In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, the Magnificent, the Magnanimous. Peace & blessings on our noble Prophet Muhammed, his family, and his righteous companions.
InshAllah, we will begin from where my last post ended.
Our next guardian of the flame.....
Imam Malik ibn Anas (raheemullah) 711 - 795 A.D.
(An example of aqeedah, particularly, speaking the truth despite of the danger to oneself & guiding
the rulers)
Imagine with me for a few moments brothers & sisters, please.
Imagine the intense heat of Al-Madinah, and then imagine a young boy with fair skin & blue eyes standing in this heat. Now imagine him hiding behind something, like a wall or a tree perhaps, and occasionally stealing glances at the door of a house at a distance. You see, this young guardian whom we are interested in, is waiting for someone. Particularly, he is waiting for a scholar to emerge from the house. The scholar is Nafay, and our young guardian is Imam Malik ibn Anas.
Eventually when Imam Nafay would emerge from his house and head towards the masjid for zohr, Imam Malik would walk past him, convey his salam and then walk away, pretending all the while a coincidence that they ran into each other. Later when Imam Nafay would reach the masjid, Imam Malik would ambush him again, convey his salam & then say “Ya Imam, by the way could you please tell me what Ibn Umar said about this mashala....”
Brothers & sisters, this anecdote relates to us the himma (determination) to acquire knowledge & its appreciation by our young guardian. These qualities would one day mature & constitute this great fakih of Kufa.
The students of Imam Malik narrate about his commanding presence, his persistence in speaking the truth and how efficiently he would disperse his duty of enjoining the good & forbidding the evil. They mention when Imam Malik would guide or even reprimand sometimes the wali's and the khalifa. And these events convey to us the aqeedah of our guardian.
Our guardian of the flame once entered the court of khalifa Haroon Al Rasheed and saw that all seating places close to the khalifa were occupied. Undeterred, he asked aloud, “Ya Ameer-ul-Mumineen, where will you seat your imam?”. The khalifa replied, “Here ya Imam, beside me.” And room was made for Imam Malik to sit next to the khalifa.
Lets pause for a minute and analyze the situation inshAllah.
Imam Malik did not raise the question of seating arrangements in the court of the khalifa out of haughtiness. Rather, his desire was to establish the principle that the place of religious leaders is by the side of the governing leaders. This enables the imaam's to provide guidance to the khulafah, who in return guide the ummah on the shariah of Allah azawjal. Secondly, this action of imaam Malik establishes the criteria of Allah Azawjal that the khulafah are not necessarily above the scholars. Rather, in the eyes of Allah, one's status as a Muslim is better only by the degree of one's piety.
Diligently, Imam Malik would establish the correct aqeedah scholars of deen ought to have.
On a different occasion, once in the court khalifa Haroon ar-Rasheed sneezed & Imam Malik following the sunnah of RasolAllah said “Ya Ameer ul-Mumineen, Yarhamakullah”. You see it was customary that if the khalifa sneezes, no one, out of respect for the khalifa would say “Yarhamakullah”. Ergo, the entire court was silent except our guardian, whose aqeedah demanded that he speak the truth, regardless of the consequences. khalifa Haroon ar-Rasheed in return replied, “ahidukumullah wa subhanakum”. Later, as Imam Malik was leaving the court, one of the guards of the khalifa approached the imam & said, “Ya Imam, next time do not say to the khalifa “yarhamakullah. Instead when he sneezes, remain silent.”
Some time passed and Imam Malik was once again in the court of khalifa Haroon ar-Rasheed. The khalifa again sneezed & our guardian said out loud, “Ya khalifatul-mumineen, do you want the ruling of Allah, or do you want the ruling of shaytan?”. The khalifa righteously replied, “I want the ruling of Allah”. To which Imam Malik said, “yarhamakullah”.
Brothers and sisters, lets pause here for a second and try to visualize the scenario. We have here a extremely powerful khalifa who would not hesitate to wipe out dissidents. Yet, with full knowledge of this fact, a scholar chooses to guide & correct the khalifa in front of everyone. The scholar takes the initiative to remind the ruler that the law of Allah azawjal & the sunnah of his nabi Mohammed(SAW) take precedence.
Truly, this sets a clear precedence for scholars & their role as guardians. Truly, this is amar-bin-maroof-wa-nahya-anil-munkar.
To understand the aqeedah of our current guardian as far as the wealth in possession of the rulers, let us inshAllah consider the following interaction between Imam Malik & khalifa Haroon ar-Rasheed.
Once khalifa Haroon ar-Rasheed took an oath & was unable to fulfill it. Shariah demanded that a kafara be made to compensate for this action by the khalifa. So essentially, the khalifa was required by shariah to free a slave, if the freeing of a slave was impossible then feeding ten among the poor would suffice, and if the feeding of the poor was unaffordable then the last option is to fast for three days consequtively. Khalifa Haroon ar-Rasheed was informed of these options by the scholars when he inquired for a suitable atonement. However, Imam Malik had a different opinion. He advised the khalifa, “Ya ameer-ul-mumineen, your kafara is fasting for three days.” Confused, Haroon ar-Rasheed objected, “Ya imaam, but the Quran says, 'whoever cannot afford to feed ten poor people, he should then fast for three days'. (Surah Al-Ma'idah,8). And surely I can feed ten among the poor.”
Our beloved guardian of the flame guided, “Ameer-ul-Mumineen, the money between your hands, does not belong to you, rather it belongs to the ummah of Mohammed(SAW). If we took away all the wealth from bayt-ul-maal, you would be left with no money & then would have to fast for three days”.
Indeed, the scholars are guides for the truth and these guardians do not waver in speaking the truth irrespective of the audience.
Our next guardian of the flame.....
Imam Abdullah bin Al-Mubarak (raheemullah) 736 - 797 A.D.
(An example of the accurate manhaj in light of the sunnah of Rasullah(SAW))
There are some men in the history of Islam who are like gems. Men whose sheer light of life when shines, everything else around them turns mundane. These are men who have left a distinct path for future generations to follow. These are illustrious men. Such was our guardian Imam Abdullah bin Al-Mubarak.
He is infamous for two attributes particularly;
1)His knowledge of the ahadith of Rasullah(SAW)
2)His love for Jihad fee-sabililAllah
These qualities of his are the essence of the sunnah of RasolAllah(SAW). That is, practicing the deen after acquiring the knowledge.
Imam Al-Zahaby(rahemullah) has commented on our current guardian, “He was the scholar of Islam, the leader of the pious. He spent his life acquiring knowledge, participating in battles, conducting trade, spending from his plentiful wealth on his students. He would sponsor them (his students) for hajj, support them in their study of knowledge and being steadfast in the methodology of the truth.”
Imam Yahya ibn Ma'in(rahemullah) described our guardian as, “he was a cup overflowing with trustworthiness. A scholar of authentic ahadith and the books he narrated from reached twenty-one thousand.”
Imam An-Nasai(rahemullah) has said about Imam Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak, “there was not know at the time of ibn Al-Mubarak anyone more glorious or excellent than him, or anymore with more virtues than he possessed.”
To practice his knowledge & fulfill his responsibility as guardian of Islam, Imam Abdullah bin Al-Mubarak would, it is said in some narration that he would acquire knowledge & teach it for four months, and then go to jihad on the front lines against the Byzantians for four months. In a different narration, he would learn & teach for ten months & then wage jihad for two months.
His diligent efforts to spread the knowledge of Islam yielded in authoring of nine books and the most famous of these are “kitab-ul-Jihad” and “kitab-ul-Zuhud”.
As if sensing the most essential attribute required in a Muslim, Imam Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak would narrate ahadith focusing on fortifying the character of a person & thus contribute to building a strong personality in a believer. Such efforts by this guardian developed love & admiration in the heart's of the ummah in his time. So much so that once the mother of khalifah Haroon Ar-Rasheed from her balcony witnessed a huge throng of people accompanying a man. She asked, “who is that man?” and she was informed, “He is Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak, the ameer, the alim of Khurasan.” Amazed by the love of the people accompanying our guardian, she commented, “this scholar is the real king. Unlike my son, who cannot come out before the people without his bodyguards.”
Lets briefly pause here inshAllah and recall that history has once before shown us a similar spectacle in the time of Ameer ul-Mu'mineen Umar bin Al-Khattab(RA). When the Persian king Hurmuz was baffled to find Umar bin Al-Khattab(RA) in the afternoon sleeping under a tree without any armor or guards in Medina, Hurmuz commented, “you have ruled with justice, and so you can rest in peace.”
SubhanAllah.
Hiban Ibn Musa(Rahemullah) has narrated that on his first battle fee-sabilil-Allah Imam Abdullah Ibn Mubarak said, “To Allah we belong, and to him we shall return. All our life we spent on gathering knowledge on the the minor points of fiqh. We did not realize that the gates of jannah lay open here at the battlefields and we have left them behind.” And then Imam Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak began to cry.
Brothers and sisters, here lies the ideal example of a manhaj executed to its completion, just as RasolAllah(SAW) defined it in his sunnah. This is our guardian who had acquired the knowledge of the deen & had put it into practice. And thus, completing the transition from an aqeedah to manhaj.
Allah azawjal has preserved for us in history an extremely precious exchange of words between our guardian and his friend Al-Fudayl Ibn Ayadh. Al-Fudayl Ibn Ayadh once sent a letter to Imam Abdullah ibn Al-Mubarak commending to our guardian the virtues of hajj & the sacrifices of those visiting the house of Allah azawjal. Our guardian of Islam wrote back with the following words, “oh worshiper of the two harrams (Mecca & Medina), if you were to see you would realize that in you in your worship are only playing. Whoever, his cheeks get splattered with his tears while in haj, then our necks are being splattered with our blood. Whoever, rides his horse in joy, our horses on the day of jihad are getting tired in the path of Allah. For you is the perfume that you put on, for us is the dust of the hoofs our horses. Indeed, the true & undeniable saying from our Prophet(SAW) has come that the dust that comes from the hoofs of the horses in fee-sabilil-Allah will never meet the rising smoke of hell-fire. And this is the truth the book of Allah has spoken before us that the shaheed never dies. And Allah never lies.”
(to be continued, inshAllah)
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