Imam Malik
Imam Malik’s Early Years
Abu Abdullah, Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn Amer al-Asbahee was born in Madinah in the year 93 A.H. (714 CE). His ancestral home was in Yemen, but his grandfather settled in Madinah after embracing Islam.
Born into a well-to-do family, Imam Malik did not need to work for a living. He was highly attracted to the study of Islam, and ended up devoting his entire life to the study of Fiqh. Imam Malik received his education in what was the most important seat of Islamic learning, Madinah, and lived where the immediate descendants and the followers of the companions of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, were living.
It is said that Imam Malik sought out over three hundred Tabi’een or those who saw and followed the companions of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. Imam Malik held the hadeeth of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, in such reverence that he never narrated, taught any hadeeth or gave a fatwa without being in a state of ritual purity, Ghusl. Ismael ibn abi Uwaiss said, “I asked my uncle Imam Malik – about something. He had me sit, made ablution, then said, ‘Laa hawla wala quwata illa billah.’ He did not give any fatwa without saying it first.”
Also, Imam Malik saw fatwa as a sensitive, precise, and important action that can have far reaching results, and used to be extremely careful about giving it to the extent that if he was not sure about a matter, he would not dare to talk. Al-Haytham said, “I once was with Imam Malik when he was asked more than forty questions and I heard him reply, ‘I do not know,’ to thirty two of them.”
Yet, he was the man about whom ash-Shafi’ee said, ‘When scholars are mentioned, Malik is like the star among them.’ Malik said that he did not sit to give fatwa, before seventy of the Madinah scholars first witnessed to his competence in doing so.
Imam Malik became the Imam of the Madinah, and one of the most renowned Imams of Islam.
Imam Malik’s Famous Muwatta
He is the author of al-Muwatta’ (“The Approved”), formed of the sound narrations from the Prophet together with the sayings of his companions, their followers, and those after them. Malik said, “I showed my book to seventy scholars of Madinah, and every single one of them approved it for me (kulluhum wata-ani alayh), so I named it ‘The Approved’.”
Imam Bukhari said that the soundest of all chains of transmission was “Malik, from Nafi, from Ibn Umar.” The scholars of hadeeth call it the Golden Chain, and there are eighty narrations with this chain in the Muwatta. Malik composed al-Muwatta in the course of forty years, having started with ten thousand narrations until he reduced them to their present number of fewer than 2,000.
Like all scholars of Islam, Imam Malik was famous for his piety and integrity. He courageously stood up, and was prepared to suffer, for his convictions. When the governor of Madinah demanded and forced people to take the oath of allegiance to Khalifah al-Mansour, Imam Malik issued a fatwa that such an oath was not binding because it was given under coercion. He based this opinion of the hadeeth, “The divorce of the coerced does not take effect” (laysa ala mustakrahin talag). This resulted in many people finding courage to express their opposition, but Imam Malik was arrested, found guilty of defiance, and publicly flogged.
Imam Malik’s followers and disciples developed a Fiqh school, Madh-hab, based on his Ijtihad which came to be known as the Maliki Madh-hab. This Madh-hab spread in North Africa, al-Andalus, much of Egypt, and some of al-Sham, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Khurasan. Today, Malikis are mostly found in North and West Africa, Egypt, Sudan and the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula.
On Monday 14th of Rabi-ul-Awwal 179 A H., Imaam Malik (R.A) took leave from this world in the city of Madinah and is buried in the famous al-Baqie cemetery.
Source: Madrassah In’amiyyah
3:51 am
may allah bless all the muslims all over the world
4:06 pm
which Imam said, ” The pious predecessors would teach their children the love of Abu Bakr and Umar as they would teach them a surah of the Quran”
is it a) Malik
b) Al-Shafee
c) Ahmed ?
11:08 am
Imam ________ said “The pious predecessors would teach their children the love of Abu Bakr and Umar as they would teach them a surah of the Quran”
a) Imam Malik
b) Imam al-Shafiee
c) Imam Ahmed
6:03 pm
My dear friend,
I am a Brazilian man, 52 years old, a retired university professor, now a farmer and a sincere spiritual seeker.
I have been trying to get in touch with somebody belonging to your religion for many years now and written to many addresses and never got an answer.
I would really love to receive any printed literature in English, please. I really need this.
I am very sorry, but I live in a farm, far away from town and have no Internet. The one I connect to, in town, (when I come here once a month, or so) is very slow, no speed enough to download anything, not even a picture. Because of this I need printed material, if you have it available, please!
My postal address is as following:
Sinfronio Alves Vieira
Caixa postal 114
CEP 74001970 Goiania, Goias, Brazil
Thank you for your precious attention.
Love,
Sinfronio Alves Vieira
4:41 pm
Try and contact this organisation…perhaps they can help you.
Muslim Beneficent Society of Goiania
Caixa Postal 5161,
Goiania, GO CEP 74025-970, BRAZIL
6:30 pm
Hello Dear friend – Sinfronio
Do you still require printed material on Spiritual Islam? I can send some to you, if you still need?
What topics of books would you like?
Best regards,
Imran
sportyman_123@hotmail.co.uk
8:28 pm
i was informed by a class on the lives of the four imams (under IISNA) that imam malik did at some point have his own income for a living (i believe it was a business enterprise). so i believed that he earned his own money even when he was from a well-to-do family.
(jst thought of sharing that here).
4:04 am
Assalamu Alayum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu,
Brother Sinfronio, do you have any e-mail for contact? Are you in Brazil right now? I hope you have the chance to see this post so you can get in touch with me inshaALLAH.
Masalama,
Maximo
9:18 am
Asshaduallaha Illaulah wa Asshaduanna Muhammadarrasulluwlah
9:11 pm
May allah bless all our great scholars and those who follows right path
12:15 pm
Jazakumullahu khairan.
8:18 pm
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8:12 am
I m n somalia my country nid peace plz ol pray to Allah we get peace as we are ol muslims
7:12 pm
HAPPY!HAPPY!HAPPY are for the blieving one (i.e one who summit his truth and hope for Allah men and woman too ) vehementaly you wil conqer.
2:15 pm
‘qad aflaha almukminun’
success for those who believe
12:13 pm
ALLAH BLESS YOU FOREVER AND YOU AND OTHER MUSLIM REMAIN IN ISLAM.
3:23 pm
I JUST READ THIS BIOGRAPHY OF IMAM MALIK BN ANAS AND THE COMMENTS BELOW IT. ONE OF THE COMMENT THAT IS INTERESTING TO ME THE BROTHER FROM BRAZIL THAT WANTED TO REVERT TO ISLAM.
WAS HE REVERTED TO ISLAM? PLEASE UPDATE ME.
9:52 am
masha allh
5:40 am
Ma sha ALLAH. I love this web so much May ALLAH bless us all.
1:20 pm
Knowledgeable