24 I SPECIAL FEATURE Passion Islam I May 2009
THE FOUR MADHABS
The Four School of thoughts
Part 2
Continued from
last month
THE MAALIKEE MADH-HAB: them other parts of the Sunnah which Hadeeth were contradicted by the
The Founder: Imaam Maalik also had to be considered in any laws customary practice of the Madinites,
[717-801 CE]. imposed throughout the state. he rejected it. He did not, however,
Caliph Haroon ar-Rasheed [768- insist that a Hadeeth be Mash-hoor
The founding scholar of this Madh- 809 CE] also made the same request [well-known] before it could be applied
hab, Maalik Ibn Anas Ibn Aamir, was of the Imaam, but he was also turned as Imaam Abu Haneefah R.A. did.
born in Madinah in the year 717 CE. down. Imaam Maalik R.A. died in the Instead he used any Hadeeth that
His grandfather, Aamir, was among the city of his birth in the year 801 CE at was narrated to him as long as none
major Sahaabah of Madinah. Maalik the venerable age of 83. of the narrators were known liars or
studied Hadeeth under az-Zuhree who Formation of the Maalikee Madh- extremely weak memorizers.
was the greatest Hadeeth scholar of hab: Imaam Maalik’s method of
his time, as well as under the great teaching was based on the narration ‘Amal [Practices] of the Madinites
Hadeeth narrator, Naafi, the freed of Hadeeths and the discussion Imaam Maalik R.A. reasoned that
slave of the Sahaabee Abdullah Ibn of their meanings in the context of since many of the Madinites were
Umar. Imaam Maalik’s only journeys problems of that day. He would either direct descendants of the Sahaabah
outside of Madinah were for Hajj, narrate to his students Hadeeths and and Madinah was where the Nabee
and thus he largely limited himself to Athars [statements of the Sahaabah] Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam spent
the knowledge available in Madinah. on various topics of Islamic law then the last ten years of his life, practices
He was severely beaten in the year discuss their implications, or he common to all Madinites must have
764 CE by the order of the Ameer of would inquire about problems which been allowed, if not encouraged by the
Madinah, because he made a legal had arisen in the areas from whence Prophet Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam
ruling that forced divorce was invalid. his students came, then narrate himself. Thus Imaam Maalik R.A.
This ruling opposed the ‘Abbaasid appropriate Hadeeths or Athars which regarded common Madinite practices
rulers’ practice of adding in the oath could be used to solve them. as a form highly authentic Sunnah
of allegiance given to them by the After Imaam Maalik R.A. completed narrated in deeds rather than words.
masses the clause that whoever ‘al-Muwatta’, he used to narrate it to his
broke the oath was automatically students as the sum total of his Madh- Ijmaa of the Sahaabah
divorced. Imaam Maalik R.A. was hab, but would add or subtract from Imaam Maalik R.A. like Imaam Abu
tied and beaten mercilessly until his it slightly, whenever new information Haneefah R.A. considered the Ijmaa of
arms became severely damaged to reached him. He used to strictly avoid the Sahaabah, as well as that of later
such a degree that he became unable speculation and hypothetical Fiqh and scholars, as the third most important
to clasp them on his chest in Salaat thus his school and its followers were source of Islamic law.
and thus he began the practice of referred to as the people of Hadeeth
performing Salaat with his hands at [Ahl al-Hadeeth]. Individual Opinions of the
his sides according to some reports. Sahaabah
Imaam Maalik R.A. continued to Sources of Law Used by the Maalikee Imaam Maalik R.A. gave full weight to
teach Hadeeth in Madinah over a Madh-hab: Imaam Maalik R.A. the opinions of the Sahaabah, whether
period of forty years and he managed deduced Islamic Law from the following they were conflicting or in agreement,
to compile a book containing Hadeeths sources which are listed hereunder in and included them in his book of
of the Prophet Sallallahoo Alayhi the order of their importance. Hadeeth, ‘al-Muwatta.’However, the
Wasallam and Athars of the Sahaabah consensus of the Sahaabah was given
and their successors which he named The Most Holy Qur’aan precedence over individual opinions
“al-Muwatta” [the Beaten Path]. He Like all the other Imaams, Imaam of the Sahaabah. Where there was no
began his compilation of Hadeeths at Maalik R.A. considered the Most consensus, their individual opinions
the request of the Abbaasid Caliph, Noble Qur’aan to be the primary were given precedence over his own
Abu Ja’far al-Mansoor, [754-775 CE] source of Islamic law and utilized it opinion.
who wanted a comprehensive code of without laying any preconditions for
law based on the Prophet Sallallahoo its application. Qiyaas
Alayhi Wasallam’s Sunnah which could Imaam Maalik R.A. used to apply
be applied uniformly throughout his The Sunnah his own deductive reasoning on
realm. But, on its completion, Imaam The Sunnah was used by Imaam matters not covered by the previously
Maalik R.A. refused to have it forced Maalik R.A. as the second most mentioned sources. However, he was
on the people pointing out that the important source of Islamic law, but, very cautious about doing so because
Sahaabah had scattered throughout like Imaam Abu Haneefah R.A.’ he of the subjectivity of such forms of
the Islamic empire and had taken with put some restrictions on its use. If a reasoning.
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