highly for its literary merit and eloquence. After completing his monumental Kitab al-Ibar, Ibn Khaldun travelled to Egypt in 1382 with a view to performing the sacred hajj (pilgrimage). But on this occasion he was unable to go to Makkah, and instead he went to Cairo where he began to deliver regular lectures on political thought, Islamic history and maliki jurisprudence at the world famous al-Azhar University (it is interesting to note that the great scholar of hadith Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and the renowned historian Ahmad ibn Ali al-Maqrizi attended his lectures during this period.). His vast knowledge of Islamic law and jurisprudence subsequently prompted the Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Barquq, the reigning monarch of Egypt, to make him a judge but soon he became embroiled in yet another political coup and more intrigue.
During this period he suffered a great shock when his wife and seven children perished in a shipwreck en route to Cairo. This prompted him to go to Makkah and perform the hajj in 1387. At the same time he also visited Damascus and Palestine, including the historic city of Jerusalem. He then volunteered to go and meet Amir Timur, who is better known in the West as Tamerlane, in order to dissuade the fearsome Mongol conqueror from attacking Damascus. After his return to Cairo in 1401, he spent the next five years of his life in peace and tranquility. He died at the age of seventy-four and was buried in the Sufi Cemetry on the outskirts of Cairo. Ibn Khaldun’s inspiring personality and vast learning, together with his remarkable contribution to the development of modern social science and philosophy of history, represents an important milestone in the annals of human thought. It is very doubtful whether great Western scholars and thinkers (such as Arnold Toynbee) would have achieved as much as they did without Ibn Khaldun’s seminal contributions in the field of social science and history. That is why humanity will forever remain indebted to this most profound and original Muslim thinker.
AS ISLAM IS not only a religion but also a complete way of life, the Holy Qur’an and the normative practice (sunnah) of the Prophet provide detailed and comprehensive guidance for Muslims, covering every sphere of their life. After preaching and propagating Islam in Makkah for more than a decade, the Prophet migrated to Madinah in 622 and devoted the next decade of his life to transforming that Arabian oasis into a fully-fledged Islamic society. The Prophet not only imparted Islamic knowledge to the people of Madinah, he also developed the social, political, economic and legal apparatus of that society in the light of the Divine revelation, and in so doing he established the first Islamic State in history. From that day on, Madinah became the model Islamic society, a shining example of what a Muslim State ought to be like. Ever since then, Muslims have continued to admire, study and analyse the key features and characteristics of that early Madinian society as established by the Prophet. Probably more than anyone else, one man played a pivotal role in recording the norms and culture of that early Madinian society; he was Malik ibn Anas.
Abu Abdullah Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn Abi Amir al-Asbahi, known as Imam Malik, was born in Madinah during the reign of the Umayyad Caliph al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik. Hailing from the Yemeni province of Himyar, Malik’s grandfather came to Madinah and settled there with his family during the reign of Caliph Umar. Living during the early days of Islam, his grandfather and father acquired a thorough education in Islam under the supervision of the Prophet’s companions (sahabah). Young Malik was thus brought up in a deeply religious environment, where everyone lived their lives in accordance with the Prophetic norms and practices. After memorising the whole Qur’an, he received instruction in Arabic grammar and traditional Islamic teachings at home. He then acquired a thorough familiarisation with the fundamentals of Islam under the supervision of his learned father, Anas, and uncle, Rabi. Being very studious, he preferred to occupy himself with his studies rather than pursue a career in trade or commerce. Such was his thirst for knowledge and education that he chose to stay at home and study, rather than go out and play games with other children. His love for learning remained with him for the rest of his life, as he went onto become one of the Muslim world’s most celebrated scholars and jurists. As a gifted student, he excelled in his studies and outshone not only his peers but also his older brother, Nadhr ibn Malik. Though Damascus was the political capital of the Islamic world at the time, Madinah remained the hub of Islamic learning and scholarship by virtue of the fact that it was the city of the Prophet (madinat al-nabi), and the first civic capital of the Islamic State. Brought up and educated in this blessed city, Malik developed instant affinity with the normative practice of the Prophet. Not surprisingly, the study of Prophetic hadith (or tradition) became his favourite preoccupation in life.
Since his uncle Abu Suhail al-Nafi was an eminent authority on hadith literature, Malik began to study this and other related subjects under his guidance. Al-Nafi was fortunate to have studied Islamic sciences, especially hadith, directly under the supervision of Aishah, the Prophet’s beloved wife, and famous companions like Abu Hurairah and Abdullah ibn Umar. Malik sat at the feet of al-Nafi, and began to absorb Islamic knowledge in a systematic way. Other outstanding students of al-Nafi included al-Zuhri, al-Awza’i and Ibn Jarir, but it was the precocious Malik who was destined to outshine all of them on account of his unrivalled mastery of the Prophetic hadith. Malik may have been gifted, but he was equally selfless and hardworking. He made it a rule for himself to visit his teachers in their homes and wait as long as it was necessary for them to come out of their houses and teach him. Adverse weather and difficult terrain notwithstanding, he always insisted on visiting all the luminaries of Madinah including Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Ansari, Abu Hazim Salmah ibn Dinar and Yahya ibn Sa’id in order to learn hadith from them. Thus he spent considerable sums of money, endured physical hardship and even experienced personal difficulties in his quest for Prophetic hadith.
After completing his formal study of tafsir (Qur’anic exegesis), fiqh (jurisprudence) and hadith, Malik began to attend the class of Rabi’ah ibn Abd al-Rahman and Sa’id ibn Musayyib, two of the greatest Islamic scholars of their generation. As a passionate exponent of independent reasoning in juristic matters (ijtihad), the former argued that the ability to exercise scholarly discretion was a sine qua non for a correct understanding and application of Islamic principles at a practical level. Thus he did not hesitate to push the boundaries of scholarly discretion beyond their limits where he felt it was appropriate to do so, although most of his peers tried to curtail the use of intellectual discretion in interpreting the revealed scriptural sources of Islam. Keen to master the art of independent reasoning in juristic matters, Malik attended Rabi’ah’s lectures and became highly proficient in exercising intellectual discretion. The need for such an interpretive approach vis-à-vis the revealed sources of Islam was recognised as soon as the Muslims began to encounter new challenges during the rapid expansion of the Islamic world following the death of the Prophet in 632. Faced with new challenges and difficulties, the early scholars of Islam approached the Divine revelation and Prophetic hadith with critical minds in order to derive guidance from them in providing Islamic answers to the problems of their time.
Although the justification for formulating such an interpretative methodology already existed in the Qur’an, the majority of the scholars were reluctant to go down this road until Abu Hanifah emerged to develop the methodology in a rigorous and systematic manner, thus making it a key feature of hanafi legal thought. Not content with what he had learned so far, Malik then mastered hadith under Hisham ibn Urwa, Abd al-Rahman ibn Hurmuz and Sa’id ibn Musayyib. Despite being a prominent follower (tabi) of the Prophet’s companions and an eminent authority on hadith, Sa’id was so impressed with Malik’s knowledge of hadith that he formally authorised him to teach. Malik then attended Ja’far al-Sadiq’s lectures on the Qur’an, hadith and fiqh at the masjid al-nabi. As well as being a direct descendant of the Prophet, Ja’far was a great Islamic scholar and sage of his time; Malik studied under Ja’far’s tutelage and the latter was also deeply impressed with his vast knowledge of Prophetic traditions. But after the emergence of various religious groups like the shi’at Ali, khawarij, mu’tazilah and the murijah, political rivalries and religious schisms began to spread across the Islamic dominion. The rise of both political and theological differences within the early Muslim community prompted Malik to familiarise himself with the views of