Malik ibn Anas (; –795), also known as Imam Malik, was a Muslim scholar, jurist, muhaddith and traditionalist who is the eponym of the Maliki school, one of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence in Sunni Islam.
Born in Medina into the clan of Humayr which belonged to the Banu Taym of Quraysh, Malik studied under Hisham ibn Urwa, Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, Ja'far al-Sadiq, Nafi ibn Sarjis and others. He rose to become the premier scholar of hadith in his day, and the prominent orders in Sufism, the Shadili and Tijani.
Perhaps Malik's most famous accomplishment in the annals of Islamic history is, however, his compilation of al-Muwatta, one of the oldest and most revered Sunni hadith collections and one of "the earliest surviving Muslim law-book[s],"
According to classical Sunni tradition, the Islamic prophet Muhammad foretold the birth of Malik, saying: "Very soon will people beat the flanks of camels in search of knowledge and they shall find no one more expert than the knowledgeable scholar of Medina," and, in another tradition, "The people ... shall set forth from East and West without finding a sage other than the sage of the people in Medina." While some later scholars, such as Ibn Hazm and al-Tahawi, did cast doubt on identifying the mysterious wise man of both these traditions with Malik, the most widespread interpretation nevertheless continued to be that which held the personage to be Malik. Malik's most notable student, ash-Shafi'i (who would himself become the founder of another of the four orthodox legal schools of Sunni law), later said of his teacher: "No one constitutes as great a favor to me in the religion of God as Malik ... when the scholars of knowledge are mentioned, Malik is the star."
Biography
Malik was born as the son of Anas ibn Malik (not the Sahabi with the same name) and Aaliyah bint Shurayk al-Azdiyya in Medina, . His family was originally from the al-Asbahi tribe of Yemen, but his great grandfather Abu 'Amir relocated the family to Medina after converting to Islam in the second year of the Hijri calendar, or 623 CE. His grandfather Malik ibn Abi Amir was a student of the second Caliph of Islam Umar and was one of those involved in the collection of the parchments upon which Quranic texts were originally written when those were collected during the Caliph Uthman era.
Teachers
Living in Medina gave Malik access to some of the most learned minds of early Islam. He memorized the Quran in his youth, learning recitation from Abu Suhail Nafi' ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman, from whom he also received his Ijazah, or certification and permission to teach others. He studied under various famed scholars including Hisham ibn Urwah and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri as well as the famed Imam Jafar al-Sadiq.
Both Malik and al Zuhri were student to Nafi Mawla Ibn Umar, prestigious Tabi'un Imam and freed slave of Abdullah ibn Umar.
Imam Malik, studied also with Imam Jafar a wellknown scholar of his time, although primarily influenced by other Fuqaha, like Nafi’.
Imam Malik was a teacher of Imam Shafi, who in turn was a teacher of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
Imam Malik inherited his knowledge from the seven jurists of Madinah, known as Fuqahā’ al-Sab‘ah:
- Ubaydullah ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Utbah ibn Mas'ud
- 'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr
- Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abi Bakr al-Siddiq
- Sa-id ibn al-Mussayib
- Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām
- Sulaymān ibn Yasār
- Khārijah ibn Zayd ibn Thābit
Golden Chain of Narration
Malik's chain of narrators was considered the most authentic and called Silsilat al-Dhahab or "The Golden Chain of Narrators" by notable hadith scholars including Muhammad al-Bukhari. The 'Golden Chain' of narration (i.e., that considered by the scholars of Hadith to be the most authentic) consists of Malik, who narrated from Nafi‘ Mawla ibn ‘Umar, who narrated from Ibn Umar, who narrated from Muhammad.
Views
Theology
Abdul-Ghani Ad-Daqr wrote that Malik was 'the furthest of all people' from dialectic theology who was the most knowledgeable of their discussions without accepting their views. G.F. Haddad, on the other hand, argued that Malik was not completely averse to the idea of dialectic theology; on the contrary, Haddad points to Malik having studied 'at the feet of Ibn Hurmuz', a master in dialectic theology, for 'thirteen to sixteen years'.
Anthropomorphism
Malik's unique contributions to the field of theology specifically is that he was a strict opponent of anthropomorphism,
Beatific vision
Malik was a supporter of the orthodox Sunni doctrine of the beatific vision, and he is said to have cited Quran 75:22-23 ("That day will faces be resplendent, looking toward their Lord,") and 83:15 ("Nay! Verily, from their Lord, that day, shall they [the transgressors] be veiled,") as proof of his belief.
Faith's nature
When he was asked about the nature of faith, Malik defined it as "speech and works" (qawlun wa-'amal), which shows that Malik was averse to the rigorous separation of faith and works.
Intercession
Malik seems to have been a proponent of intercession in personal supplication. Regarding this tradition, the thirteenth-century hadith master Ibn Jamāʿa said: "The report is related by the two hadith masters Ibn Bashkuwāl and al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ in al-Shifā, and no attention is paid to the words of those who claim that it is forged purely on the basis of their idle desires." Historically, it is known that Malik's statements on the validity of intercession remained a core doctrine of the Maliki school, and practically all Maliki thinkers of the classical era accepted the idea of the Prophet's intercession.
Mysticism
On the basis of several early traditions, it is evident that Malik held the early Sufis and their practices in high regard. It is related, moreover, that Malik was a strong proponent of combining the "inward science" (ilm al-bātin) of mystical knowledge with the "outward science" of jurisprudence. While there are a few traditions relating that Malik, while not an opponent of mysticism as a whole, was nonetheless adverse specifically to the practice of group dhikr, such traditions have been graded as being munkar or "weak" in their chain of transmission. Furthermore, it has been argued that none of these reports - all of which relate Malik's disapproving amusement at being told about an instance of group dhikr happening nearby - explicitly display any disapproval of the act as such, but rather serve as a criticism of "some people who passed for Sufis in his time [who] apparently committed certain excesses or breaches of the sacred law." This is evident, for example, in the fact that Malik approvingly related the tradition of Atā' ibn Abī Rabāh, whom he saw "enter the [[Masjid an-Nabawi|[Prophet's] Mosque]], then take hold of the pommel of the Pulpit, after which he faced the qibla [to pray]," thereby supporting the holding of the pommel for its blessings (baraka) by virtue of its having touched Muhammad.
Ethics
Differences of opinion
Accounts of Malik's life demonstrate that the scholar cherished differences of opinion amongst the ulema as a mercy from God to the Islamic community. Even "in Malik's time there were those who forwarded the idea of a unified madhhab and the ostensive removal of all differences between the Sunni schools of law," with "three successive caliphs" having sought to "impose the Muwatta and Malik's school upon the entire Islamic world of their time," but "Malik refused to allow it every time ... [for he held that the differences in opinion among the jurists]" were a "mercy" for the people. When the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur said to Malik: "I want to unify this knowledge. I shall write to the leaders of the armies and to the rulers so that they make it law, and whoever contravenes it shall be put to death," Malik is said to have responded: "Commander of the Believers, there is another way. Truly, the Prophet was present in this community, he used to send out troops or set forth in person, and he did not conquer many lands until God took back his soul. Then Abu Bakr arose and he also did not conquer many lands. Then Umar arose after the two of them and many lands were conquered at his hands. As a result, he faced the necessity of sending out the companions of Muhammad as teachers and people did not cease to take from them, notable scholars from notable scholars until our time. If you now go and change them from what they know to what they do not know they shall deem it disbelief (kufr). Rather, confirm the people of each land with regard to whatever knowledge is there, and take this knowledge to yourself."
According to another narration, al-Mansur, after hearing Malik's answers to certain important questions, said: "I have resolved to give the order that your writings be copied and disseminated to every Muslim region on earth, so that they be put in practice exclusively of any other rulings. They will leave aside innovations and keep only this knowledge. For I consider that the source of knowledge is the narrative tradition of Medina and the knowledge of its scholars." To this, Malik is said to have replied: "Commander of the Believers, do not! For people have already heard different positions, heard hadith, and related narrations. Every group has taken whatever came to them and put it into practice, conforming to it while other people differed. To take them away from what they have been professing will cause a disaster. Therefore, leave people with whatever school they follow and whatever the people of each country chose for themselves." Elsewhere, a certain Khālid ibn Khidāsh related: "I travelled all the way from Iraq to see Mālik about forty questions. He did not answer me except on five. Then he said: ʿIbn ʿIjlān used to say: If the 'alim bypasses 'I do not know,' he will receive a mortal blow." Needless argument, therefore, was disapproved of by Malik, and he also chose to keep silent about religious matters in general unless he felt obliged to speak in fear of "the spread of misguidance or some similar danger."
Social
Shaving the moustache
Malik's last words were related to one Isma'il ibn Abi Uways who said, "Malik became sick, so I asked some of our people about what he said at the time of his death. They said, "He recited the testification of faith and then he recited:<blockquote> To Allah belongs the command [i.e., decree] before and after.</blockquote>
Abbasid governor of Mecca and Medina, Abdallah al-Zaynabi led the prayers at the funeral of Malik ibn Anas in 795.
Works
Imam Malik wrote:
- Al-Muwatta, one of the earlier Hadith collections.
- Al-Mudawwana al-Kubra, written down by Sahnun ibn Sa'id ibn Habib at-Tanukhi (c. 776-7 – 854–5) after the death of Malik ibn Anas.
See also
- Salaf
- Tabi' al-Tabi'in
- The Seven Fuqaha of Medina
Further reading
Online
- Mālik ibn Anas: Muslim legal scholar, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Aakanksha Gaur, Marco Sampaolo and Adam Zeidan
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
- Biodata at MuslimScholars.info
- Life of Imam Malik
- Biography of Imam Malik at Lost Islamic History
- Biography of Imam Malik
- A comprehensive Biography of Imam Malik
- Al-Muwatta' of Imam Malik
- Muslims of Norwich, a Maliki community
- : [http://ecolemalekite.com/index.php/category/imam-malik/*] BIOGRAPHY OF IMAM MALIK
- The lifestyle of Imâm Mâlik Ibn Anas (at-tawhid.net)
- Malik, Imam B Anas مَالِك بن أنس; A complete biography on Imam Malik bin Anas
- Imām Mālik’s Life, Fiqh and Influence