This book considers the transmission of the Sunna through the lens of the great Madinan legal scholar, Imam Malik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH/795 CE), in his renowned book al-Muwatta', or 'The well-trodden path'. It considers not only the legal judgements preserved in this book, but also the key scholars involved in the transmission of these judgements, namely, Malik's teachers and students. These different transmissions provide very strong evidence for the reliability of Malik's transmission of the Sunna. Overriding these textual considerations is the concept of 'amal, or the Practice of the People of Medina. This is accepted as a prime source by Malik and those following him, but is effectively rejected by the other schools, who prefer hadith (textual reports) as an indication of Sunna. Given the contested nature of 'amal in both ancient and modern times, and the general unawareness of it in contemporary Islamic studies, this source receives extended treatment here. This allows for a deeper understanding of the nature of Islamic law and its development, and, by extension, of Islam itself.
If the Qur'an is the first written formulation of Islam in general, Malik's Muwatta' is arguably the first written formulation of the Islam-in-practice that becomes Islamic law. This book considers the methods used by Malik in the Muwatta' to derive the judgements of the law from the Qur'an and is thus concerned on one level with the finer details of Qur'anic interpretation. However, since any discussion of the Qur'an in this context must also include considerations of the other main source of Islamic law, namely the sunna, or normative practice, of the Prophet, this latter concept, especially its relationship to the terms of hadith and amal (traditions and living tradition), also receives considerable attention, and in many respects, this book is more about the history and development of Islamic law than it is about the science of Qur'anic interpretation. This is the first book to question the hitherto accepted frameworks of both the classical Muslim view and the current revisionist western view on the development of Islamic law. It is also the first study in a European language to deal specifically with the early development of the Madinan, later Malik, school of jurisprudence, as it is also the first to demonstrate in detail the various methods used, both linguistic and otherwise, in interpreting the legal verses of the Qur'an. It will be of interest to all those interested in the underlying bases of Islamic law and culture, and of particular interest to those involved in studying and teaching Islamic studies, both at undergraduate and research level. It will also be of interest to those studying the relationship between orality and literacy in ancient societies and the writing down of ancient law.
Original Islam investigates the primacy of Madinan Islam and the madhhab (school of law) of its main exponent, Malik ibn Anas. It contains an annotated translation of Intisar al-faqir al-salik li-tarjih madhhab al-Imam al-kabir Malik, which was written by al-Ra'i, a fifteenth-century Andalusian scholar resident in Cairo. This book includes: a comprehensive section on the scholarly credentials of the great eighth-century Madinan jurist Malik ibn Anas a detailed examination of a number of theoretical and practical disputed legal issues examples of the inter-madhhab rivalry and prejudice prevalent in fifteenth-century Cairo an extensive introduction giving background information on al-Ra’i and his life and times. It also highlights the significance of the text for contemporary Muslim discourse, in which both "modernist" and "fundamentalist" elements often equate the concept of madhhab with an outmoded tradition which must be rejected as irrelevant to the practice of Islam in a globalized world. This book aims to put this ongoing controversy about madhhab, particularly the Maliki madhhab and its "pre-madhhab" Madinan origins, on a surer footing. Original Islam provides access to a hitherto little known area of Islamic law and is essential reading for those with interests in this area.
This book considers the methods used to derive the judgements of the law from the Qur'an, demonstrating in detail the various methods used, both linguistic and otherwise, in interpreting the legal verses.
This book is about the application of the Quran as law. It considers the methods used by Malik in his Muwatta to derive judgements from the Quran and is thus concerned on one level with the finer details of Quranic interpretation. However, since any discussion of the Quran in the context of the Muwatta must necessarily include consideration of the terms Sunnah, hadith, ijtihad and amal, these terms - or at least the concepts behind them - also receive considerable attention. Indeed, the argument of this book has more bearing on the history and development of Islamic law - of which the above terms are the expression - than on the science of Quranic interpretation. This study is an attempt to go back before the time of As-Shaafi and reconstruct a picture of how the most 'ancient' of the ancient' schools i.e that of Madina, approached the question of applying the Quran as law. This study divides naturally into three parts. The first gives the general contextual background o Madina which Is essential if one is to place Malik and his muwatta in their proper Madinan setting. Part two concerns the more specifically Quranic element in the muwatta. Part three is in the nature of a conclusory section where the commonly accepted axiom that Islamic law is based on the two-fold source of Quran and sunnah is re-examined in the light of the preceding chapters.
Introduction -- 1. The Man and His Family -- 2. His Teachers -- 3. The Muwatta' and Its Transmissions -- 4. The ' Amal of the People of Medina -- 5. Controversies, Ancient and Modern Conclusion Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.
This book considers the methods used to derive the judgements of the law from the Qur'an, demonstrating in detail the various methods used, both linguistic and otherwise, in interpreting the legal verses.
Original Islam investigates the primacy of Madinan Islam and the madhhab (school of law) of its main exponent, Malik ibn Anas. It contains an annotated translation of Intisar al-faqir al-salik li-tarjih madhhab al-Imam al-kabir Malik, which was written by al-Ra'i, a fifteenth-century Andalusian scholar resident in Cairo. This book includes: a comprehensive section on the scholarly credentials of the great eighth-century Madinan jurist Malik ibn Anas a detailed examination of a number of theoretical and practical disputed legal issues examples of the inter-madhhab rivalry and prejudice prevalent in fifteenth-century Cairo an extensive introduction giving background information on al-Ra’i and his life and times. It also highlights the significance of the text for contemporary Muslim discourse, in which both "modernist" and "fundamentalist" elements often equate the concept of madhhab with an outmoded tradition which must be rejected as irrelevant to the practice of Islam in a globalized world. This book aims to put this ongoing controversy about madhhab, particularly the Maliki madhhab and its "pre-madhhab" Madinan origins, on a surer footing. Original Islam provides access to a hitherto little known area of Islamic law and is essential reading for those with interests in this area.
This book considers the transmission of the Sunna through the lens of the great Madinan legal scholar, Imam Malik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH/795 CE), in his renowned book al-Muwatta', or 'The well-trodden path'. It considers not only the legal judgements preserved in this book, but also the key scholars involved in the transmission of these judgements, namely, Malik's teachers and students. These different transmissions provide very strong evidence for the reliability of Malik's transmission of the Sunna. Overriding these textual considerations is the concept of 'amal, or the Practice of the People of Medina. This is accepted as a prime source by Malik and those following him, but is effectively rejected by the other schools, who prefer hadith (textual reports) as an indication of Sunna. Given the contested nature of 'amal in both ancient and modern times, and the general unawareness of it in contemporary Islamic studies, this source receives extended treatment here. This allows for a deeper understanding of the nature of Islamic law and its development, and, by extension, of Islam itself.
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