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Hadith 35290
Malik related to me from Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr ibn Hazm that Amr
ibn Sulaym az-Zuraqi informed his father that it had been said to Umar
ibn al-Khattab, "There is here an adolescent boy who has not yet
reached puberty. He is from the Ghassan tribe and his heir is in ash-
Sham. He has property. Here he only has the daughter of one of his
paternal uncles." Umar ibn al-Khattab instructed, "Let him leave her a
bequest." He willed her a property called the well of Jusham.
Malik added, "That property was sold for 30,000 dirhams, and the
daughter of the paternal uncle to whom he willed it was the mother of
Amr ibn Sulaym az-Zuraqi."
Muwatta Malik Book 37, Hadith 2
← Previous Hadith
Malik related to me from Nafi from Abdullah ibn Umar that the
Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "It
is the duty of a muslim man who has something to be given as a bequest
not to spend two nights without writing a will about it."
Malik said, "The generally agreed-on way of doing things in our
community is that when the testator writes something in health or
illness as a bequest, and it has freeing slaves or things other than
that in it, he can alter it in any way he chooses, until he is on his
deathbed. If he prefers to abandon a bequest or change it, he can do
so unless he has made a slave mudabbar (to be freed after his death).
If he has made him mudabbar, there is no way to change what he has
made mudabbar. He is allowed to change his testament because the
Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "It
is the duty of a muslim man who has something to be given as a bequest
not to spend two nights without writing a will about it."
Malik explained, "Had the testator not been able to change his will
nor what was mentioned in it about freeing slaves, each testator might
withhold making bequests from his property, whether in freeing slaves
or other than it. A man gives a bequest in his health and in his
travelling." (i.e. he does not wait till his death bed ) .
Malik summed up, "The way of doing things in our community about which
there is no dispute is that he can change whatever he likes of that
except for the mudabbar." Muwatta Malik Book 37, Hadith 1
Next Hadith →
Malik related to me from Yahya ibn Said from Abu Bakr ibn Hazm
that a boy from Ghassan was dying in Madina while his heir was in
Syria. That was mentioned to Umar ibn al-Khattab. It was said to him,
"So-and-so is dying. Shall he make a bequest?" He said, "Let him make
a bequest."
Yahya ibn Said said that Abu Bakr had said, "He
was a boy of ten or twelve years." Yahya said, "He willed the well of
Jusham, and his people sold it for 30,000 dirhams."
Yahya
said that he heard Malik say, "The generally agreed-on way of doing
things in our community is that a simpleton, an idiot, or a lunatic
who recovers at times, can make wills if they have enough of their
wits about them to recognise what they will. Someone who has not
enough wits to recognise what he wills, and is overcome in his
intellect, cannot make a bequest." Muwatta Malik Book 37, Hadith 3