Muwatta Malik 1131
موطأ مالك#1131SahihThese are the words of a Successor — the generation after the Companions — not of the Prophet ﷺ.
حَدَّثَنِي يَحْيَى، عَنْ مَالِكٍ، عَنِ ابْنِ شِهَابٍ، عَنْ سَعِيدِ بْنِ الْمُسَيَّبِ، أَنَّهُ قَالَ الْمُحْصَنَاتُ مِنَ النِّسَاءِ هُنَّ أُولاَتُ الأَزْوَاجِ وَيَرْجِعُ ذَلِكَ إِلَى أَنَّ اللَّهَ حَرَّمَ الزِّنَا .
Malik said, "It is not halal to marry a christian or jewish slave-girl because Allah the Blessed, the Exalted, said in His Book, 'Believing women who are muhsanat and women of those who were given the Book before you who are muhsanat', (sura 5 ayat 6) and they are free women from the Christians and Jews. Allah, the Blessed, the Exalted, said in His Book, 'If you are not affluent enough to marry believing women who are muhsanat, take believing slave-girls whom your right hands own.' " (Sura 4 ayat 24) Malik said, "In our opinion, Allah made marriage to believing slave-girls halal, and He did not make halal marriage to christian and jewish slave-girls from the People of the Book." Malik said, "The christian and jewish slave-girl are halal for their master by right of possession, but intercourse with a magian slave-girl is not halal by the right of possession." Yahya related to me from Malik from Ibn Shihab that Said ibn al- Musayyab said, "The muhsanat among women are those who have husbands." That referred to the fact that Allah has made fornication haram
Scholarly Authentication
The label above is the grade most of these scholars gave — one dissenting opinion no longer speaks for all of them. If any scholar calls a narration fabricated, that verdict is shown instead, whatever the others say. Each scholar's own wording:
In-book reference: 28:41