Yasin Dutton


Yasin Dutton is an Associate Professor of Arabic in School of Languages & Literature at the University of Cape Town.
His research interests include: Early Islamic law; Early Quranic Manuscripts; Islamic law in the Modern World.

Fiqh

Dutton has made a particular study of the Amal Ahl Al-Madina, the early fiqh as expounded by the Imam of Madina, Imam Malik ibn Anas.
He aims to explain the excellence of the Amal Ahl Al-Madina in his book, Original Islam: Malik and the Madhhab of Madina, an annotated translation of Intiṣār al-faqīr al-sālik li-tarjīḥ madhhab al-Imām al-kabīr Mālik, a fifteenth-century Moroccan Maliki scholar who settled in Cairo
He is of the view that in addition to the Quran, the amal of the people of Madina was an overruling authority for Malik, more so than the Hadith.
Dutton makes a clear distinction between Sunnah as preserved by 'Amal and Sunnah as preserved by Hadith. He is said to have made "a significant contribution to our understanding of the juristic activity in early Islam."
This distinction is clearly illustrated regarding the issue of the placement of the hands in the prayer, i.e. sadl vs qabd, which Dutton explains in his paper, ʿAmal v. ḥadīth in Islamic Law: The Case of Sadl Al-Yadayn when Doing the Prayer.

Publications