THE STORY OF IMMAM ANAS IBN MALIK (Episode 1)

 Muslims Till Death:

ASSALAMU ALAYKUM WARAHMATULLAH WABARAKAATUHU . LET'S START TONIGHT'S EDUCATION. OUR TOPIC IS 👇.                                                                            *THE STORY OF IMMAM ANAS IBN MALIK (Episode 1)*                                                                                                             

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Malik was born as the son of Anas ibn Malik (not the Sahabi with the same name) and Aaliyah bint Shurayk al-Azdiyya in Medina, circa 711. His family was originally from the al-Asbahi tribe of Yemen, but his great grandfather Abu 'Amir relocated the family to Medina after converting to Islam in the second year of the Hijri calendar, or 623 CE. His grandfather Malik ibn Abi Amir was a student of the second Caliph of Islam Umar and was one of those involved in the collection of the parchments upon which Quranic texts were originally written when those were collected during the Caliph Uthman era.
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According to Al-Muwatta, he was tall, heavyset, imposing of stature, very fair, with white hair and beard but bald, with a huge beard and blue eyes. Living in Medina gave Malik access to some of the most learned minds of early Islam. He memorized the Quran in his youth, learning recitation from Abu Suhail Nafi' ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman, from whom he also received his Ijazah, or certification and permission to teach others. He studied under various famed scholars including Hisham ibn Urwah and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. Also, as with Abu Hanifah (founder of the Hanafi Sunni Madh'hab), Imam Malik (who was a teacher of Imam Ash-Shafi‘i, who in turn was a teacher of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal) was a student of the Shi'ite Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, who was a descendant of Prophet.
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Thus all of the four great Imams of Sunni Fiqh are connected to Ja'far from the (Household) of Prophet, whether directly or indirectly. Malik's chain of narrators was considered the most authentic and called Silsilat al-Dhahab or "The Golden Chain of Narrators" by notable hadith scholars including Muhammad al-Bukhari. The 'Golden Chain' of narration (i.e., that considered by the scholars of Hadith to be the most authentic) consists of Malik, who narrated from Nafi‘ Mawla ibn ‘Umar, who narrated from Ibn Umar, who narrated from Prophet. The Prophet Muhammad pbuh reportedly said in a hadith authenticated by Muhammad ibn

Isa at-Tirmidhi:
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"Very soon will people beat the flanks of camels in search of knowledge, and they shall find no-one more knowledgeable than the knowledgeable scholar of Madina." Qadi Ayyad, Al-Dhahabi and others relate from Sufyan ibn 

Uyaynah, ‘Abd ar-Razzaq as-San‘ani, Ibn Mahdi, Yahya ibn Ma'in, Dhu’ayb ibn `Imama, Ibn al-Madini, and others that they considered that scholar to be Malik ibn Anas. Abdul-Ghani Ad-Daqr wrote that Malik was 'the furthest of all people' from dialectic theology who was the most knowledgeable of their discussions without___*PAGE 5*______*PAGE 5*_____________
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O the other hand, it is argued that Malik was not completely averse to the idea of dialectic theology; on the contrary, Haddad points to Malik having studied 'at the feet of Ibn Hurmuz', a master in dialectic theology, for 'thirteen to sixteen years'.Malik's unique contributions to the field of theology specifically is that he was a strict opponent of anthropomorphism, and deemed it absurd to compare the attributes of God, which were given in "human imagery" such as that of God's "hands" or "e___ of man.____*PAGE 6*_______________.
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For example, when a man asked Malik about the meaning of Quran 20:5, "The Merciful established Himself over the Throne," it is related that "nothing affected Malik so much as that man's question," and the jurist fervently responded: "The 'how' of it is inconceivable; the 'establishment' part of it is unknown; belief in it is obligatory; asking about it is an innovation". Malik was a supporter of the orthodox Sunni doctrine of the beatific vision, and he is said to have cited Quran 75:22-23 ("That day will faces be resplendent, looking toward their Lord,") and 83:15 ("Nay! Verily, from their Lord, that day, shall they [the transgressors] be veiled,") as proof of his belief.
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When he was asked about the nature of faith, Malik defined it as "speech and works" (qawlun wa-'amal), which shows that Malik was averse to the rigorous separation of between faith and works. Malik seems to have been a proponent of intercession in personal supplication. For example, it is related that when the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur asked Malik about whether it was preferable to face the Prophet's tomb or the qibla whilst doing the personal prayer or dua, Malik responded: "Why should you not face him when he is your means (wasīla) to God and that of your father Adam on the Day of Resurrection?" Regarding this tradition, the thirteenth-century hadith master Ibn Jamāʿa said:
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"The report is related by the two hadith masters Ibn Bashkuwāl and al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ in al-Shifā, and no attention is paid to the words of those who claim that it is forged purely on the basis of their idle desires." While both Ibn Taymiyyah and, much more recently, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's grandson Sulaymān did indeed reject the authenticity of this tradition, their opinions were characterized by the vast majority of mainstream Sunni scholars such as al-Zarqānī as "stemming either from ignorance or arrogance".
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Historically, it is known that Malik's statements on the validity of intercession remained a core doctrine of the Maliki school, and practically all Maliki thinkers of the classical era accepted the idea of the Prophet's intercession. It is also known, moreover, that the classical "books of the Mālikīs are replete with the stipulation that du'ā [personal supplication] be made while facing the grave."
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It is related, moreover, that Malik was a strong proponent of combining the "inward science" ('ilm al-bātin) of mystical knowledge with the "outward science" of jurisprudence. For example, the famous twelfth-century Maliki jurist and judge Qadi Iyad, later venerated as a saint throughout the Iberian Peninsula, narrated a tradition in which a man asked Malik "about something in the inward science," to which Malik replied: "Truly none knows the inward science except those who know the outward science!
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While there are a few traditions relating that Malik, while not an opponent of mysticism as a whole, was nonetheless adverse specifically to the practice of group dhikr, such traditions have been graded as being munkar or "weak" in their chain of transmission. Furthermore, it has been argued that none of these reports - all of which relate Malik's disapproving amusement at being told about an instance of group dhikr happening nearby - explicitly display any disapproval of the act as such, but rather serve as a criticism of "some people who passed for Sufis in his time [who] apparently committed certain excesses or breaches of the sacred law".
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Questions, Suggestions and grievances on or to better this program is welcome. *We shall continue tomorrow on this story in Sha Allah*. May Allah azza wa jalla make us steadfast in faith. May HE accept our ibaadaat and grant us the Good in this World and the Hereafter. May HE guide, forgive and grant us Jannah...AMIN.