Al-Imaam Maalik Ibn Anas

Muslims follow four major schools of jurisprudence in matters of legal
and devotional details. Imaam Maalik Ibn Anas, may Allaah have mercy
upom him, comes second in order from a chronological point of view.
For Maalik ibn Anas, who is known as the scholar of Madeenah, was born
in Madeenah in the year 93 A.H.
Imaam Maalik's mother advised him to join the first school and
university in Islam, the Mosque of the Prophet in Madeenah, where he
started by memorizing the Glorious Quran and then the Hadeeth
]traditions of Prophet Muhammad[. In the age when writing and written
educational material were a rarity, students and scholars had to have
a strong memory to consult and store the knowledge they gained. Imaam
Maalik was not lacking in this special ability. We are told that when
he listened to a teacher narrating Prophetic traditions, Maalik ibn
Anas used to tie a knot for each tradition )Hadeeth(. Later, he tried
to recite the traditions to himself in order to make sure that he
retained every single one. Once he attended a session where 30
Hadeeths were narrated and discussed. When the session was over he
checked his retention of those Hadeeths and found that he forgot one
of them. So he rushed after his teacher to learn the missing Hadeeth
from him, the teacher listened to him, and taught him the one he had
missed.
As an eminent scholar, he not only attended study circles held by no
less than 90 scholars, but throughout his life he discussed different
matters of the faith with his colleagues and the scholars who came to
Madeenah during the Hajj )pilgrimage( season, in addition to
corresponding with well-known authorities in various parts of the
Muslim world. We are told that Maalik ibn Anas started teaching in the
Prophet's Mosque very early in his life )late teens or early
twenties(, but he did not start teaching until his command of
religious learning was witnessed to by no less than seventy of his
teachers, some of whom came to attend the teaching sessions of their
former student to learn from him.
As a conservative traditionalist, Imaam Maalik as a teacher in his
mosque had great reverence for the Hadeeths of the Prophet. History
tells us that before Imaam Maalik embarked upon teaching the Hadeeth,
he would have a bath and wear his best clothes, and he would not allow
anyone to raise his voice too high. It is also reported that he would
not ride in Madeenah, saying that he could not see himself riding in a
town where the Prophetwas buried.
Since Imaam Maalik lived ninety years he witnessed the change of the
Umayyad Dynasty to the Abbasid, and he met many a Caliph whose respect
he commanded with his knowledge and sincere advice, in addition to his
dignity as a scholar. We are told that when the famous Caliph Haroon
Ar-Rasheed learnt about Al-Muwatta' )a book compiled by Imaam Maalik(,
he sent his minister to fetch him in order to read the book to the
Caliph. Imaam Maalik politely answered, "Give my regards to the
Caliph, and tell him that knowledge should be visited, and it should
not visit people. People should come to it, and it should not go to
people." Later, when the Caliph blamed Imaam Maalik for disobeying
him, he said to the Caliph: "O Leader of the Faithful, Allaah the
Almighty has raised you to this honourable position. Do not be the
first one to lower the place and insult the dignity of knowledge and
learning so that Allaah may not lower your place. I did not really
want to disobey you, but I rather wanted the Leader of the Faithful to
show due respect to learning in order that Allaah may raise his
position." Caliph Haroun Ar-Rasheed was convinced, and he walked along
with Imaam Maalik to his own house to listen to him and to his
readings from his book.
Another quality typical of the knowledgeable heroes of Islam, which
Imaam Maalik taught to people through word and action, was humility
and confession to ignorance of matters of which he was not certain. He
emphasized to his students that the most important expression a true
scholar should have the courage to say was, "I do not know." In fact,
we are told that a man came to Imaam Maalik and informed him that he
had travelled for six months to ask him about a certain problem. Upon
hearing the problem Maalik could not find a satisfactory answer. So he
humbly told the man, "I do not know." The man was surprised, and he
said, "What shall I tell my folk when I go home." Imaam Maalik said:
"Tell them Maalik ibn Anas says he does not know."
It was with this sense of responsibility that Imaam Maalik taught
people and gave his religious verdict )fatwa(, despite the fact that
he collected more than 100,000 Prophetic traditions )Hadith( and
studied at the hands of scores of well-known authorities on religious
matters. We read that very often )as a conscientious advisor( he would
ask the inquirer to wait for sometime before he gave him the answer to
his question.
Maalik ibn Anas is specially recognized for his voluminous book
'Al-Muwatta', which is said to be the second compilation in Islamic
history of religious teachings. It was compiled, according to some
historians, in 40 years. Today, that book is still a major guiding
authority for millions of Muslims in Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa,
where the "Maalikite School " is dominant.
Imaam Maalik was a very devout, Allaah-fearing person. He lived a life
of self-denial and abstinence. He often fasted, sometimes about four
days in the week. He died in 170 A.H.