he is still to reside with his mother; however, during the time for his instruction—that is, the daytime—he is to be with his father. This is precisely Mālik’s position in al-Mudawwana, which we have related. There are thus three positions reported on this question. Mālik’s position in al-Tahdhīb is that the mother has the greater right to him until he reaches puberty. The father is to attend to him at her home, discipline him, and send him to school, but he is to spend the night only with his mother.”

I say: Hanbal and Ahmad ibn al-Faraj used to ask Imam Ahmad about the legal opinions of Mālik and the scholars of Medina, just as Ishāq ibn Mansūr and others asked him about the opinions of Sufyān al-Thawrī and others, al-Maymūnī asked him about the opinions of al-Awzāʿī, and Ismāʿīl ibn Saʿīd al-Shālanjī asked him about the opinions of Abū Hanīfa and his companions. The latter had studied jurisprudence according to Abū Hanīfa’s school, then exercised independent legal judgment on many questions, favoring the position of the scholars of hadith. He asked Ahmad and others about those questions, and Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb al-Jawzajānī, the imam of the mosque of Damascus, expounded them.

As for custody of a girl once she reaches the age of discernment, we have found two positions explicitly reported from Ahmad. More than one scholar of his school, including Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Taymiyya and others, has transmitted both. The first is that the father has the greater right to her, as stated in the well-known books of his school. The second is that the mother has the greater right to her. In the report of Ishāq ibn Mansūr, he said: “Custody of the girl is awarded to the mother and the maternal aunt. Once she needs to be married, however, the father has the greater right to her.”