Taharah in Al-Mudawwanah: Malik's Original Positions

Al-Mudawwanah's treatment of taharah (purification) preserves Imam Malik's own legal opinions in dialogical form, giving readers a direct encounter with the founder of the school's reasoning rather than later scholars' systematized presentations. The format — Sahnun's question, Ibn al-Qasim's answer drawing on Malik's teaching — creates a uniquely intimate record of early Maliki legal thinking.

On water, Al-Mudawwanah preserves Malik's foundational view that water is not made impure merely by small quantities of filth falling into it, provided the water's essential qualities (color, taste, smell) are not altered. Ibn al-Qasim conveys this from Malik: the criterion is not volume but rather whether the contamination has changed the water's perceptible qualities. This principle, which would later become the cornerstone of Maliki water law, is articulated here in its original form.

Malik's position on the use of seawater for purification is affirmed in Al-Mudawwanah in direct response to Sahnun's question. Ibn al-Qasim reports that Malik held seawater to be pure and purifying, citing the prophetic declaration 'Its water is pure and its dead creatures are lawful.' This early Maliki endorsement of seawater's purifying capacity was a settled position that subsequent scholars inherited without controversy.

The requirement of dalk (rubbing) as part of ablution appears in Al-Mudawwanah as a teaching directly attributed to Malik. When asked whether simply running water over the limbs without rubbing is sufficient, Ibn al-Qasim records Malik's view that rubbing is required — that 'washing' (ghasl) implies active contact, not passive wetting. This distinctive Maliki position, which later scholars like ad-Dardiri and al-Dasuqi would elaborate, is here captured in its earliest authoritative form.

Al-Mudawwanah records Malik's rulings on menstruation (hayd) with considerable detail, reflecting the importance of these questions in the daily life of Muslim women and families. Malik's minimum period for menstruation is one day and night, with no maximum specified in the earliest Maliki position — later scholars set the maximum at fifteen days. Ibn al-Qasim transmits Malik's view that a woman whose bleeding continues beyond fifteen days is considered to have irregular bleeding (istihadah) and must resume prayer and other obligations.

On the question of water used in ablution (musta'mal water), Al-Mudawwanah reflects the Maliki school's more permissive approach compared to the Shafi'i school. Malik did not hold that water used in removing ritual impurity (hadath) becomes itself impure or incapable of further purification, provided its essential qualities remain unchanged. Ibn al-Qasim conveys this as Malik's established teaching.

The purification of items contaminated by ritual impurity (najasah) is addressed in Al-Mudawwanah through a series of specific cases: clothing soiled with urine, animal dung, blood, and other impurities. Malik's general position — conveyed through Ibn al-Qasim — is that thorough washing until the impurity is removed is sufficient, without specifying a particular number of washings. The exception for dog-related impurity — which the Shafi'i school treats as requiring sevenfold washing — is not a Maliki requirement; Malik's position is that standard washing applies.

Al-Mudawwanah's taharah sections offer the modern reader an invaluable historical perspective: these are the rulings of Islamic law's second century, emerging from the intellectual environment of Medina, shaped by the experience of a community still closely connected to the prophetic generation. The directness of the question-and-answer format gives these early Maliki positions a freshness and immediacy that systematic later treatises sometimes obscure.