Maliki
''This page deals with Islamic thought. For the
Prime Minister of Iraq, see
Nouri al-Maliki.
The
Maliki madhab (
Arabic مالكي) is one of the four
schools of
Fiqh or religious law within
Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in
North Africa and
West Africa.
Madhabs are not
sects, but rather schools of
jurisprudence. There is, technically, no rivalry or competition between members of varying madhabs, and indeed it would not be uncommon for followers of all four to be found in a randomly selected
American or
European
mosque.The other three schools of thought are
Shafi,
Hanafi, and
Hanbali.
The Maliki school derives from the work of
Imam Malik. It differs from the three other schools of law most notably in the sources it uses for derivation of rulings. All four schools use the
Qur'an as primary source, followed by the
sunnah of the prophet
Muhammad transmitted as
hadith (sayings),
ijma (consensus of the People) and
Qiyas (analogy); the Maliki school, in addition, uses the practice of the people of
Medina (amal ahl al-medina) as a source.
This source, according to Malik, sometimes supersedes
hadith, because the practice of the people of Medina was considered "living sunnah," in as much as the Prophet migrated there, lived there and died there, and most of his companions lived there during his life and after his death. The result is a much more limited reliance upon hadith than is found in other schools.
Imam Malik was particularly scrupulous about authenticating his sources when he did appeal to them, however, and his comparatively small collection of ahadith, known as
Al-Muwatta ("The Approved"), is highly regarded. Malik is said to have explained the title as follows: "I showed my book to seventy jurists of Medina, and every single one of them approved me for it (kulluhum wâta'ani `alayh), so I named it ‘The Approved'."
Imam Malik
Malik was once sentenced to a lashing by the
caliph Abu Ja`far al-Mansur for narrating a hadith to the effect that a divorce obtained under coercion was invalid. The hadith in question had momentous political implications, because it supported those who argued that the
caliph's authority was similarly invalid -- because it, too, had been secured by means of coercion.
Eventually, Malik was paraded through the streets in disgrace and ordered to insult himself publicly. He is reported to have said: "Whoever knows me, knows me; whoever does not know me, my name is Malik ibn Anas, and I say: The divorce of the coerced is null and void!" When the incident was reported to the governor of Medina (who was also the cousin of al-Mansur), Malik was ordered released.
There are slight differences in the preferred methods of
salaat, or prayer, in the Maliki madhab. In the obligatory salaat, the hands should be placed at the sides according to the majority of scholars in the school of Imam Malik; however, the more common practice of joining the hands beneath the chest, right hand over left, does not invalidate the prayer.
*
Imam Malik (714 - 796), sunni jurist
*
Ibn Battuta (February 24, 1304 - 1377), explorer
*
Ibn Khaldun (1332/ah732 - 1406/ah808) Scholar, historian and author of the
Muqaddimah*
Abdullah ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (310/922 - 386/996) Sunni jurist and author of the
Risala a standard work in Maliki law
*
Sahnun ibn Said (160/776-7 - 240/854-5) Sunni jurist and author of the
Mudawwana one of the most important works in Maliki law
*Yusuf ibn Abdul Bar Jurist, and scholar in
Hadith*
ibn Rushd (
Averroes) Philosopher and scholar
*
Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki (1947 - 2004) Scholar
*
Shihab al-Din Qarafi (d. 1285) Egyptian jurist and author
*
Ibn Abd-al-Barr*
List of Islamic scholars*
Translation of Malik's Muwatta*
Aisha Bewley's homepage - includes translations of a variety of important Maliki source texts
*
Biographical summary of Imam Malik*
Muslims of Norwich A Maliki community
*
Yahoo! Maliki Fiqh Group Full of links to Maliki Fiqh resources
*
Yahoo! Guiding Helper Group Guiding Helper Maliki Fiqh manual
