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’.