Imam Malik

 

Imam Malik

Mālik ibn Anas bin Malik bin 'Āmr al-Asbahi or Malik bin Anas (in full: Malik bin Anas bin Malik bin `Amr, al-Imam, Abu `Abd Allah al-Humyari al-Asbahi al-Madani), (Arabic: الك ), was born in (Medina in the year 714M / 93H), and died in the year 800M / 179H). He is an expert in jurisprudence and hadith, and the founder of the Maliki School.

Abu Abdullah Malik bin Anas bin Malik bin Abi Amirbin Amr bin al-Haris bin Ghaiman bin Jutsail bin Amr bin al-Haris Dzi Ashbah. Imam Malik was born in Madinah al Munawwaroh. while regarding the problem of the year of his birth there is a difference in history. al-Yafii in his book Thabaqat fuqha narrated that imam malik was born in 94 H. ibn Khalikan and others argue that imam malik was born in 95 H. whereas. Imam al-Dzahabi narrated that Imam Malik was born in 90 AH. Imam Yahya bin Bakir narrated that he heard Malik say: "I was born in 93 AH". and this is the most correct narration (according to al-Sam'ani and ibn Farhun) [3].

He compiled the book Al Muwaththa', and in compiling it he spent 40 years, during that time, he showed it to 70 jurists of Madinah.

The book collects 100,000 hadiths, and who narrated Al Muwaththa' more than a thousand people, therefore the manuscripts are different and a total of 30 manuscripts, but the famous only 20 pieces. And the most famous is the history of Yahya bin Yahyah al Laitsi al Andalusi al Mashmudi.

A number of 'Ulama are of the opinion that there are seven sources of hadith, namely Al Kutub as Sittah plus Al Muwaththa'. There are also scholars who set Sunan ad Darimi instead of Al Muwaththa '. When describing this great book, Ibn Hazm said, “Al Muwaththa' is a book on fiqh and hadith, I do not know the comparison.

The hadiths contained in Al Muwaththa' are not all Musnad, some are Mursal, mu'dlal and munqathi. Some of the 'Ulama have counted it as 600 musnad hadiths, 222 mursal hadiths, 613 mauquf hadiths, 285 tabi'in sayings, besides that there are 61 hadiths without accompaniments, only said to have reached me "and "from trusted people", but these hadiths are based on other paths that are not the path of Imam Malik himself, because of that Ibn Abdil Bar an Namiri opposed the compilation of books that tried to mutate the hadith of mursal, munqathi' and mu'dhal hadith contained in Al Muwaththa 'Malik.

Imam Malik received hadith from 900 people (teachers), 300 from the tabi'in group and 600 from tabi'in tabi'in, he narrated hadith sourced from Nu'main al Mujmir, Zaib bin Aslam, Nafi', Syarik bin Abdullah, az Zuhry, Abi az Ziyad, Sa'id al Maqburi and Humaid ath Thawil, his last student was Hudzafah as Sahmi al Anshari.

As for those who narrated from him, there are many of them, some of whom are older than him, such as az Zuhry and Yahya bin Sa'id. Some are the same age as al Auza'i., Ats Tsauri, Sufyan bin Uyainah, Al Laits bin Sa'ad, Ibn Juraij and Syu'bah bin Hajjaj. There are those who learned from him such as Asy Safi'i, Ibnu Wahb, Ibnu Mahdi, al Qaththan and Abi Ishaq.

Among his teachers are Nafi' bin Abi Nu'aim, Nafi' al Muqbiri, Na'imul Majmar, Az Zuhri, Amir bin Abdullah bin Az Zubair, Ibnul Munkadir, Abdullah bin Dinar, and others. and among his students are Ibnul Mubarak, Al Qoththon, Ibnu Mahdi, Ibnu Wahb, Ibnu Qosim, Al Qonabi, Abdullah bin Yusuf, Sa'id bin Manshur, Yahya bin Yahya al Andalusi, Yahya bin Bakir, Qutaibah Abu Mus'ab , Al Auza'i, Sufyan Ats Tsaury, Sufyan bin Uyainah, Imam Syafi'i, Abu Hudzafah as Sahmi, Az Zubairi, and others.

Praise of Scholars for Imam Malik

An Nasa'i said, "There is no one I have seen who is intelligent, noble and honest, whose hadith narration is more reliable than Malik, we do not know that he has narrated hadith from a matruk narrator, except for Abdul Karim". (Ket: Abdul Karim bin Abi al Mukharif al Basri who resided in Makkah, because he was not in the same state as Malik, his situation is not much known, Malik only slightly refined his hadith about the virtue of charity or added to matan).

Meanwhile, Ibnu Hayyan said, "Malik was the first person to select prominent jurisprudents in Medina, with jurisprudence, religion and the importance of worship". Imam as-Shafi'i said, "Imam Malik is Hujjatullah for His creatures after the Tabi'in[3]".

Yahya bin Ma'in said, "Imam Malik is the Commander of the Faithful in (the knowledge of) Hadith"

Ayyub bin Suwaid said, "Imam Malik is the Imam of Darul Hijrah (Imam of Medina) and as-Sunnah, a person who is Tsiqah, a person who can be trusted".

Ahmad bin Hanbal said, "If you see someone who hates Imam Malik, then know that that person is a heretic."

Someone asked as-Shafi'i, "Did you find someone who (alim) like Imam Malik?" as-Shafi'i replied: "I heard from people who are older and more knowledgeable than me, they say we have not found anyone who (alim) like Malik, so how do we (people today) meet someone like Malik?[3]

Imam Abu Hanifah said, "I have never seen someone more knowledgeable about the Prophet's Sunnah than Imam Malik."

Abdurrahman bin Mahdi said, "I have never known a Hijaz scholar except that they respect Imam Malik, verily Allah does not gather the people of Muhammad, except in guidance."

Ibnu Atsir said, "It is enough honor for ash-Shafi'i that his shaykh is Imam Malik, and it is enough glory for Malik that among his students is ash-Shafi'i."

Abdullah bin Mubarak said, "I have never seen a writer of the knowledge of the Messenger of Allah more authoritative than Malik, and his respect for the hadith of the Messenger of Allah was greater than Malik, and more stingy with his religion than Malik, if it were said to me, choose an Imam for this ummah, then I would choose Malik .”

Laits bin Saad said, "There is no one more beloved to me on this earth than Malik."

Kitab Al-Muwaththa

Al-Muwaththa means 'the agreed upon' or 'pillar' or 'guide' which discusses the knowledge and laws of Islam. Al-Muwaththa is a book that contains hadiths collected by Imam Malik as well as the opinions of his companions and religious scholars. This book is complete with various religious problems that include the science of hadith, the science of jurisprudence and so on. All hadiths written are authentic because Imam Malik is known for his firm nature in accepting a hadith. He was very careful when sifting, isolating, and discussing and rejecting dubious narrations. Of the 100,000 hadiths he memorized, only 10,000 were recognized as valid and of those 10,000 hadiths, only 5,000 were confirmed to be authentic by him after being examined and compared with the Quran. According to a story, Imam Malik spent 40 years to collect and filter the hadiths received from his teachers. Imam Syafii once said, "There is no book on this earth after the Qur'an that contains more truth than the book Al-Muwaththa written by Imam Malik, this is written by the muaqoddimin scholars."

End of life

On the eve of his death, Imam Malik was asked the question of where he did not go again to the Prophet's Mosque for seven years, he replied, "Had it not been for the end of my life in this world, and the beginning of the life in the hereafter, I would not have told you this. What prevented me from doing all this was frequent urination, because of this I was unable to go to the Prophet's Mosque. And, I do not like to mention my illness, for fear that I will always complain to Allah.” Imam Malik began to fall ill on Sunday until 22 days and then died on Sunday, the 10th of Rabi'ul Awwal 179 Hijriyyah or 800 Miladiyyah.

The community of Medina carried out the will he conveyed, which was shrouded in white cloth, and prayed over the coffin. The imam of his funeral prayer was Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim al-Hasyimi who was the governor of Medina. The Governor of Madinah came to mourn on foot, even including one who took part in carrying the corpse to his tomb. He was buried at Baqi' Cemetery, all his students also buried him.

The information about his death spread throughout the Islamic countries, they were very sad and felt very lost, while praying for him to be blessed with multiple blessings and rewards thanks to the knowledge and charity he offered for Islam.