Abu ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Barr said: “When Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā came back to al-Andalus he possessed a vast store of knowledge. After the death of the jurist ʿĪsā ibn Dīnār, legal verdicts in al-Andalus once again centered on him; both the political authorities and the general populace deferred to his judgment. He was a jurist of keen insight.
Yaḥyā did not consider the qunūt permissible in the dawn prayer—or in any of the other prayers—and he would say:
‘I heard al-Layth ibn Saʿd say: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī say: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed the qunūt for only about forty days, invoking Allah’s curse upon one people and praying for another.”’ (1)
Abu ʿUmar added: ‘Al-Layth himself did not practice the qunūt.’ (2)
Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr continued: ‘Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā also disagreed with Mālik on the issue of ruling for the plaintiff on the basis of an oath together with a single witness; he judged it invalid and would not issue a verdict on that basis (3), adopting instead the view of al-Layth ibn Saʿd. (4)
He likewise deemed it permissible to lease land for a fixed share of its produce, following al-Layth’s position, and he would say: “This was the sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Khaybar.” (5)’
(1) See the hadith of Anas ibn Malik in al-Bukhari 2/408–409 (Book of Witr), 3/135 (Book of Funerals), 6/195 (Book of Khums), 7/296 & 301 (Book of Maghazi), and 11/163 (Book of Supplications); in Muslim, no. 677 (reports 297–304); in Abu Dawud, nos. 1444–1445; in al-Nasa’i 2/200; and in Jami‘ al-Usul 5/384–385 and 8/260 & 263.
(2) Al-Intiqa, p. 59.
(3) Malik’s position is the sound one here, for Ibn Abbas relates that the Messenger of Allah ruled on the basis of an oath together with a single witness; Muslim, no. 1712; al-Shafi‘i 2/234. Supporting narrations exist: from Abu Hurayra in al-Tirmidhi, no. 1344, and Ibn Majah, no. 2369; and from Ali in al-Darqutni, p. 516. For the scholarly discussion, see Sharh al-Sunna 10/102, 104; al-Mughni by Ibn Qudama 9/149–150; Nayl al-Awtar 8/318–323; and Turuq al-Hukmiyya, pp. 66–75.
(4) Al-Intiqa, p. 59; it continues: “A judgement must rest on the testimony of two men, or one man and two women.”
(5) Al-Bukhari 4/379 in Ijara: “If someone leases land and one of them dies,” and in Muzara‘a: “Share-cropping at half yield and the like”; Muslim, no. 1551, at the beginning of the section on Musaqat, from the hadith of Ibn Umar: “The Messenger of Allah gave Khaybar to the Jews so that they might cultivate it, receiving half of its produce.” See also Sharh al-Sunna 8/253.