IMAM MALIK (REHMATULLAH ALAIH) 93 A.H - 178 A.H
HIS CHARACTERISTICS
Known as the scholar of Madina he was reknowned for his sincereity, faith, peity & godfearingness as for his command of the sciences of Hadith & knowledge of sacred law.
His generosity was legendary, as was his love for the Prophet (Salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) whom He held in such great awe & respect that he would not mount his horse within the confines of Madina out of reverence for the ground that contained the Holy Prophet's (Salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam's) body. On one occasion he was busy conducting lessons on Hadith when his face changed colour a number of times. When he was asked by his students why this happened he replied that he was bitten by a scorpion 13 times but due to respect for the words of the Holy Prophet (Salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam) he did not stop, move or close the lesson. His piety was such that he was never too proud to say he did not know when asked about matters which he did not know of & he would not relate a Hadith without first performing wudhu. Imam Malik always gave unbiased decisions & never bowed to political authority. He issued a fatwa against the Caliph Mansoor & was flogged seventy times as a result - so much so that his arms were pulled out of their sockets.
Imam Malik devoted his whole life to the study of fiqh & Hadith. He used to give lectures in the mosque of the Holy Prophet (Salla Allahu Alaihi Wa Sallam), where scholars & muhaditheen would gather around him to learn & find solutions to legal problems. He was painstakingly conscientious in giving judgment & whenever he felt the slightest doubt as to the correctness of his decision, he would say "I don't know."
HIS WORKS
He was the author of al-Muwatta (the trodden path), the greatest Hadith collection of its time, nearly every Hadith of which was accepted by Bukhari in his sahih. Imam Shafee said of it; "After the book of Allah, no book has appeared on earth that is sounder than Malik's." People came from all over the Islamic world to learn from Imam Malik. He himself never left Madina & spent his whole life there in the cause of knowledge.
He learnt Hadith from Abdur-Rehman ibn Harmuz, Nafi ibn Zakwan & Yahya ibn Sayeed; he studied fiqh under the celebrated jurists of Madina, including Rabi'ah ar-Ra'y (opinion based on Shariah) in Madina. Imam Malik transmitted ahadith from az-Zuhri, Nafi (the freed slave of ibn Umar), Abu'z Zinad, Hashim ibn Urwa, Yahya ibn Sayeed, Abdullah ibn Dinar, Muhammad ibn Munqadir, Abu'z Zubayr & others.
As-Suyuti has given a list of 95 Shaikh's from whom Imam Malik learnt fiqh & Hadith. He himself said, "I did not start to give lessons on fiqh & Hadith until I was declared eligible to do so by seventy teachers of Hadith & fiqh". Imam Malik himself was the teacher of Imam Muhammad (the student & colleague of Imam Abu Hanifa) & Imam Shafi.
HIS FIQH
The Maliki school of fiqh began in the great city of Madina. In tracing the origins of the Maliki school, we encounter great jurists from among the Sahaba such as Umar, Aisha, Zayd ibn Thabit, Abdullah ibn Umar & Abdullah ibn Abbas (RA). The juristic knowledge of Islam convyed by these Sahaba was transmitted to seven jurists of Madina, including Ubaydullah ibn Abdullah ibn Utba, Urwa ibn Zubayr, Qasim ibn Muhammad, Sayeed ibn Musayab, etc. From these seven jurists, the knowledge of Islamic law was conveyed to Ibn Shab, Nafi, Yahya ibn Sayeed, etc & thence to Malik.
The Maliki school which he founded, flourished in Madina & spread all over the Arabian & African continents & has more followers than anyone besides Imam Abu Hanifa. Imam Malik died in 798 CE, at the age of 85. He was buried in Jannat al-Baqi.
Imam Maliks teachings were not essentially diffrerent from Imam Abu Hanifa's. His main sources were primarily the Quran, then Hadith, of which he preffered those which had been collected & narrated by the muhaditheen of Madina. Next he would refer to ijma (consensus) & then ta'amul i.e. the custom of Madina - as he considered the practices of the people of Madina to represent the true spirit of Islam. Finally he relied on Qiyas (analogy) & Istislah. This method was adopted by Imam Malik when deciding all legal problems.
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