# Why do you call yourself a Maliki?

*Why he calls himself Maliki: the lens of the school of Medina*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/27/
- Date: 2021-01-12 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #197 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (1:41:27–1:46:32)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=6087s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/

**Topics:** The Maliki school; Legal theory and method

**Question as asked:** Why do you call yourself Maliki?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth calls himself Maliki because he follows the lens of the school of Medina: the Quran at the centre, Medinan practice, reason and the aims of the shari'ah.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says the school of Medina placed the Quran centrally, gave precedence to the inherited practice of Medina and held reason to be vital.

**Evidence, his words at 1:42:06:** “in the school of medina it was about placing the quran centrally and then the inherited practice of medina took precedence and reason was always vital in determining that” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgHntbMPis&t=6126s)

## Longer summary

Asked why he calls himself Maliki, Mufti Abu Layth says it is because he is Maliki: schools are inherited understandings of how to practise Islam, a lens through which the view changes with place and time while the lens stays the same. He says the lens of the school of Medina places the Quran centrally, gives precedence to the inherited practice of Medina and treats reason as vital, giving Imam Malik's questioning of the hadith on the dog and the vessel as an example. He traces the tradition from the Prophet through the companions and their children to Malik's teachers, and says the maqasid of the shari'ah are really a Maliki thing, citing al-Shatibi [?] and the nawazil literature, and al-Burzuli's fatwa some 700 years ago changing capital punishments into financial penalties. He says Imam Malik never gave such rulings, but that the way of thinking goes back to the city of the Prophet, which Malikis pride themselves on.

## Sources and names cited

- Maliki (the school of Medina)
- Imam Malik
- report: if a dog licks the vessel of one of you wash it seven times
- maqasid al-shari'ah
- al-Shatibi [?]
- Abu al-Qasim al-Burzuli
- nawazil

## Transcript (machine tier, 1:41:27–1:46:32)

[1:40:50] one may work for such a company indeed indeed these things are not haram in my understanding mufti why you called yourself maliki that's a good question because i'm sorry just reading one of the other comments okay people behave in the comments behave and if any of them are uh trying to be rude to the mods mods

[1:41:26] you can block them okay so right um why call myself maliki that's a a good question it's because i am maliki you see in islam there were understandings of islam that were inherited and they have then how you practice islam how you pray how you do things your way of looking at the your kind of lens not neces you see the lens doesn't mean that the view is always the same because you and your geographical location will

[1:42:06] always change and it will change temporally as well so what we're talking about is the lens is the same so in the school of medina it was about placing the quran centrally and then the inherited practice of medina took precedence and reason was always vital in determining that hence when the hadith is there and imam malik in the madonna says about the the dog and and the bowl and this

[1:42:43] impurity very famous hadith we don't know what it's all about you know how can something that this dog hunts be halal and yet it's sliver be impermissible that doesn't make any sense see reason was a very important point now this manhattan this way of looking was kind of set out by the scholars of medina vocalized by imam malik obviously he learned it from his teachers

[1:43:21] who learned it from the their teachers who would have been the children of the companions who learned it from the companion who learned it from the prophet so this is why and that tradition then kind of dispersed throughout the globe there were many schools that belong to the school of medina all adding the interesting takes on it over time taking a look at things questioning narratives you had the you know right throughout the ages this was the same school that was the first school to expand on sharia that the sharia's objectives and if the objectives are not being met then that's a problem you need to make

[1:44:01] sure that you meet the objectives the makasi the sharia really is a maliki thing you know it's uh you right from whether it's going to be right back then a shot to be from a landlord's coming right down to shaykh allah this is whether it's going to be the nawazil challenging the fatawa of the day and age where benefit where musliha where welfare is looked at so whether it was going to be um saying that we need to change the capital punishments of his day and age

[1:44:40] 700 years ago into uh penalty financial penalties or whether it was going to be his great grandson um ibn ardun um who said about women's inheritance needs to be 50 and the wife's inheritance is 50 giving that ruling i mean so this is nothing new there's a legacy of challenging now one could say when abu qasim al-burzulli gave that fatwa of changing the capital punishments and many maliki after one could say well imam malik never gave it of course he didn't we're not just

[1:45:17] you see it's a way of thinking you have a kind of lens it's like we look through this this we're wearing a particular kind of a set of glasses it doesn't mean what we look at will always be the same we will look at things from different perspectives different altitudes from different time scales but that lens is similar so yes it does go back to the school of medina and the city of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and that's something we pride ourselves on allah

[1:45:55] not like these other people whether it's going back to kufa or going back to a different city or like some going back to [Laughter] the worst of places just a barren desert right so it's not going back this going back to the city of the prophet so that's why i'm a maliki you know i had um um i mean i i feel this is is fine to say um it's it's not in any negative light but i had um

[1:46:31] send me a message in which was um parts of it were reasonably polite and parts of it were quite challenging in saying look you know you uh um he was saying that look on certain things i could make sense like let's say but why is it i deny the evil eye and then if that's the case and i think this is an interesting question because many people may ask this why is it if i deny the evil eye then i still associate and allude to scholars like ibn ashur or imam malik

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 1zgHntbMPis/s/27. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/1zghntbmpis/s/27/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.