they hold that it is five and one-third Iraqi ratls. The account of Abū Yūsuf’s discussion with Mālik about this is well known. When he asked Mālik about the capacity of the sā‘ and mudd, Mālik instructed the people of Medina to bring him their sā‘ measures, until he had gathered a large number of them. When Abū Yūsuf arrived, Mālik asked one of them, “Where did you get this sā‘ measure?”

He replied, “My father told me, on the authority of his father, that he used it to pay the charity due at the end of Ramadan to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).”

Another said, “My mother told me, on the authority of her mother, that she used it to pay charity”—meaning the charity due on her orchard—“to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).” Another said something similar, and yet another said something similar.

Mālik then asked Abū Yūsuf, “Do you think these people are lying?”

He replied, “No, by Allah! These people are not lying.”

Mālik said, “I have measured this precisely using your ratl, people of Iraq, and found it to be five and one-third ratls.”

Abū Yūsuf said to Mālik, “I have adopted your view, Abū ‘Abd Allāh. Had my companion seen what I have seen, he would have changed his view just as I have.”

This, then, is the mass transmission from the people of Medina concerning the capacity of the sā‘ and mudd. A group of scholars—including Ibn Qutaybah, al-Qādī Abū Ya‘lā in his Ta‘līq, and my grandfather Abū al-Barakāt—held that the sā‘ for food is five and one-third ratls, whereas the sā‘ for water is eight ratls. They offered several arguments, including the report from ‘Ā’ishah:

“She and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) used to bathe using a faraq measure.”

A faraq is sixteen Iraqi ratls. The majority, however, hold that the sā‘ and mudd used for food and water