Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn `Amr,
al-Imam, Abu `Abd Allah al-Humyari al-Asbahi al-Madani (93-179), the
Shaykh of Islam, Proof of the Community, Imam of the Abode of
Emigration, and Knowledgeable Scholar of Madina predicted by the
Prophet. The second of the four major mujtahid imams, whose
school filled North Africa, al-Andalus, much of Egypt, and some of
al-Sham, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Khurasan. He is the author of al-Muwatta’
("The Approved"), formed of the sound narrations of the
Prophet from the people of the Hijaz together with the sayings of
the Companions, the Followers, and those after them. It was hailed
by al-Shafi`i as the soundest book on earth after the Qur’an,
nearest book on earth to the Qur’an, most correct book on earth
after the Qur’an, and most beneficial book on earth after the
Qur’an according to four separate narrations. Malik said: "I
showed my book to seventy jurists of Madina, and every single one of
them approved me for it (kulluhum wâta’ani `alayh), so I
named it ‘The Approved’." Imam al-Bukhari said that the
soundest of all chains of transmission was "Malik, from Nafi`,
from Ibn `Umar." The scholars of hadith call it the Golden
Chain, and there are eighty narrations with this chain in the Muwatta’.
Among those Malik narrated from in the Muwatta’:
Ayyub al-Sakhtyani, Ja`far ibn Muhammad (al-Sadiq), Zayd ibn Aslam,
`Ata’ al-Khurasani, al-Zuhri, Ibn al-Munkadir, `Alqama, Nafi` the
freedman of Ibn `Umar, and others. Among those who narrated from
Malik: al-Zuhri, Ibn Jurayj, Abu Hanifa, al-Awza`i, Sufyan al-Thawri,
Shu`ba, Ibn al-Mubarak, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, `Abd al-Rahman ibn
Mahdi, Waki`, Yahya al-Qattan, al-Shafi`i, Ibn Wahb, Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi,
`Abd al-Razzaq, and many others.
The Prophet said: "Very soon will people
beat the flanks of camels in search of knowledge, and they shall
find no-one more knowledgeable than the knowledgeable scholar of
Madina." Al-Tirmidhi, al-Qadi `Iyad, Dhahabi and others relate
from Sufyan ibn `Uyayna, `Abd al-Razzaq, Ibn Mahdi, Ibn Ma`in,
Dhu’ayb ibn `Imama, Ibn al-Madini, and others that they considered
that scholar to be Malik ibn Anas. It is also related from Ibn `Uyayna
that he later considered it to be `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-`Aziz al-`Umari.
Al-Dhahabi said of the latter: "He possessed knowledge and good
fiqh, spoke the truth fearlessly, ordered good, and remained
aloof from society. He used to press Malik in private to renounce
the world and seclude himself."
Abu Mus`ab said: "Malik did not pray in
congregation [in the Prophet’s mosque] for twenty-five years. He
was asked: ‘What is preventing you?’ He said: ‘Lest I see
something reprehensible and be obligated to change it.’"
Another narration from Abu Mus`ab states: "After Malik left the
[Prophet’s] mosque he used to pray in his house with a
congregation that followed him, and he prayed the Jum`a
prayer alone in his house." Ibn Sa`d narrates from Muhammad ibn
`Umar: "Malik used to come to the Mosque and pray the prayers
and the Jum`a, as well as the funeral prayers. He used to
visit the sick and sit in the Mosque where his companions would came
and saw him. Then he quit sitting there, instead he would pray and
leave, and he quit attending the funeral prayers. Then he quit
everything, neither attending the prayers nor the Jum`a in
the mosque. Nor would he visit anyone who was sick or other than
that. The people bore with it, for they were extremely fond of him
and respected him too much. This lasted until he died. If asked
about it, he said: ‘Not everyone can mention his excuse.’"
Ibn `Abd al-Barr said that Malik was the first
who compiled a book formed exclusively of sound narrations. Abu Bakr
ibn al-`Arabi said: "The Muwatta’ is the first
foundation and the core, while al-Bukhari’s book is the second
foundation in this respect. Upon these two all the rest have built,
such as Muslim and al-Tirmidhi." Shah Wali Allah said something
similar and added that it is the principal authority of all four
Schools of Law, which stand in relation to it like the commentary
stands in relation to the main text. Malik composed it in the course
of forty years, having started with ten thousand narrations until he
reduced them to their present number of under 2,000.
Al-Suyuti said: "There is no mursal
narration in the Muwatta’ except it has one or several
strengthening proofs (`âdid aw `awâdid)." Ibn `Abd
al-Barr composed a book in which he listed all the narrations of the
Muwatta’ that are either mursal, or munqati`,
or mu`dal, and he provided complete sound chains for all of
them except four:
"In truth I do not forget, but I am made
to forget so that I shall start a Sunna." This is the
second hadith in the book of Sahw.
"The Prophet was shown the lifespans of
people before his time, or whatever Allah willed of it, and
seemed alarmed that the lifespans of his Community were too
brief to reach the amount of deeds reached by previous
communities who lived long. Whereupon Allah gave him the Most
Precious Night (layla al-qadr), which is better than a
thousand months." This is the fifteenth hadith in the book
of I`tikaf.
Mu`adh ibn Jabal said: "The last
instruction I received from Allah’s Messenger when I put my
foot in the stirrup was: ‘Beautify your manners for the
people, O Mu`adh ibn Jabal!’" This is the first hadith of
the book of Husn al-Khuluq.
"If clouds appear towards the sea then
go northwards, that is the mark of heavyish rain." This is
the fifth hadith of the book of Istisqa’.
Among the hadith masters, al-`Iraqi and his
student Ibn Hajar agreed with Ibn `Abd al-Barr that the above four
hadiths have no chain, but others follow a different view: Shaykh
Muhammad al-Shinqiti mentioned in his Dalil al-Salik ila Muwatta’
al-Imam Malik (p. 14) that Shaykh Salih al-Fulani al-`Umari al-Madani
said: "Ibn al-Salah provided complete chains for the four
hadiths in question in an independent epistle which I have in my
possession, written in his own hand." Shaykh Ahmad Shakir said:
"But al-Shinqiti did not mention what these chains were, and so
the scholars cannot judge on the question."
Al-Zurqani counted as sixty-nine the number of
those who narrated the Muwatta’ directly from Malik,
geographically spread as follows:
- Seventeen in Madina, among them Abu Mus`ab
Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Zuhri, whose version has received a recent
edition;
- Two in Mecca, among them al-Shafi`i;
- Ten in Egypt, among them `Abd Allah ibn
Wahb, `Abd Allah ibn Yusuf al-Tinnisi al-Dimashqi, whose
narration al-Bukhari chose, and Dhu al-Nun al-Misri;
- Twenty-seven in Iraq, among them `Abd al-Rahman
ibn Mahdi, whose narration Ahmad ibn Hanbal chose, Yahya ibn
Yahya al-Tamimi al-Hanzali al-Naysaburi, whose narration Muslim
chose, and Abu Hanifa’s student Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani,
whose version has been published but greatly differs from the
others and also contains other than what is narrated from Malik,
so that it became known as Muwatta’ Muhammad;
- Thirteen in al-Andalus, among them the
jurist Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi "the Sage of al-Andalus"
û thus nicknamed by
Malik himself û whose
version is the most commonly used today and is the version meant
by the term "Malik’s Muwatta’." He is
mainly responsible for the spread of the Maliki School in al-Andalus.
- Two from al-Qayrawan;
- Two from Tunis;
- Seven from al-Sham.
Imam Malik is the connection of the entire
Islamic Community to the knowledge of the Sunna as it was preserved
by the scholars of the Prophet’s city, al-Madina. This
reference-point of his school of jurisprudence is observed time and
again in the Muwatta’ with the phrase: "And this is
what I have found (or seen) the people of knowledge
practicing." He was keenly aware of his mission as both the
transmitter and the elucidator of the Sunna. This is characteristic
of his students’ praise of him, beginning with al-Shafi`i’s
famous sayings: "No-one constitutes as great a favor to me in
Allah’s Religion as Malik" and "When the scholars of
knowledge are mentioned, Malik is the guiding star." `Abd Allah
ibn Wahb said: "Every memorizer of hadith that does not have an
Imam in fiqh is misguided (dâll), and if Allah had
not rescued us with Malik and al-Layth (ibn Sa`d), I would have been
misguided." Abu Mus`ab recounts the following story:
I went in to see Malik ibn Anas. He said to me:
"Look under my place of prayer or prayer-mat and see what is
there." I looked and found a certain writing. He said:
"Read it." It contained the account of a dream which one
of his brothers had seen and which concerned him. Malik recited it
[from memory]: "I saw the Prophet in my sleep. He was in his
mosque and the people were gathered around him, and he said: ‘I
have hidden for you under my pulpit (minbar) something good
– or: knowledge – and I have ordered Malik to distribute it to
the people.’" Then Malik wept, so I got up and left him.
The caliph Abu Ja`far al-Mansur had forbidden
Malik to narrate the hadith: "The divorce of the coerced does
not take effect" (laysa `ala mustakrahin / li mukrahin talâq).
Then a spy came to Malik and asked him about the issue, whereupon
Malik narrated the hadith in front of everyone. He was seized and
lashed until his shoulder was dislocated and he passed out. When he
came to, he said: "He [al-Mansur] is absolved of my
lashing." When asked why he had absolved him, Malik replied:
"I feared to meet the Prophet after being the cause for the
perdition of one of his relatives." Ibrahim ibn Hammad said he
saw Malik being carried up and walking away, carrying one of his
hands with the other. Then they shaved his face and he was mounted
on a camel and paraded. He was ordered to deprecate himself aloud,
whereupon he said: "Whoever knows me, knows me; whoever does
not know me, my name is Malik ibn Anas, and I say: The divorce of
the coerced is null and void!" When news of this reached Ja`far
ibn Sulayman (d. 175) the governor of Madina and cousin of al-Mansur,
he said: "Bring him down, let him go."
Imam Malik held the hadith of the Prophet in such
reverence that he never narrated anything nor gave a fatwa
unless in a state of ritual purity. Isma`il ibn Abi Uways said:
"I asked my uncle û
Malik û about something.
He bade me sit, made ablution, sat on the couch, and said: la
hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. He did not give a fatwa
except he said it first." Al-Haytham said: "I heard Malik
being asked forty eight questions, to thirty-two of which he
replied: ‘I do not know.’" Abu Mus`ab reported that Malik
said: "I did not give fatwas before seventy scholars
first witnessed to my competence to do it."
Malik’s ethics, together with the states of awe
and emotion which were observed on him by his entourage, were no
doubt partly inherited from great shaykhs of his such as Ja`far al-Sadiq,
Ibn Hurmuz, and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. He visited his shaykh Ibn
Hurmuz (d. 148) every day from morning to night for a period of
about eight years and recounts: "I would come to Ibn Hurmuz,
whereupon he would order the servant to close the door and let down
the curtain, then he would start speaking of the beginning of this Umma,
and tears would stream down his beard." The Maliki shaykh Ibn
Qunfudh al-Qusantini (d. 810) wrote:
It was the practice of the Pious Predecessors
and the Imams of the past that whenever the Prophet was mentioned
in their presence they were overwhelmed by reverence, humbleness,
stillness, and dignity. Ja`far ibn Muhammad ibn `Ali ibn al-Husayn
ibn `Ali ibn Abi Talib would turn pale whenever he heard the
Prophet mentioned. Imam Malik would not mention a hadith except in
a state of ritual purity. `Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim ibn Muhammad
ibn Abu Bakr al-Siddiq would turn red and stammer whenever he
heard the Prophet mentioned. As for `Amir ibn `Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr
ibn al-`Awamm al-Asadi (one of the early Sufis), he would weep
until his eyes had no tears left in them. When any hadiths were
mentioned in their presence they would lower their voices. Malik
said: "The Prophet’s sacredness (hurma) is in death
is as his sacredness was in life."
Qutayba said: "When we went to see Malik, he
would come out to us adorned, wearing kuhl on his eyes,
perfumed, wearing his best clothes, sit at the head of the circle,
call for palm-leaf fans, and give each one of us a fan."
Muhammad ibn `Umar: "Malik’s circle was a circle of dignity
and courtesy. He was a man of majestic countenance and noblity.
There was no part for self-display, vain talk, or loud speech in his
circle. His reader would read for all, and no-one looked into his
own book, nor asked questions, out of awe before Malik and out of
respect for him."
When the caliph al-Mahdi sent his sons Harun and
Musa to learn from Malik, the latter would not read to them but told
them: "The people of Madina read before the scholar just like
children read to the teacher, and if they make a mistake, he
corrects them." Similarly when Harun al-Rashid with his own two
sons requested Malik to read for them, he replied: "I have
stopped reading for anybody a long time ago." When Harun
requested the people to leave so that he could read freely before
Malik, the latter also refused and said: "If the common people
are forbidden to attend because of the particulars, the latter will
not profit." It is known that Malik’s way in the transmission
of hadith, like Ibn al-Musayyib, `Urwa, al-Qasim, Salim, Nafi`, al-Zuhri,
and others, was `ard ("reading by the student") and
not samâ` ("audition from the shaykh"), although
the student states by convention, in both cases: "So-and-so
narrated to us."
The caliph Harun al-Rashid said to Malik after
hearing his answers to certain questions he put to him: "You
are, by Allah! the wisest of people and the most knowledgeable of
people." Malik replied: "No, by Allah! O Leader of the
Believers." He said: "Yes! But you keep it hidden. By
Allah! If I live, I shall put your sayings in writing like the mushafs
are put down in writing, and I shall disseminate them to the ends of
the world." But Malik refused.
When one of the caliphs manifested his intention
to replace the Prophet’s wooden pulpit with a pulpit of silver and
jewels Malik said: "I do not consider good the hindrance of the
people from access to the Prophet’s relics." (lâ ara an
yuhrama al-nâsu athara rasulillah.)
Among Malik’s sayings:
From Ibn Wahb: "Knowledge Allah places
wherever He wills. It does not consist in narrating a lot."
From Ibn Wahb: "The saying has reached
methat none renounces the world and guards himself except he
will speak wisdom."
From Ibn Wahb: "Knowledge diminishes and
does not increase. Knowledge has diminished incessantly after
the Prophets and the Books."
From `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-Hakam: "The
Companions differed in the Branches (al-furû`) and split
into factions (tafarraqû), and each one of them was
correct in himself."
From Ja`far ibn `Abd Allah: "We were
with Malik when a man came and asked him: ‘O Abu `Abd Allah! "The
Merciful is established over the Throne" (20:5): how is
He established?’ Nothing affected Malik as much as that
man’s question. He looked at the ground and started prodding
it with a twig he held in his hand until he was completely
soaked in sweat. Then he lifted his head and said: ‘The
"how" of it is inconceivable; the
"establishment" part of it is not unknown; belief in
it is obligatory; asking about it is an innovation; and I
believe that you are a man of innovation.’ Then he gave an
order and the man was led out."
From Ibn Wahb: "We were with Malik when
a man asked him: ‘O Abu `Abd Allah! "The Merciful is
established over the Throne" (20:5): how is His
establishment?’ Malik lowered his head and began to sweat
profusely. Then he lifted up his head and said: ‘"The
Merciful is established over the Throne" just as He
described Himself. One cannot ask "how."
"How" does not apply to Him. And you are an evil man,
a man of innovation. Take him out!’ The man was led out."
From Yahya ibn Yahya al-Tamimi and Malik’s
shaykh Rabi`a ibn Abi `Abd al-Rahman: "We were with Malik
when a man came and asked him: ‘O Abu `Abd Allah! "The
Merciful is established over the Throne" (20:5): how is
He established?’ Malik lowered his head and remained thus
until he was completely soaked in sweat. Then he said: ‘The
establishment is not unknown; the "how" is
inconceivable; belief in it is obligatory; asking about it is an
innovation; and I do not think that you are anything but an
innovator.’ Then he ordered that the man be led out."
From Ma`n: "Disputation (al-jidâl)
in the Religion fosters self-display, does away with the light
of the heart and hardens it, and bequeaths aimless
wandering."
From Ma`n and others: "There are four
types of narrators one does not take from: An outright scoffer,
even if he is the greatest narrator; an innovator who invites
people to his innovation; someone who lies about people, even if
I do not charge him with mendacity in hadith; and a righteous,
honorable worshipper if he does not memorize what he
narrates." Malik’s last clause refers to the two
conditions sine qua non of the trustworthy narrator, who
must possess not only moral uprightness (`adâla) but
also accuracy in transmission (dabt). The clause
elucidates the paradox current among hadith scholars whereby
"No-one lies more than the righteous." The reason for
this is that the righteous do not doubt the Muslim’s
attribution of a saying to his Prophet, and so they accept it
without suspicion, whereas al-Shafi`i said: "If Malik had
the slightest doubt about a hadith, he discarded the entire
hadith." Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr said: "The manner of the
righteous who narrate everything indiscriminately stems from
purity of heart and good opinion, and the scholars have said
about such narrators: ‘Lies run off their tongue without their
intending it.’" There is a fundamental difference between
the latter and those who deliberately forge lies or narrate
forgeries passed for hadith, and who are condemned by the
Prophet’s saying: "Whoever lies about me willfully, let
him take now his seat in the Fire!"
From Ibn al-Qasim: "Malik used to say:
‘Belief increases.’ He would stop short of saying that it
decreases."
From Ibn Abi al-Zubayr: "I saw `Ata’
ibn Abi Rabah enter the [Prophet’s] Mosque, then take hold of
the pommel of the Pulpit, after which he faced the Qibla
[to pray]."
In the Muwatta’: "Shaving the
moustache is an innovation." It is elsewhere related that
Malik himself was tall, heavyset, imposing of stature, very
fair, with white hair and beard but bald, with a huge beard and
blue eyes; he "detested and condemned" shaving of the
moustache, and he always wore beautiful clothes, especially
white.
Narrated by Ibn Abi Zayd: "The turban
was worn from the beginning of Islam and it did not cease to be
worn until our time. I did not see anyone among the People of
Excellence except they wore the turban, such as Yahya ibn Sa`id,
Rabi`a, and Ibn Hurmuz. I would see in Rabi`a’s circle more
than thirty men wearing turbans and I was one of them; Rabi`a
did not put it down until the Pleiades rose and he used to say:
‘I swear that I find it increases intelligence.’ Jibril was
seen in the image of (the Companion) Dihya (ibn Khalifa) al-Kalbi
wearing a turban with its extremity hanging between his
shoulder-blades." Ashhab said: "When Malik wore the
turban he passed it under his chin and let its extremity hang
behind his back, and he wore musk and other scents."
Main sources: Abu Nu`aym, Hilya al-Awliya’
6:345-392 #386; al-Dhahabi, Siyar A`lam al-Nubala’
7:382-437 #1180; M. Fouad `Abd al-Baqi, Introduction to Malik’s Muwatta’.
By Dr. G.F. Haddad
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