from Marwān al-Ṭāṭarī, who said: ‘Abū Jaʿfar forbade Mālik to relate the hadith, “Divorce pronounced under coercion is not valid” (1). He then sent someone to question him about it; Mālik narrated it openly in front of the people, so he was flogged with whips (2).’
Al-ʿAbbās also told us; Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥammād (3) reported: He used to watch Mālik, and whenever Mālik rose from his seat he would support one hand with the other.
Ibn Saʿd said: al-Wāqidī narrated to us: ‘When Mālik was summoned, consulted, his view heard and accepted, he became the object of envy, and they pursued him with every kind of spite. When Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān assumed the governorship of Medina they incited him against Mālik, multiplying their accusations and saying, “He considers the oaths of your pledge of allegiance to carry no weight, and he relies on a hadith he narrates from Thābit ibn al-Aḥnaf about the divorce of one who is coerced, holding it to be invalid.”
‘This angered Jaʿfar; he summoned Mālik, confronted him with what had been reported about him, and ordered that he be stripped and whipped. His arm was jerked so violently that the shoulder was dislocated…’
(1) The report is not found as marfuʿ (ascribed to the Prophet) but only as mawqūf on Ibn ʿAbbās. Ibn Abī Shaybah, al-Muṣannaf 5/48, transmits it through Hushaym – ʿAbd Allāh b. Ṭalḥa al-Khuzaʿī – Abū Yazīd al-Madanī – ʿIkrima – Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: “There is no divorce for one who is coerced or forced.” All the transmitters are reliable. Al-Bukhārī cites it in a suspended form (Book of Divorce, 9/343) with the wording: “Ibn ʿAbbās said: The divorce of the drunk and the coerced is not valid.” Ibn Ḥajar adds that Ibn Abī Shaybah and Saʿīd b. Manṣūr both supplied the continuous chain with the wording: “There is no divorce for a drunk or a coerced person.” The term al-muḍṭahad means “one who is overpowered and oppressed.” Further reports declaring the coerced divorce ineffective are related from ʿUmar, Ibn ʿUmar, Ibn al-Zubayr, ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, al-Ḥasan, ʿAṭāʾ, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk (al-Muṣannaf 5/48-49).
(2) Tartīb al-Madārik 1/228; Wafayāt al-Aʿyān 4/137; al-Intiqāʾ, p. 43. – Al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh, 7/560, reports: Saʿīd b. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Jaʿfar b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ḥakam b. Sinān al-Ḥakamī, the brother of the Anṣār, said: “More than one informant told me that Mālik b. Anas was asked for a ruling on joining Muḥammad’s revolt. He was told: ‘We have already pledged allegiance to Abū Jaʿfar.’ Mālik replied: ‘You pledged only under compulsion, and an oath taken under duress is not binding.’ People then hastened to support Muḥammad, while Mālik remained at home.”
(3) The manuscript reads “Jammaz,” but the correct form, attested by Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl and Lisān al-Mīzān, is “Jamāz.”