{"id":636,"date":"2011-06-16T15:03:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-16T13:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bogvaerker.dk\/wordpress\/?p=636"},"modified":"2012-08-16T13:16:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T12:16:47","slug":"rijal-the-narrators-of-hadith-%e2%80%93-by-abdassamad-clarke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bogvaerker.dk\/wordpress\/?p=636","title":{"rendered":"Rijal – the narrators of hadith \u2013 by Abdassamad Clarke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/h1>\n

Rijal – the narrators of hadith<\/h1>\n

by Abdassamad Clarke<\/h5>\n

The Froud Centre, London, Sunday 6\/6\/04<\/h2>\n

Introduction<\/h3>\n

Almost the last piece of this talk to fall into place was its beginning.
\nThat came about when seeing that I had still a substantial part of this
\ntalk to prepare I started to read something totally unconnected: Fuzzy
\nlogic. This is the argument that our thinking in these lands until now,
\nspecifically the dominant school of philosophy and today science, has
\nbeen predicated on the logic that if something is A it cannot be at
\nthe same time not-A, e.g. that if an atom is a part of you, it cannot
\nat the same time be an atom belonging to the environment.<\/p>\n

However, when scientists really look closely, these edges are not so
\nwell defined, and the line between you and the environment is not completely
\nclear, or we could say simply does not exist. Many things in Islam and
\nin the Arabic language assume that you are open to this kind of dual
\nseeing. Things can be both A and not-A. The title of the book we are
\ngoing to consider is a case in point: Rijal<\/em>; narrators. If we
\nwere to translate it literally we could not call it narrators because
\nit has nothing linguistically to do with narration whatsoever. However,
\nif we translate it literally – men – we have a second problem, because
\nhere are ‘A’ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, Umm Salamah, may Allah
\nbe pleased with her, and an enormous number of women.<\/p>\n

We can say two things about this. First, you can hear rijal<\/em>
\nin the sense of men as opposed to women, and this is the possibility
\nthat gives us the above difficulty. Second, you can hear rijal<\/em>
\nas ‘mature adult men’ as opposed to boys or youth, and thus by extension
\nmature adult women as opposed to girls. Ordinarily the age of rujulah<\/em>
\nis counted from around forty. Of course, rijal<\/em> does mean men,
\nbut as in the regular sound masculine plural in Arabic it contains women
\nwithin itself. The ordinary sound masculine plurals in Arabic – muminun<\/em>
\n– include not only all males, but all mixes of males and females up
\nto the point where there are numerous females and one male. When that
\none male leaves, one uses the sound feminine plural – muminat<\/em>.
\nTherefore all Qur’anic address is intrinsically for both men and women
\nunless there is a clear indication that it is for one or the other.
\nWhen one says muminun wa muminat<\/em> the former is for the males
\nand the latter for the females. Similarly, here rijal<\/em> refers
\nto those adult human beings who transmitted the Sunnah and in this case
\ntransmitted the hadith, and I will assume here that you are all aware
\nthat in our view hadith and Sunnah are not the same thing, even though
\nsome schools of thought even among the ‘ulama’ use them interchangeably.<\/p>\n

Context<\/h3>\n

So this is a book about the correct transmission of authentic knowledge.
\nIt is, however, important that we not only have authentic knowledge,
\nand receive it in genuine transmissions, but that we know its context.
\nContext applies to the setting within which the original quotation has
\nits meaning, the lives lived by the men who transmitted it, the societies
\nwithin which they transmitted, and very importantly an understanding
\nof the society within which we intend to put it into practice, for if
\nwe do not intend to put it into practice we are deceiving ourselves.<\/p>\n

“That is a community which has passed. They have what they
\nhave earned, and you have what you have earned. And you will not be
\nasked about what they were doing.” (Surat al-Baqarah)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Among the matters of context, there are the lives and conditions within
\nwhich the figures we will mention acted. We are talking about men and
\nwomen who lived in the very first and second centuries of Islam, so
\nclose to the first generation Madinah that this affair was still completely
\nnew. Armies were marching to lands that the early Arabs had never dreamt
\nof reaching. People were entering Islam, or signing the contract of
\nthe dhimmah, or being fought and often enslaved in enormous numbers,
\nand the slaves were becoming Muslims in droves. The slaves were being
\ntaken back into the great cities, Madinah, Kufa and Damascus, and having
\nan enormous impact on life there. Millions were learning to speak Arabic,
\nand this was a devastating shock to the Arabic language and to the Arabs.
\nA Herculean effort was made to formalise the language in order to teach
\nits root meanings, grammar and syntax, which are so vital for all the
\nsciences of the din. Astonishingly, it is at a relatively early date
\nthat non-Arabs are writing the definitive works on the language, just
\nas they collect the hadith – al-Bukhari, at-Tirmidhi etc., were non-Arabs
\n– and shoring up all of the sciences. There was the task of teaching
\nthese huge numbers their din. In all of that, large numbers of new cases
\nwere arising demanding careful decisions – ijtihad. The situation was
\nmade more complex by the anarchic relations between some of the ruling
\nelite, and the mutual animosities, which spilled over into the Abbasid
\nrevolution.<\/p>\n

So you have to understand that all of this was happening at the same
\ntime as these narrators of ours were living, and that they were each
\none of them making hard decisions, not always well. Some of our narrators
\nwere accused of being Shi’ah, but we cannot understand this in the modern
\nsense of the term. That meant that they thought that some of the immediate
\ndescendants of ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, were the best people
\nto be khulafa’, even if they completely accepted the first four khulafa’
\nar-rashidun, may Allah be pleased with them, and even the Ummayads et
\nal. Some of them adopted what we would regard as unorthodox theological
\npositions. They lived prior to the time when the great intellects of
\nour ummah had worked out what we today call ‘aqidah, and they worked
\nit out because of the different confusions and controveries that some
\nof the earlier generations encountered.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the matter is made more complex still because the Companions
\nthemselves took different standpoints on some key issues. These are
\nvery well known in the fiqh, and some of the well-known differences
\nof the madhhabs crystallise, as it were, previous differences of opinion.<\/p>\n

So this is some of the context of the original circumstances of these
\nrijal. Now we must look with a glance at OUR context. What knowledge
\ndo we want? What knowledge do we need?<\/p>\n

Knowledge<\/h3>\n

With the matter of knowledge we must necessarily sub-divide it in two
\ncategories. The ordinary Muslim is obligated to have knowledge. There
\nis no such thing as an ignorant Muslim by definition. It is obligatory
\non each of us, men and women, to have the necessary knowledge of tawhid,
\nwithout necessarily encompassing the proofs of the people of kalam,
\nand the knowledge for our acts of worship, including knowledge of the
\nArabic language of those passages of Qur’an and supplications we use
\nin the prayer, that will allow us to worship Allah in the correct manner.<\/p>\n

The ordinary Muslim does not need proofs for this but needs to accept
\nthe judgements of trustworthy people, since it would simply be daft
\nto expect shepherds, busy office-workers, garage mechanics, busy mothers
\nand the wide spectrum of ordinary working human beings on this planet
\nto master all of the proofs of these actions.<\/p>\n

However, this obligation to learn does not stop at acts of worship.
\nIf you enter the market-place, if you go out to earn a living in any
\nfashion you are obliged to know what transactions are halal and which
\nones are usury or in other ways unacceptable, since usury is one of
\nthe kaba’ir. Now this knowledge is one that even ‘ulama’ no longer know,
\nlet alone the ordinary Muslim and yet it is the knowledge which is obligatory
\non each one of us.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that there is also a need for knowledgeable fuqaha’
\namong the Muslims. There have to be people who are relatively expert
\nin handling this material. However, we have to guard against one thing:
\nthere is no priesthood in Islam. The essence of priesthood is the taking
\nof a salary for a religious post such as leading the prayer. The best
\nresult we could hope for from these two almost contrary expections –
\npeople expert in fiqh who abandon years of their life in order to learn
\nthis material and then to deny them a salary for their hard earned expertise
\n– is that we get a class of traders who embody the halal trading practices
\nof Islam, for then they would also keep the market transactions clean.
\nThis is not idealism. For example, the wonderful illuminated city of
\nTimbuktu at its height was based on an elite of fuqaha’ who were traders
\nin the market place, and of course Imam Abu Hanifah, may Allah be merciful
\nto him, was a trader and thus independent of the wealthy and the powerful.<\/p>\n

However, since the route to ‘ilm is clear, and ordinarily only begins
\nafter the complete memorisation of the Qur’an, and is an arduous and
\nlong task, and by and large few of us here have embarked on it, then
\ntoday we are going to consider this first knowledge which is the less
\nspecialised knowledge of the ordinary Muslim. Since we live in a literate
\nage, it has perhaps become necessary for us to understand some of the
\nmore arcane and peripheral matters of the knowledge of the ‘ulama’ because
\nthese matters have entered into public discourse, sometimes causing
\ngreat confusion.<\/p>\n

Useful Knowledge<\/h3>\n

With this work – Rijal: the narrators of the Muwatta’ of Imam Muhammad<\/em>
\n– whose concern is authenticating the narrators of these noble hadith,
\nthen all of this context is doubly important since if we were to misunderstand
\nthese things, we would arrive at false results by the most authentic
\nof transmissions, and that would be doubly ironic and doubly tragic.<\/p>\n

Moreover, we are bound by the imperative of seeking ‘useful knowledge’,
\nbecause of the well-known du’a of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
\nbless him and grant him peace, which I will give here in full since
\nit is of so much interest.<\/p>\n

Zayd ibn Arqam said:<\/p>\n

“I will not say to you except as the Messenger of Allah,
\nmay Allah bless him and grant him peace, used to say. He used to say,
\n‘O Allah, I seek refuge with You from incapacity and laziness, cowardice
\nand meanness, decrepit old age and the punishment of the grave. O Allah
\ngive my self its taqwa and purify it, You are the best to purify it.
\nYou are its Guardian Friend and its Master. O Allah, I seek refuge with
\nyou from useless knowledge, and from a heart that is not humble and
\nfrom a self that is never satiated and from a supplication which is
\nnot answered.'” (Sahih Muslim<\/em>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now the significance in this famous du’a of seeking refuge from useless
\nknowledge is that knowledge must be used. Knowledge that is not used
\nis useless. Therefore a theoretical fiqh that is not applied is something
\nto be sought refuge from. The only possible reason to study this matter
\nis to be able to put it into effect.<\/p>\n

I am reminded of a story from an early Celtic monk, Columbanus and
\nhis exchange with Pope Gregory, and remember the pre-Islamic Celtic
\nchristians regarded themselves as distinct from the Roman Church. The
\nPope argued that the Roman Church had more claim to authenticity and
\nauthority than the Celts because of the burial of St. Peter in Rome.
\nColumbanus accepted that claim, but wrote back, “Even so, a live dog
\nis better than a dead lion.”<\/p>\n

We would say that a less excellent fiqh that is put into practice is
\nbetter than a completely learned scholarly fiqh that is not put into
\npractice. Being right is not everything; being pleasing to Allah is.
\nA pure and contrite heart for one moment is better than a lifetime of
\nbeing correct with a hard heart.<\/p>\n

But let us take what is in front of us today, and see what of use we
\ncan get from it. It is a book about men who are narrators from the Muwatta’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Muwatta<\/h3>\n

The genesis of this work is in the task undertaken at the behest of
\nTurath Publishing to translate the Muwatta’ of Imam Muhammad, which
\nis sometimes known as the Muwatta’ of Imam Malik in the narration of
\nImam Muhammad. Although we prefer the former title as do the majority
\nof hadith scholars, the point of departure which we will take is in
\nconsidering this work as the Muwatta’ of Imam Malik as narrated by Imam
\nMuhammad.<\/p>\n

The Muwatta’ is one of the great mysteries of our literature, because
\nfor the ordinary literate, modern Muslim there hangs over it a question
\nmark. “It must be a Maliki work and thus specialised, or it must be
\na fiqh work and not relevant as a work of hadith,” and these misconceptions
\nare only in the case of those who have actually heard about the Muwatta’.
\nHowever, when we step into the literature of the scholars of hadith
\nand fiqh, there is an undoubted air of awe at mention of the Muwatta’
\nand of Imam Malik.<\/p>\n

Many have heard of that famous quote of Imam ash-Shafi’i, may Allah
\nbe merciful to him,<\/p>\n

“There is not on the face of the earth after the Book of Allah, a
\nbook which is more sahih than the Muwatta’.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But we know that he said this before the compilation of the two Sahih
\nworks of al-Bukhari and Muslim.<\/p>\n

However, a much later scholar, a sultan of this science of hadith,
\nHafidh Ibn Hajar al-‘Asqalani said,<\/p>\n

“The unqualified truth is that all of the Muwatta’ is sahih without
\nany exception.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shah Wali Allah ad-Dihlawi (1114-1176AH) went even further and said
\nsomething which is very sweeping,<\/p>\n

“My breast expanded and I became certain that the Muwatta’ is the
\nmost sahih book to be found on the earth after the Book of Allah.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So here we have not only a sahih book, possibly the most sahih book,
\nabout which most of us did not know much before, but one that proved
\ndecisive in the biography of no less a figure than Shah Wali Allah,
\nand so exercised a decisive influence on the Islam of the sub-continent,
\nand so on the Islam of many of us here in this country.<\/p>\n

Note that the attachment of Shah Wali Allah nor that of the Deobandi
\nschool of today is not to this specific version of the Muwatta’ but
\nto the Muwatta’ in general and specifically to the famous Muwatta’ of
\nYahya, on which Mawlana Zakariya has written a very complete commentary.<\/p>\n

The recording of hadith<\/h3>\n

So what do we know about this work?<\/p>\n

Before advancing to that we need prior material on this matter of the
\nrecording of the hadith, for the Companions, with exceptions, did not
\nwrite down the hadith fearing to mix them up with the Qur’an.<\/p>\n

This is from as-Suyuti’s Tarikh al-khulafa<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Ibn Umar related that Umar wished to record the sunan (customary
\npractices of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace,
\nand of his Companions), so he sought Allah’s choice in the matter
\n(through the supplication known as the istikharah) for a month. Then
\nhe arose one morning with a clear resolve and said, ‘I remembered
\na people who were before you who wrote a book, and then they turned
\nto it and abandoned the Book of Allah.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This famous decision of Umar’s is widely documented by the hadith scholars.
\nIt is said that he took counsel of the Companions all of whom agreed
\nto his doing it, but he decided against it.<\/p>\n

The next phase in the matter is the khalifate of Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz,
\nmay Allah be merciful to him and be pleased with him. Now it is simply
\nnot good enough to understand this Umar as the saintly khalifah among
\nthe Bani Umayyah. The key to knowing who he was is that earlier in his
\ncareer he was appointed the governor of Madinah under the Khalifah al-Walid.
\nThere he learned not only to love Madinah as do all the Muslims, but
\nto understand the importance of the embodied and transmitted knowledge
\nof the Sunnah of the populace (the ‘amal), the knowledge of its scholars,
\nand the fact of their reaching agreement on a large body of the Sunnah
\nin Madinah itself. Thus, when through the act of Sulayman, may Allah
\nbe merciful to him, the Umayyad who appointed Umar his successor he
\nascended to the khalifate for the brief years that he did, Umar set
\nabout gathering knowledge of the Sunnah from Madinah and dispersing
\nit in the lands of Islam. He also commanded the ‘ulama’ to begin recording
\nthe Sunnah, and it is from his reign that the recording of hadith is
\ndated, since he is widely counted as one of the khulafa’ ar-rashidun
\n\u00f4. Indeed one of the salaf remarked, “If there is a Mahdi, then
\nit is Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz.” In his time, the fiqh, the Sunnah and
\nthe hadith began to be recorded but usually not in any composed way.<\/p>\n

Our next phase for our purpose begins with Mansur, the Abbasid khalifah.<\/p>\n

The following is from Shaykh Ni’matullah, a contemporary shaykh of
\nHadith in Deoband.<\/p>\n

The people of knowledge mention that Imam Malik’s composition
\nof the Muwatta’ came about as the result of the suggestion of the Abbasid
\nkhalifah Abu Ja’far al-Mansur made during one of his Hajj journeys.
\nAl-Mansur invited him to visit him and Abu Ja’far honoured him and made
\nhim sit beside him, asking him many questions. His [Malik’s] manner,
\nknowledge, intellect, the penetration of his thinking and the soundness
\nof his responses pleased him and he recognised his station in knowledge,
\nin the din, and as an imam of the Muslims.<\/p>\n

The noted scholar and historian Qadi Imam Ibn Khaldun said in his Muqaddimah<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Abu Ja’far had a rank in knowledge and in the din before the khilafah
\nand after it. It was he who said to Malik while indicating to him to
\ncompose the Muwatta’, “Abu ‘Abdullah, no one remains on the face of
\nthe earth more knowledgeable than me or you, but the khilafah has occupied
\nme. You must compose a book for people by which they will benefit. In
\nit you should avoid the concessions (rukhsah) that Ibn ‘Abbas grants,
\nthe severities of Ibn ‘Umar, and the unusual and singular positions
\n(shadhdh) that Ibn Mas’ud takes. Arrange it and make it accessible (watti’)
\nfor people.” Malik said, “By Allah! He taught me composition on that
\nday.”<\/p>\n

Imam Malik composed the Muwatta’ according to the method which Abu Ja’far
\nal-Mansur had indicated. He compiled the choicest of the hadith and
\nthe traditions narrated among the People of Madinah. He gathered the
\nbody of practices (‘amal) which was transmitted by large numbers of
\none generation to large numbers of the next generation (tawatur), avoiding
\nthe concessions granted by Ibn ‘Abbas, the severities of Ibn ‘Umar and
\nthe singular and unusual positions adopted by Ibn Mas’ud. He confined
\nhimself to narrating only from the shaykhs of the People of Madinah
\nexcept for six people: Abu’z-Zubayr from Makkah, Ibrahim ibn Abi ‘Ablah
\nfrom Sham, ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Malik from al-Jazirah (north-west ‘Iraq),
\n‘Ata’ ibn ‘Abdullah from Khurasan, Humayd at-Tawil and Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani
\nfrom Basra. He completed the work during the khilafah of al-Mahdi.<\/p>\n

Thus was completed the composition of this book the Muwatta’ in which
\nImam Malik collected the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
\nbless him and grant him peace, the judgements of the Companions and
\nthe Followers, and the view which he considered the consensus of the
\nPeople of Madinah, from which he never departed. So he collected together
\nthe hadith in the widest sense and whatever was connected to them of
\nthe traditions of the first generation because they were the main point
\nof reference for practical rulings.<\/p>\n

Shaykh Ni’matu’llah al-A’dhami<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imam Malik<\/h3>\n

From the work before us, let us take some almost random comments by
\nShaykh ‘Abd al-Hayy:<\/p>\n

Al-Hakim said in al-Mustadrak<\/em>, ‘This [764] is a sahih
\nhadith because of the unanimous agreement of the imams of transmission
\non the imamate of Malik and that he is completely reliable in everything
\nwhich he narrates, since only the sahih exists in his narrations, particularly
\nwhen in narration from the People of Madinah.”<\/p>\n

Ibn al-Hidha’ said, “He [‘Abdullah ibn Abi Habibah] is one of the men
\nabout whom it is sufficient to know that Malik narrated from them,”
\nas is in Sharh az-Zurqani.<\/p>\n

Its commentator said, “Those things about which Malik said they ‘reached’
\nhim are sahih, as Ibn ‘Uyaynah said.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here I would like to illuminate something in principle, which is this
\nmatter of those transmissions that are mursal, or they are as Imam Malik
\nsaid “balaghani – it reached me,” etc.<\/p>\n

Al-A’mash said, “I said to Ibrahim, ‘Give me something from
\nIbn Mas’ud with a chain of transmission.’ He said, ‘If I narrate you
\nsomething from a man from ‘Abdullah that is what I heard. If I say,
\n“‘Abdullah said…” then it is from more than one person.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What he is saying here is that the transmission which we late modern
\npeople would regard as being more sahih because the isnad is uninterrupted
\nwould be weaker than the one which he gives in the style of a mursal
\nwhich the modern person would regard as weaker.<\/p>\n

Malik narrated from him [Ibn Abi Salih], and he [Malik] is the judge
\nconcerning the shaykhs of Madinah, the discriminatory person who can
\ndiscriminate gold from false gold.<\/p>\n

Ash-Shafi’i said, ‘If it had not been for Malik and Sufyan [Ibn ‘Uyaynah]
\nthe knowledge of the Hijaz would have gone.’<\/p>\n

The truth is that Malik is the one against whom others have to be
\nmeasured in terms of memorisation and exact attention to detail…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our shaykhs mention from Abu Hanifah that he [Zayd ibn ‘Ayyash] is
\nunknown, but his aspersion is refuted by saying that he is a trustworthy
\nnarrator and that Malik narrated from him in the Muwatta’, and that
\nhe did not narrate from an unknown person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now the above from the eminent Shaykh is sufficient for us as to the
\nabsolutely trustworthy nature of Malik as a narrator and of the Muwatta’
\nas a sahih book.<\/p>\n

Let us now see what they said about Malik indicating what it was that
\nmade him a hadith transmitter of such a trustworthy nature. This I want
\nto examine in some detail and at length, because we are in an age which
\nproclaims a devotion to hadith but uses them in arugments and disputes,
\nand so I think in this passage another spirit will become apparent to
\nus. This is from a work by the great Shafi’i shaykh as-Suyuti, Is’af
\nal-Mubatta’ bi rijal al-Muwatta’<\/em>, which is one of the key works drawn
\nupon by Shaykh Abdalhayy for this work which we are examining.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

‘Ali narrated from Habib al-Warraq, Malik’s scribe, ” Ad-Darawardi,
\nIbn Abi Hazim and Ibn Kinanah gave me a dinar to ask Malik about three
\nmen from whom he had not narrated, so I asked him. He bowed his head
\nin silence and then he raised it and said, ‘It is what Allah wills;
\nthere is no strength but by Allah,’ which he used to say very often.
\nThen he said, ‘Habib, I came to this mosque at a time when there were
\nseventy shaykhs in it of those who had reached the Companions of the
\nProphet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and who narrated from
\nthe Followers, but we have not carried away knowledge from anyone but
\nits people.'”<\/p>\n

Bishr ibn ‘Umar az-Zahwani said, “I asked Malik about a man, and he
\nasked, ‘Have you seen him in my books?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘If he
\nhad been a trustworthy narrator you would have seen him in my books.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

Ahmad ibn Salih sad, “I do not know of anyone more given to sifting
\nnarrators and people of knowledge than Malik, and I do not know of him
\nnarrating from anyone about whom there was some [cause for concern].
\nHe narrated from a whole [lot of] people none of whom are to be abandoned.”<\/p>\n

…
\nMutarrif ibn ‘Abdillah said [narrating] from Malik, “I left a whole
\ngroup of the people of Madinah without taking anything of knowledge
\nfrom them, and yet they were of those from whom knowledge was being
\ntaken. They were different sorts. Some of them lied but not concerning
\ntheir knowledge and I left them because of their lying. Some of them
\nwere ignorant of what they had, so that for me it was not appropriate
\nto take from them because of their ignorance. Some of them are found
\nfault with because of a wrong theoretical understanding (ra’y saw’<\/em>).”<\/p>\n

Ma’n ibn ‘Isa said, “Malik used to say, ‘Knowledge must not be taken
\nfrom four, and it can be taken from anyone other than them: it must
\nnot be taken from a fool; nor should it be taken from someone of erroneous
\nopinions (hawa) who calls others to his erroneous opinions; nor from
\na liar who lies while talking about people even though he is not suspect
\nwhen narrating the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless
\nhim and grant him peace; nor is it to be taken from a virtuous right-acting
\nshaykh given to worship if he does not know what he is narrating.'”
\nIbrahim ibn al- Mundhir said, “I mentioned this account to Mutarrif
\nibn ‘Abdillah and he said, ‘I bear witness that I heard Malik say, “I
\nreached shaykhs in this city who were people of virtue and of right
\naction and who would narrate hadith but I heard nothing from any of
\nthem.” Someone asked, “Why?” He said, “They did not know what they were
\nnarrating.”‘”<\/p>\n

Isma’il ibn Abi Uways said, “I heard my maternal uncle Malik saying,
\n‘This knowledge is a din, so look at who you take your din from. I met
\nseventy people who said, “The Messenger of Allah said, may Allah bless
\nhim and grant him peace,…” around these pillars, and I took nothing
\nfrom them, even though if any of them had been entrusted with the bait
\nal-mal he would have acted in a trustworthy fashion, because they were
\nnot people of this business. Then Ibn Shihab came to us and we used
\nto crowd around his door.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

Ibn Wahb said, “I heard Malik saying, ‘I reached people in this city
\nwho had attained to live a hundred years or a hundred and five, and
\nnothing was taken from them, and fault was found with someone who
\ntook from them.”<\/p>\n

Ibn Wahb and Ashhab said, “Malik said, ‘I went to see A’ishah bint
\nSa’d but I regarded her as a weak transmitter so I took nothing from
\nher except her saying, “My father had a washtub from which he and
\nall his family would do wudu’.”‘”<\/p>\n

Mutarrif said, “Malik asked me, ‘Does al-‘Attan ibn Khalid narrate
\nhadith?’ I answered, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘We belong to Allah and to Him
\nwe are returning!’ He said, ‘I reached trustworthy people who would
\nnot narrate hadith.’ I asked, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘For fear of slips.'”
\nIbn Wahb said, “Malik looked towards al-‘Attan ibn Khalid and said,
\n‘It has reached me that you take knowledge from this one.’ I said, ‘Of
\ncourse.’ So he said, ‘We would not take hadith except from people of
\nfiqh.’ He said, ‘I saw Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani in Makkah on two Hajjs and
\nI wrote nothing down from him, but on the third I saw him sitting in
\nthe courtyard of Zamzam, and when the Prophet, may Allah bless him and
\ngrant him peace, was mentioned in his presence he would weep so much
\nthat I felt mercy for him. So when I saw that I wrote down [Sunnah]
\nfrom him.'”<\/p>\n

Abu Mus’ab said, “Someone said to Malik, ‘Why do you not take from the
\npeople of Iraq?’ He said, ‘I saw them coming here and taking [hadith
\nand fiqh] from untrustworthy people so I said, “They are like that in
\ntheir own country, and they take from those who are untrustworthy.”‘”<\/p>\n

Al-Athram said, “I asked Ahmad ibn Hanbal about ‘Amr ibn Abi ‘Amr the
\nmawla of al-Muttalib and he said, ‘It increases his standing with me
\nthat Malik narrated from him.'”<\/p>\n

Abu Sa’id ibn al-A’rabi said, “Yahya ibn Ma’in used to regard a man
\nas trustworthy because of Malik’s narrating from him. He was asked about
\nmore than a few people about whom he said, ‘A trustworthy narrator;
\nMalik narrated from him.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

Qarad ibn Nuh said, “Malik mentioned something and so somone
\nasked him, ‘Who narrated that to you?’ and he answered, ‘We did not
\nuse to sit with fools.'” ‘Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said, “I heard
\nmy father when this statement was mentioned saying, ‘There isn’t a statement
\nin the world greater than this among the eminent virtues of the people
\nof knowledge, that Malik ibn Anas mentioned that he had never sat with
\na fool, and no one is safe from that apart from Malik.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This majestic statement of Imam Malik is amusing to us today, because
\nyou can hear in the question the modern, “What is your dalil akhi?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

Ibn Wahb said, “Malik said, ‘I came upon people in Madinah
\nwhom if others had sought rain [from Allah] by means of them they would
\nhave been given water, and they had heard a great deal of knowledge
\nand hadith, but I took nothing from any of them. That is because they
\nhad obligated themselves with fear of Allah and doing without, whereas
\nthis business – meaning hadith and fatwa – needs a man who has taqwa,
\nscrupulousness, careful preservation [of knowledge], exacting mastery,
\nknowledge, understanding, and knowing what comes out of his head and
\nwhat will come to him tomorrow on the [Day of] Rising. As for doing
\nwithout [the world] without exacting mastery and without ma’rifah, then
\nthere is no benefit in it, it is no proof, and knowledge is not to be
\ntaken from them.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ma’n ibn ‘Isa said, “I heard Malik saying,<\/p>\n

‘How many a brother I have in Madinah whose supplication I hope for
\nbut whose testimony I do not regard as valid.'”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Mansur ibn Salamah said, “We were with Malik and a man said to him,
\n‘I have lived here for seventy days and have written down sixty hadith.’
\nSo Malik said, ‘Sixty hadith; you think them not worth the trouble?’
\nThe man said, ‘We would probably write them down in Kufa or in Iraq
\nin a single session.’ Malik said, ‘What have we to do with Iraq? That
\nis the abode of fighting; they fight at night and spend by day.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…<\/p>\n

Clearly in this striking portrait of Malik as a narrator and ‘alim
\nthere are many elements. The most important of which is that he would
\nsimply not listen to let alone narrate from fools or wrong people. Many
\nhadith he did not hear because he would not allow himself to hear from
\nany of those who were simply not totally trustworthy. He was intent
\non gathering the strongest and surest material for the Muslims, the
\nMuwatta’, the well-trodden path. Imam Ahmad, may Allah be merciful to
\nhim, recognised this as something unique to him. Every other hadith
\nscholar gathered some hadith which they had later to discard because
\nof the weakness of their narrators, or indeed which they failed to discard.
\nAnd the discussion of the often undoubted merits of weak hadith is not
\nreally appropriate here, but is a worthy topic for another day.<\/p>\n

Madinah and Kufa<\/h3>\n

In the passage above from Is’af
\nal-Mubatta’ bi rijal al-Muwatta’<\/em> of as-Suyuti there are elements which are clearly
\ndiscordant, particularly to our modern ear, and they can be summed up
\nin one word: Iraq. Iraq is mentioned by Malik with something close to
\nhostility but at the least disparagement. Now Iraq is really a shorthand
\nfor Kufa. Thus we are here in need of understanding two cities, for
\nit is out of this interaction that everything else will come, all of
\nthe madhhabs and the schools of Islam, both in fiqh and kalam: Madinah
\nand Kufa. In this opposition and this contrast we will discover a very
\nQur’anic theme, this interplay of the opposites which is such a major
\nthread of the Qur’an. Thus to understand this interplay we will have
\nto ditch our football-club allegiances if we want to gain something
\nprecious.<\/p>\n

Now we will have to identify these two cities as light and dark, but
\nplease do not see this in a Zoroastrian manner, but in the Muslim manner
\nthat sees the underlying unity in their interplay.<\/p>\n

Madinah<\/h3>\n

Madinah almost needs no introduction, but let us introduce her as if
\na stranger. Madinah is the abode of Islam and the abode of the Hijrah
\nwhere much of the Qur’an was revealed. It is this unique city whose
\ninhabitants stood by their Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him
\npeace, in every situation. You have to grasp first that this was a city
\nof entirely ordinary people, indeed very basic and simple people of
\nfitrah. It was not a city of great philosophers, ‘ulama’ and not even
\nof great warriors. Madinah was a small city, which we would call a town,
\nin which the inhabitants were largely agriculturalists, as opposed to
\nthe Makkans who were traders. They were not nomads but settled people.
\nWith the infusion of the Muhajirun then two elements united. The Madinans
\nwere originally from Yemeni stock, and in the words of the Rasul, may
\nAllah bless him and grant him peace, “Al-iman yamani –\u00a0Iman is
\nYemeni.” The Muhajirun were these northern Arabs of ‘Adnan and Mudar,
\nof that strand called al-‘Arab al-musta’ribah –\u00a0Arabized Arabs
\nbecause they descended from non-Arabs, Ibrahim and Isma’il, peace be
\nupopn both of them. Thus two polar opposites of the Arabs united in
\nMadinah. The Qurayshi emigrants were traditionally traders who travelled
\nwidely to the north and the edges of the Byzantine and Persian empires
\nand sometimes deeper into them, and to the south to the Yemen whose
\nsailors brought back goods from India, China and Africa.<\/p>\n

So this Madinah was the meeting point of these very different tribal
\ngroupings. In it there took place the sirah that you all know, the revelation
\nof the surahs and ayat on the Shari’ah<\/em>, and the Sunnah. All of
\nthis took shape in Madinah, with often small everyday incidents causing
\nthe revelation of Qur’an. The people of Madinah were careful because
\nthey knew that even actions done secretly in their houses were the occasion
\nfor revelation or were revealed to the Messenger. They knew that where
\nthere was no revelation on a matter, that it was a Divine affirmation
\nof it by the simple absence of revelation about it.<\/p>\n

During the life of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and
\ngrant him peace, and after his death even more so, they were men and
\nwomen engaged in digesting the significance of each word of the Qur’an
\nand each matter of the Sunnah. They were told to stay together and to
\nstay in Madinah, and except for those who selflessly left Madinah to
\nbe teachers and generals or fighters in the armies, the majority stayed
\nthere in obedience to the well known hadith of the Messenger of Allah,
\nmay Allah bless him and grant him peace.<\/p>\n

There grew in this ambience to be a commonly accepted body of the Sunnah
\nin Madinah which comprised transmission of what had actually been done
\nas the last practice of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
\nand grant him peace, as well as their reaching unanimity or majority
\nagreement on other matters, as well as encapsulating new judgements
\narrived at on the basis of previous judgements. All of this was referred
\nto by them and by Imam Malik as the ‘amal – the practice. This practice
\nwas regarded by Imam Malik and by the people of Madinah as being weightier
\nthan hadith, so that we are sometimes astonished to see these early
\nMadinans giving judgement contrary to a hadith which they very clearly
\nknew. This ‘amal was a very present part of most transmissions of the
\nMuwatta’, and is clearly the governing knowledge by which Imam Malik
\nand the Madinans judged and decided.<\/p>\n

Note that although both Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ash-Shaybani and
\nImam ash-Shafi’i wrote works arguing against some elements of this ‘amal
\nwhich we have not read, Imam Ibn Taymiyyah has written an entire work
\nconfirming its essential nature.<\/p>\n

Kufa<\/h3>\n

Kufa was created at the command of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab in the desert
\nof Iraq facing into the rich cultivated lands because he did not want
\nthe Arabs to lose their hardihood, and it was settled with many of the
\nnomadic tribes who had been apostates and who had been fought to bring
\nthem back into Islam. They redeemed themselves in the fighting against
\nthe Persians, but one has to remember this origin.<\/p>\n

In that fighting, many slaves were taken and they contributed enormously
\nto the population of Kufa. Great numbers of them accepted Islam, either
\nimmediately or over time.<\/p>\n

Then there were a small group of the Companions, some of the most eminent
\nof them: Abdallah ibn Mas’ud, Anas ibn Malik, al-Mughirah ibn Shu’bah,
\net al. Some were there as teachers, some as military leaders, some for
\na period as local amir, and then finally there was the khalifate of
\nSayyiduna Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him.<\/p>\n

That khalifate and its relocation from Madinah to Iraq came about as
\nmany of you know in the civil war with Sayyiduna Mu’awiyah, may Allah
\nbe pleased with him. The centre of gravity in that fighting was to the
\nNorth and so the men of Madinah were forced to come north, and Kufa
\nproved to be their strategic move. This was to have very weighty consequences,
\nfor it gave the people of Kufa a sense of pride which no other city
\noutside of Madinah had: Kufa had been a city of the Khalifate of one
\nof the greatest of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah
\nbless him and grant him peace. This gave the Kufans a standing in their
\nown eyes, and in the eyes of others of the Muslims. Moreover, a very
\nstrong and powerful intellectual tradition grew up there in fiqh, kalam,
\nArabic language, hadith and the other sciences of Islam<\/p>\n

However, along with all of that, very disturbing things happened in
\nKufa. There were continual rebellions against their amirs, even eminent
\namirs from among the Companions. As-Suyuti transmitted:<\/p>\n

Abu Hudbah al-Himsi said: Umar was told that the people of Iraq had
\npelted their amir with pebbles and he went out angry. He performed the
\nprayer but was forgetful in his prayer. When he had completed the prayer,
\nhe said, ‘O Allah, they have made me confused, so make them confused,
\nand hasten with the youth of (the tribe of) Thaqif who will pass judgement
\namong them with the judgement of Jahiliyyah, who will not accept from
\ntheir good-doers and will not pass over their wrongdoers with pardon.’
\nI say that this indicates al-Hajjaj. Ibn Lahi’ah said, ‘Al-Hajjaj was
\nnot yet born at that time.’<\/p>\n

In Kufa the first people appeared who fabricated hadith.<\/p>\n

The movements first appeared which were to become the Khawarij, that
\nfanatical puritanical movement which seceded from the army of Sayyiduna
\nAli and were later to murder him.<\/p>\n

In Kufa there first appeared the theological argumentation that would
\nresult in the Mu’tazili heresy that would come to dominate the Abbasid
\nkhalifate and cause great fitnah for the Muslims.<\/p>\n

The group called the Qadariyyah emerged there, as did their dialectal
\nopposite the Murji’ah. These are two extreme interpretations of the
\nnature of free will.<\/p>\n

Thus you can see that Kufa was a hotbed of unrest both politically,
\nreligiously and intellectually. And yet this hotbed felt that it had
\na legitimate claim to be one of the great capital cities of Islam.<\/p>\n

Abu Hanifah<\/h3>\n

In this city there grew a madhhab which was known initially as the
\nmadhhab of Iraq and came to be known as the madhhab of Abu Hanifah.
\nHere you need to know all of this preceding material to understand the
\ntremendous achievement of Abu Hanifah, may Allah be merciful to him.
\nThe Imam rescued a noble science of fiqh from out of this hotbed, thus
\nproving the word which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him
\npeace, said and which the imams have always understood to refer to him:
\n“Even if the din were in the Pleiades, a man from the Persians would
\nhave gone off with it,” or he said, “From the sons of the Persians until
\nhe could comprehend it.”<\/p>\n

Hadith in Madinah and Kufa<\/h3>\n

To understand for our limited purposes here the contrast between this
\nMadinan perspective and the Kufan one, I want to take two of the matters
\nthat I have already quoted.<\/p>\n

First: Mansur ibn Salamah said, “We were with Malik and a
\nman said to him, ‘I have lived here for seventy days and have written
\ndown sixty hadith.’ So Malik said, ‘Sixty hadith; you think them not
\nworth the trouble?’ The man said, ‘We would probably write them down
\nin Kufa or in Iraq in a single session.’ Malik said, ‘What have we to
\ndo with Iraq? That is the abode of fighting; they fight at night and
\nspend by day.'”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here we can see, as we do in the report from Imam Muhammad, may Allah
\nbe pleased with him, who said that he learnt the Muwatta containing
\n700 hadith in three years, that Malik narrated less than one hadith
\na day. In other words, he did not narrate a hadith every day, but if
\nhe did narrate, it was more likely to be a single hadith. Malik himself
\nrecounts that in his keeping company with one of his great Shaykhs,
\nSa’id ibn al-Musayyab, may Allah be pleased with him, that Sa’id did
\nnot necessarily narrate any hadith or traditions at all in a day. So
\nthis was something of the very ethos of Madinah and its shaykhs.<\/p>\n

Moreover, we know that when people went to Malik, he would ask them
\nif they had come for fiqh and fatwa or for hadith. If they replied hadith,
\nthen he would go and perform wudu, make sure that he was dressed well,
\nsit in dignity, have ‘ud lit, etc., and then with great gravity he would
\nnarrate a hadith, and we have already seen with what caution he had
\ngathered those hadith. In this narration from as-Suyuti then, Malik
\nmeets his opposite, for the man from Iraq was accustomed to learning
\nfifty to sixty hadith in a day or even in a single session. These are
\nclearly utterly different approaches.<\/p>\n

With the first Madinan approach, you can almost but not quite dispense
\nwith the science of narrators, since Malik would only narrate from people
\nwho were completely trustworthy. If he did not trust a man, he would
\nnot sit down with him to learn.<\/p>\n

There is a story, again from as-Suyuti, on this:<\/p>\n

He said, ‘I saw Ayyub as-Sikhtiyani in Makkah on two Hajjs
\nand I wrote nothing down from him, but on the third I saw him sitting
\nin the courtyard of Zamzam, and when the Prophet, may Allah bless him
\nand grant him peace, was mentioned in his presence he would weep so
\nmuch that I felt mercy for him. So when I saw that I wrote down [hadith]
\nfrom him.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The very fact of narrators being in his book is considered by many
\nof the people of hadith sufficient evidence of their high standing.
\nHowever, with the second approach you need a scientific method to discriminate
\nthe narrators. There are so many narrations from so many narrators of
\nsuch different qualities, that you have to weigh up a lot of material
\nabout their different qualities. So it is of the highest interest to
\nus that Imam Muhammad comes to Madinah, for in the meeting of these
\ntwo completely different approaches there is something very instructive
\nfor us.<\/p>\n

Hadith and Ra’y<\/h3>\n

First of all, we will have to clear away an utterly nonsensical picture
\nof what the difference was between the two traditions that has grown
\nup among orientalists and even some of the Muslims. In this fallacious
\npicture the people of the Hijaz are regarded as people of hadith and
\ntradition, whereas the people of Iraq are people of ra’y which in this
\nperspective is called opinion. This view then leads to the nonsensical
\nperspective that Imam Abu Hanifah, may Allah be merciful to him, preferred
\nhis own opinion to known hadith, whereas Imam Malik would always cling
\nto the hadith and never use this famous opinion or ra’y. However, we
\nhave already seen that Kufa and Iraq were fanatically concerned for
\nhadith, whereas the Madinans used them with awe and respect but sparingly.
\nMoreover, one of Malik’s main shaykhs was Rabi’ah ar-Ra’y and Malik
\nhim was well known to be a man of this as-yet enigmatic quality.<\/p>\n

We need to explicate then some things further and these are matters
\nwhich the two great schools of thought agree on, but differ quite substantially
\nfrom later schools, for just as the schools of Imam ash-Shafi’i and
\nImam Ahmad, may Allah be merciful to them, share many characteristics
\nwith Madinan fiqh given the clear line of transmission from Malik to
\nash-Shafi’i to Ahmad, yet there are elements in the two early madhhabs,
\nthat of Madinah and Iraq, which they have in common, which later schools
\nwere to abandon so that today people do not even recognise them.<\/p>\n

We saw already in the quote from Ibrahim an-Nakha’i which we used and
\nwhich throws light on the mursal hadith, that there has been a complete
\nreversal of the understanding which many of the salaf had in this perspective.
\nNow, almost without exception, we adhere to a very late viewpoint which
\nis that there are sahih hadith, and these are often single lines of
\nnarrators each of whom is impeccable there being no breaks in the chain,
\nand then there are less reliable hadith among which are mursal, mawquf
\nand those which Malik prefaced by saying, “Balaghani – it has reached
\nme.” We saw that some mursal hadith, i.e. hadith narrated by a Follower
\nwithout naming the Companion or Companions from whom he heard it, are
\npotentially stronger than sahih, since they may well have been heard
\nfrom a number of Companions rather than a single narrator, and so the
\nShaykh narrates them without naming any one narrator since to name a
\nsingle narrator would be to weaken his isnad.<\/p>\n

Then we have the matter of the mawquf. These are hadith from Companions
\nin which they do not say that they heard them from the Messenger, may
\nAllah bless him and grant him peace. There are famous examples about
\nwhich we know from other routes of transmission that they are indeed
\nfrom him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. Why would that be?<\/p>\n

He [Malik] said, ‘I reached trustworthy people who would not
\nnarrate hadith.’ I [Mutarrif ] asked, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘For fear of slips.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This matter is very illuminating for us, because they have not ascribed
\nthem to him, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, for fear of attributing
\nsomething to him, even if very slightly, that he had not said. This
\nfear was something that characterised a great number of the salaf: Companions,
\nFollowers and Followers of the Followers. This explains a great deal
\nabout Imam Abu Hanifah’s use of a smaller number of hadith in comparison
\nto his usage of reports from the Companions. Like them, he did not wish
\nto attribute anything to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him
\nand grant him peace, that he was not completely sure of in every way.
\nTherefore, he relied more on the Companions because it is known that
\nthey did not do things from their own opinions, but adhered to what
\nthey had seen and heard of the Sunnah. Therefore, each judgement or
\naccount of a Companion’s behaviour is an unspoken hadith. Therefore
\nthe use of fewer hadith is not an example of disrespect for the Sunnah
\nbut of tremendous respect and awe for it.<\/p>\n

We have seen already that Kufa is characterised by this tremendous
\nappetite for knowledge of the Sunnah and because the Sunnah is not from
\nthere but from Madinah, then they are perforce in need of getting as
\nmany reports as possible from anyone who comes from Madinah. Thus of
\nnecessity, the Kufans must get every scrap, and because every scrap
\nis not equally valuable nor every narrator equally veracious, then there
\nhad to be a science for assessing all of this sometimes conflicting
\nmaterial, which was greatly enlarged by the differing views of different
\nCompanions, and this science is initially alluded to as ra’y. And because
\nra’y comes from the verb ‘to see’ i.e. intellectually with the mind’s
\neye, then I have translated it not by the word opinion but by the phrase
\n‘theoretical understanding’, since similarly ‘theory’ comes from the
\nGreek verb ‘to see’. But of course, the word ‘opinion’ is not completely
\nwrong, for we might put it that it is a ‘view’, it is an actual seeing
\nof how it is.<\/p>\n

Imam ash-Shafi’i and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan<\/h3>\n

The next stage in our tale of two cities is then when the pupil of
\nImam Malik, Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i goes to Kufa and meets the
\npupil of Imam Abu Hanifah and of Malik and there makes a kind of scientific
\nsynthesis but again from our perspective as a common denominator leaving
\nout one of the key matters, the ‘amal practice of the People of Madinah.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

So we set out to look at knowledge not from the point of view that
\nwe are ‘ulama’ but that we are ordinary Muslims seeking that knowledge
\nthat will help us to discharge our obligations in this time, and since
\npeople have opened this door on to matters ordinarily reserved for the
\n‘ulama’ then we have perforce to know something about these matters
\njust as a part of our being knowledgeable Muslims.<\/p>\n

But the core of what we need is the knowledge of tawhid and of the
\nobligations of Islam, and finally of how we are able to transact with
\nmoney and the ordinary transactions. There are things that will give
\nthat a focus for that: first, that it is for action and not for theory,
\ndiscussion and debate. Just as our beginning point is Madinah with the
\nCompanions around the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant
\nhim peace, our end point and goal may be summed up as building Madinah
\nin our lands where we now live, for if we are not engaged in doing that
\nwe are obligated to go to where we can live as Muslims, to Dar al-Islam
\nif any is to be found on this planet.<\/p>\n

In this concept of building Madinah, we find benefit in what we have
\ntalked about, because we owe it to Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi that
\nhe has called the Muwatta’ “a blueprint for an illuminated city”. It
\nis a plan laid out on which basis we can build a city, but this city’s
\nfoundations, walls and roofs are transactions and behaviour. The weighty
\nfoundation of it are the voluminous chapters on trade, buying and selling
\nand the ordinary transactions of life. Its pillars are the five of Islam.<\/p>\n

There are threads which we can follow through this work.<\/p>\n

First, dhikr. In brief I will only refer you to what Ibn Juzayy, may
\nAllah be merciful to him, said in his tafsir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Second, amirate. The presence of Muslim amirs is very strong in the
\nMuwatta’, receiving counsel, sending others to gain counsel from the
\nCompanions, forming judgements and rulings. One sees how essential it
\nis for Muslim life that there be an amir in the community.<\/p>\n

Third, the revival of zakat. This neglected pillar is an act of worship
\nand thus the same as the salat – not a social welfare – thus it ought
\nto be done as the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant
\nhim peace, did it. That means collected by zakat collectors appointed
\nby an amir and distributed by them to the known categories.<\/p>\n

The final thread that is throughout the Muwatta’ or indeed any work
\nof hadith and fiqh, and that is gold, specifically the gold dinar. This
\nwas what people paid the zakat with and it was what people traded and
\ndid business with.<\/p>\n

Given the foundations – a strong knowledge of non-usurious trade in
\nthe marketplace, and the pillars of Islam especially the restored pillar
\nof zakat and the re-introduction of the gold dinar and silver dirham
\nfor it, then we are able to turn to the more luminous aspects of our
\ndin. That is pointed out in one hadith whose resonances echo through
\nall of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The Messenger of Allah, may Allah
\nbless him and grant him peace, said:<\/p>\n

I have only been sent to perfect the noble generous qualities
\nof character.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We accept that Allah ta’ala has put us here for a reason, and we accept
\nthat Europe and the West becoming Muslim would not be a greater miracle
\nthan the acceptance of Islam by much of the Byzantine empire and the
\nPersians and lands to the east and west, north and south.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rijal – the narrators of hadith by Abdassamad Clarke The Froud Centre, London, Sunday 6\/6\/04 Introduction Almost the last piece of this talk to fall into place was its beginning. That came about when seeing that I had still a substantial part of this talk to prepare I started to read something totally unconnected: Fuzzy … <\/p>\n

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