Through this same strand he said: Mālik related to me, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, from Ibn ʿUmar:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ forbade the sale of walāʾ (the right of clientage) and its transfer as a gift.” (1)
The Death of Mālik
Al-Qaʿnabī said: I heard people saying that Mālik was eighty-nine years old and that he died in 179 AH.
Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways said: When Mālik fell ill I asked some of our household what he uttered at the moment of death. They said, “He pronounced the shahāda and then recited, ‘To Allah belongs the command, before and after’ (Q 30:4).”
He passed away on the morning of the fourteenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 179 AH. The funeral prayer was led by the emir ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās al-Hāshimī, the son of Zaynab bint Sulaymān of the ʿAbbāsid house, who was best known by his mother’s name.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd transmitted this report from him and added, “I asked Muṣʿab, who said, ‘Rather, he died in Ṣafar,’ and Maʿn ibn ʿĪsā informed me to the same effect.”
Abū Muṣʿab al-Zuhrī said: He died ten days into Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 179 AH.
Muḥammad ibn Sahnūn said: He died on the eleventh of Rabīʿ al-Awwal.
Ibn Wahb said: He died after thirteen days of Rabīʿ al-Awwal had elapsed.
Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ (2) remarked: The soundest view is that his death occurred in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, on a Sunday, after twenty-two full days of illness.