them are reports attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him), Aisha, Abd Allah ibn Masud and others. He transmits much from Abd Allah ibn Umar, including hadiths on charity, the pledge, private conversation and snakes. He sometimes comments on what he transmits with a word that signals he is holding back, as when he says of a report from the Prophet: I do not know whether this hadith is raised to the Prophet or not. ^{22 23}

The editor sets out in his notes the routes that were transmitted from Malik on each chapter, and records the variations among the transmitters, along with Ibn Abd al-Barr's criticism in al-Tamhid. For example, Ibn Abd al-Barr held that the hadith of Sahl ibn Hunayf (may God be pleased with him) in the story of Abu Talha was a mistake, and that the correct name is Uthman ibn Hunayf (may God be pleased with him). The editor disagreed with Ibn Abd al-Barr and Ibn Hajar on this point, and said that the judgement that Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah did not meet Sahl is open to question. ^{24 25} On the phrase "shu'b al-jibal" (mountain paths) in the hadith of the sheep, Ibn Abd al-Barr held the report to be an error, while the editor holds that this criticism is open to question, because the meaning recurs in the hadith of Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) in Muslim. ²⁶ On the report of Ka'b al-Ahbar about Iraq, the editor holds that the report is cut off, and that if Ka'b transmitted it, he took it from Jewish books. ²⁷ On the hadith of backbiting, the editor notes that "Hanthab" is the correct name of the narrator, and that the form in Yahya's transmission is "Huwaytib", and he quotes Ibn Abd al-Barr on this. ²⁸ On the report of Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr about the collector of charity, the editor notes that Ahmad ibn Mansur al-Tali transmitted it connected from Anas, and holds that this transmission cannot be relied on as against the one who transmitted it cut off. ²⁰ On the names of the Prophet, the editor notes that Yahya's transmission is cut off, that Ma'n ibn Isa transmitted it connected to Jubayr ibn Mut'im, and that al-Bukhari included it, so the connected transmission comes first. ²

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. The major chapters are set out in the Overview and in "What the book gathers", with the numbers of the texts and the pages of the edition. See Abu Hurayra and Abd Allah ibn Umar for most of the reports traced to the Prophet in the book. ¹