Malik ibn Anas

Malik ibn Anas (711-795 CE) was the founder of the Maliki school of jurisprudence and the author of al-Muwatta, one of the earliest and most important compilations of Islamic law and hadith. Known as the Imam of Dar al-Hijrah (the Imam of the Abode of Migration, i.e., Medina), Malik spent his entire life in the Prophet's city, refusing to leave even when invited by caliphs. He believed that Medina's living scholarly tradition, preserved from the Prophet through his companions and their successors, was the most authentic basis for Islamic law.

Malik studied under over three hundred scholars, including many of the greatest Tabiin and their successors. His teacher Nafi, the freed slave of Ibn Umar, provided him with the famous Golden Chain of narration. Malik's classes at the Prophet's Mosque attracted students from across the Muslim world, including the young Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafii, who studied under him for years. Malik was known for his extreme caution in issuing religious rulings, saying, 'I do not know' more readily than most scholars, and he would sometimes retract a ruling if he found stronger evidence.

Al-Muwatta (The Well-Trodden Path) is Malik's masterwork, combining hadith, the opinions of the companions and Tabiin, and his own legal reasoning into a systematic guide to Islamic law. It took him forty years to compile and was so highly regarded that Imam ash-Shafii said, 'There is no book on the face of the earth, after the Book of Allah, more authentic than the Muwatta of Malik.' Malik died in Medina in 179 AH (795 CE) and is buried in al-Baqi cemetery. His school remains one of the four major Sunni schools of jurisprudence, predominant in North Africa, West Africa, and parts of the Arabian Peninsula.