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 Noble 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. 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 students and adherents 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., Imam Malik (R.A) took leave from this world in the city of Madinah and is buried in the famous Al-Baqie cemetery. Imam Malik was a man of aura, meaning he was a man of respect. Every scholar was a man of respect. When you looked at Imam Malik, even if you didn’t know that he was an imam, his features struck you. You would find something inside of you forcing you to respect this man. In Arabic this is called aura. He used to say there is nothing harder upon me in life than when I was asked a question on Halal and Haram because I am representing the Hukm, the ruling of Allah Himself, the Creator of the world. Imam Malik spent his whole life in Madinatul Munawwarah - the land of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). He lived for 90 years. He never left Madinah in his entire life, only to Makkah when he went to perform his Hajj and Umrah. In fact, not only did he ever never leave Madinah in his life until his passing, but he never rode on a camel or any transport vehicle. Because in his respect and love for the Prophet he saw it befitting himself as a scholar in Madinah to always have his feet to the ground on the land where the Prophet is buried. In the time of Imam Malik’s middle ages, a young man, at the age of about 13 years old, his mother from Makkah said to him, “My son you are now well known. You have memorised the whole Quran and you have memorised the hadeeth. You have memorised poetry. I want to send yo u to Imam Malik to learn his adab (character) before you learn his knowledge.” She got him ready. She wrote a letter to the governor of Makkah who happened to be her cousin asking him to write a letter to the governor of Madinah requesting him to go with her son to Imam Malik, to intercede for him to be his teacher. The young boy took the letter, along with some food, he set off trough the dessert seeking knowledge. He reached the governor of Madinah and gave him the letter written by the governor of Makkah. The governor of Madinah,’s face changed when he read the letter. He began to sweat. The young boy looked at him and asked, “What’s wrong?” He said, “Wallahi if the governor of Makkah asked me to walk barefoot in the middle of the dessert with nothing on my head it would be easier than for me to go to Imam Malik’s house - because he had so much respect for him. The boy innocently said to him, “You don’t have to go to him, make him come to you.” He didn’t realise that going to Imam Malik wasn’t as simple as going to the officials. The governor of Madinah laughed and together they went to Imam Malik’s house. The knocked on the door and Imam Malik’s servant answered. The governor of Madinah asked for Imam Malik. She said to him if it they had a religious question they could write it on a piece of paper and he will answer it for them. If they want to learn Ahadeeth they should go to his circles of dars (lessons) and if it is a government issue, this was not the time, there is another time for it. The governor of Madinah said to the servant, “I have a letter for him from the governor of Makkah.” A big, tall man, blonde, white, coloured eyes, unlike the people of Madinah came to the door. They looked up at him and a servant lady brought him a chair and he sat on it. He sat and said, “What does the governor of Makkah want from me?” Without a word, the governor of Madinah gave Imam Malik the letter. When Imam Malik read the letter he threw it away saying, “There is no power or might except by Allah. Has it come to this that knowledge now needs connections?” He looked at the young boy and the young boy said to him, “May Allah straighten the path of the Shaykh.” Out of respect he said, “I am a Qureshi, out of the lineage of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).” In saying this he forced the Imam to listen to him. “I am Qureshi. I have memorised the Quran at the age of seven. And you muwatta, the whole of it, I have memorised it with its chain of narrations, I have memorised it by the age of 10. My mother sent me here to learn from you.” Imam Malik looked at him and said, “Oh young boy, Fear Allah and stay away from sins. If you do so there will be something of your future.” This young boy was Imam Muhammad ibn Idrees ash Shafi’i. Love (Mohabbah) and respect for Madinah; Even when Imam Malik (Rahmatullahi alaih) attained old age and became very weak he never rode on an animal in Madinah his entire life. He understood that it was against the respect of Madinah shareef to ride on the very land that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) is buried in. Imam Shaf’iee (Rahmatullahi Alaih) says, “I saw at the door of Imam Malik’s home beautiful horses from Khurasan and Egyptian Mules. So I said to him they were very nice. He said they are yours as a gift from me. I said that you should keep one for yourself. His reply was that I am embarrassed to do so! How can I ride on them when the body of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) is buried here in Madinah and the land is being rode on with the hooves of horses? Imam Malik never wore shoes whilst in Madinatul Munawwarah. He never sat on a horse or used the toilets in this blessed city. He always went out of the city to relieve himself.
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 Noble 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.
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 students and adherents 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., Imam Malik (R.A) took leave from this world in the city of Madinah and is buried in the famous Al-Baqie cemetery.
Imam Malik was a man of aura, meaning he was a man of respect. Every scholar was a man of respect. When you looked at Imam Malik, even if you didn’t know that he was an imam, his features struck you. You would find something inside of you forcing you to respect this man. In Arabic this is called aura. He used to say there is nothing harder upon me in life than when I was asked a question on Halal and Haram because I am representing the Hukm, the ruling of Allah Himself, the Creator of the world.
Imam Malik spent his whole life in Madinatul Munawwarah - the land of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam). He lived for 90 years. He never left Madinah in his entire life, only to Makkah when he went to perform his Hajj and Umrah. In fact, not only did he ever never leave Madinah in his life until his passing, but he never rode on a camel or any transport vehicle. Because in his respect and love for the Prophet he saw it befitting himself as a scholar in Madinah to always have his feet to the ground on the land where the Prophet is buried.
In the time of Imam Malik’s middle ages, a young man, at the age of about 13 years old, his mother from Makkah said to him, “My son you are now well known. You have memorised the whole Quran and you have memorised the hadeeth. You have memorised poetry. I want to send yo u to Imam Malik to learn his adab (character) before you learn his knowledge.” She got him ready. She wrote a letter to the governor of Makkah who happened to be her cousin asking him to write a letter to the governor of Madinah requesting him to go with her son to Imam Malik, to intercede for him to be his teacher. The young boy took the letter, along with some food, he set off trough the dessert seeking knowledge.
He reached the governor of Madinah and gave him the letter written by the governor of Makkah. The governor of Madinah,’s face changed when he read the letter. He began to sweat. The young boy looked at him and asked, “What’s wrong?” He said, “Wallahi if the governor of Makkah asked me to walk barefoot in the middle of the dessert with nothing on my head it would be easier than for me to go to Imam Malik’s house - because he had so much respect for him.
The boy innocently said to him, “You don’t have to go to him, make him come to you.” He didn’t realise that going to Imam Malik wasn’t as simple as going to the officials. The governor of Madinah laughed and together they went to Imam Malik’s house. The knocked on the door and Imam Malik’s servant answered. The governor of Madinah asked for Imam Malik. She said to him if it they had a religious question they could write it on a piece of paper and he will answer it for them. If they want to learn Ahadeeth they should go to his circles of dars (lessons) and if it is a government issue, this was not the time, there is another time for it. The governor of Madinah said to the servant, “I have a letter for him from the governor of Makkah.”
A big, tall man, blonde, white, coloured eyes, unlike the people of Madinah came to the door. They looked up at him and a servant lady brought him a chair and he sat on it. He sat and said, “What does the governor of Makkah want from me?” Without a word, the governor of Madinah gave Imam Malik the letter. When Imam Malik read the letter he threw it away saying, “There is no power or might except by Allah. Has it come to this that knowledge now needs connections?” He looked at the young boy and the young boy said to him, “May Allah straighten the path of the Shaykh.” Out of respect he said, “I am a Qureshi, out of the lineage of Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam).” In saying this he forced the Imam to listen to him. “I am Qureshi. I have memorised the Quran at the age of seven. And you muwatta, the whole of it, I have memorised it with its chain of narrations, I have memorised it by the age of 10. My mother sent me here to learn from you.”
Imam Malik looked at him and said, “Oh young boy, Fear Allah and stay away from sins. If you do so there will be something of your future.” This young boy was Imam Muhammad ibn Idrees ash Shafi’i.
Love (Mohabbah) and respect for Madinah;
Even when Imam Malik (Rahmatullahi alaih) attained old age and became very weak he never rode on an animal in Madinah his entire life. He understood that it was against the respect of Madinah shareef to ride on the very land that the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) is buried in.
Imam Shaf’iee (Rahmatullahi Alaih) says, “I saw at the door of Imam Malik’s home beautiful horses from Khurasan and Egyptian Mules. So I said to him they were very nice. He said they are yours as a gift from me. I said that you should keep one for yourself. His reply was that I am embarrassed to do so! How can I ride on them when the body of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) is buried here in Madinah and the land is being rode on with the hooves of horses?
Imam Malik never wore shoes whilst in Madinatul Munawwarah. He never sat on a horse or used the toilets in this blessed city. He always went out of the city to relieve himself.