The Shaykh’s remarks on al-Laknawi’s book explaining the Muwatta of Imam Malik, transmitted by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, and the original book.
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The Shaykh : The man has several books on the Hanafi school and on explaining some hadith books. In my opinion, the most important of these is his explanation which he titled *Al-Mumajjad fi Sharh Muwatta Muhammad*. I forgot the first word, but the point is this book—the Muwatta of Imam Ahmad Muhammad al-Shaybani, his transmission of Imam Malik ibn Anas, the Imam of the City of Migration. This is one of the famous Muwattas; when they speak of the Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas, they mention that it has several transmissions, one of which is the transmission of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani. It differs from the Muwatta of Imam Malik in its style, as if it matched the style of his teacher, Malik ibn Anas. This is because the style of Imam Malik is that he often mentions some of the hadiths in a chapter and then states his opinion and the sayings of the scholars of Madinah regarding some of those hadiths. Sometimes he agrees with the hadiths, and rarely he contradicts them by saying that the scholars of Madinah do not follow this hadith.
Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani (may Allah have mercy on him), when he transmitted this Muwatta from Imam Malik, omitted his opinions and sayings and his reliance on the scholars of Madinah, and did the opposite. So whenever he mentioned a hadith through the route of Imam Malik, he stated his own school and the saying of his Imam, Abu Hanifa. In many of the hadiths, he says: “And Abu Hanifa said so, and the majority of our companions are upon it, and we follow it”.
You see the commentator—I now remember his full name: *Al-Ta’liq al-Mumajjad ‘ala Muwatta al-Imam Muhammad*—you see that Abu al-Hasanat, in many of his comments on this book, contradicts what the majority of scholars are upon.
We return to what we were discussing: So Abu al-Hasanat al-Laknawi, when he speaks after each hadith from the hadiths of his Muwatta, most of which he transmitted directly from his teacher Malik, and sometimes he transmits some hadiths that support his school or the school of his Imam through routes other than Imam Malik, it appears from his words that he has begun to escape the Hanafi sectarian bias that prevails among most scholars of India and Pakistan who are Hanafis. He is fair in his discussion of the evidence of the schools, and then he explicitly states what is stronger in his view, following the Sunnah.
Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani (may Allah have mercy on him), when he transmitted this Muwatta from Imam Malik, omitted his opinions and sayings and his reliance on the scholars of Madinah, and did the opposite. So whenever he mentioned a hadith through the route of Imam Malik, he stated his own school and the saying of his Imam, Abu Hanifa. In many of the hadiths, he says: “And Abu Hanifa said so, and the majority of our companions are upon it, and we follow it”.
You see the commentator—I now remember his full name: *Al-Ta’liq al-Mumajjad ‘ala Muwatta al-Imam Muhammad*—you see that Abu al-Hasanat, in many of his comments on this book, contradicts what the majority of scholars are upon.
We return to what we were discussing: So Abu al-Hasanat al-Laknawi, when he speaks after each hadith from the hadiths of his Muwatta, most of which he transmitted directly from his teacher Malik, and sometimes he transmits some hadiths that support his school or the school of his Imam through routes other than Imam Malik, it appears from his words that he has begun to escape the Hanafi sectarian bias that prevails among most scholars of India and Pakistan who are Hanafis. He is fair in his discussion of the evidence of the schools, and then he explicitly states what is stronger in his view, following the Sunnah.