‘Twenty camels.’ I said, ‘Now that her injuries are more serious and her suffering greater, her compensation has decreased!’ He said, ‘Are you an Iraqi?’ I replied, ‘Rather, a learned man seeking certainty, or an ignorant man seeking knowledge.’ He said, ‘It is the Sunnah, my nephew.’”

His statement, “It is the Sunnah,” indicates that he attributed this to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, without naming an intervening Companion. According to Mālik, such a report is just as binding as one with a connected chain. Al-Shāfi‘ī does not accept reports with this omission except those of Sa‘īd ibn al-Musayyab, which he regards as equivalent to reports with connected chains because of his trustworthiness and high standing. Some scholars have even held that a report with such an omission is stronger than one with a connected chain, because a trustworthy narrator only transmits in this manner what he has established as authentic. When he omits the link, he assumes responsibility for the report; when he supplies the chain, he refers the matter to that chain and absolves himself of responsibility.

Another argument supporting Mālik’s position, by way of analogical reasoning, is that Allah, Exalted is He, made male and female alike in their initial formation up to the one-third point, then distinguished between them thereafter. The truthful one, whose truthfulness is attested, said, reporting from his Lord, Mighty and Majestic:

“The creation of each of you is brought together in his mother’s womb for forty days as a drop, then for forty days as a clinging clot, then for forty days as a lump of flesh. Then the angel comes and says, ‘My Lord, male or female? Wretched or blessed?’ Then he breathes the soul into him.”

Thus Allah distinguishes the child as male, if He wills, or female after this shared stage, which amounts to one-third of a year. Allah, Exalted is He, says:

“Allah knows what every female bears, and what the wombs lose or gain. With Him everything is in due measure.” [al-Ra‘d: 8]

The reasoning drawn from two other verses makes this clear. The first is:

“Mothers shall breastfeed their children for two complete years.” [al-Baqara: 233]

The second is His saying, Mighty and Majestic:

“His bearing and weaning take thirty months.” [al-Ahqāf: 15]

These show that the period by which gestation may fall short of its ordinarily known duration—most commonly nine months—is three months, for a child’s lineage can be established after six months’ gestation. If we reason equitably by comparing the increase with the decrease, we add three months to the nine, just as we subtracted three months from them. Adding three months to nine completes a year. It has already been stated that the four