Recordings › The Legendary Imam Malik Ibn Anas | Mufti Abu Layth · 10 Mar 2023 › Segment 12 of 14
Why was Imam Malik flogged?
aqidah aqeedah aqida theology aqeeda aqaid hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas imaam imams prayer leader masjed masaajid masajid maaliki malikite malikiyyah maliki school fatwah fatawa fatwaa fataawa legal opinion muftis hukm ahkam hukum hukam ahkaam haraam forbidden mubah mubaah khalifah khalifa khulafa khilafah khilafat khilafa madina al-madinah madeenah yathrib talaaq triple talaq talakThe revolt of al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, the coerced divorce, and Malik's flogging
Most recent answer on Umayyads and Abbasids21 earlier answers on this topic, oldest 2018 ↓
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This segment49:58 to 57:27 · 7 min 29 sGeneral teaching
What this part covers
machinesummary, machine-writtenMalik was flogged for refusing to stop transmitting that a coerced divorce is invalid, which undercut forced oaths of allegiance to the Abbasids.
In more detail
Mufti Abu Layth says Malik, though not fond of revolutions, implicitly lent support to the revolt of Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya when people asked whether they could break an allegiance to the Abbasid caliph given under coercion: he ruled that the divorce of a coerced person is not a divorce and transmitted it as a hadith through Ibn Abbas, the Abbasids' own ancestor. When ordered to stop, he refused, and he was beaten, publicly whipped and paraded on a donkey in Madinah, where he never rode, though the rulers later apologised and he held no grudge. He says Malik did not attend the mosque for the last twenty-five years of his life, saying he did not want to see things that would make him speak and cause problems; Mufti doubts this was due to ill health from the beating, since Malik taught at home for hours until his death. He relates Malik's advice never to give up teaching, saying it made him think he must teach again.
Position stated
Mufti Abu Layth says he doubts Malik stayed away from the mosque because of ill health, since he kept teaching at home for hours until his death.
“some people say maybe it was because he his health was really bad after the beating and I doubt it I mean it could be but then he used to teach at home”
Category: historical claim
Kind: general teachingTranscript
machine49:58 to 57:27 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
and the areas he said that this is certainly where the Prophet so he said that I find it just out of his love this is not an Islamic ruling he said that this that this is where the Prophet set foot so I find it just in myself unacceptable to wear shoes not that he he didn't he didn't object to people doing that he refused to ride any uh ride a horse or a you know a mule or a donkey or anything in those parts of Medina out of love for the prophet sallallahu
you know this is why well when they tried to torture him they tried to punish him so later on Imam Malik gets into some not trouble but that well there's a Revolution going on and Muhammad enough zakiya's Revolution and we could speak about that another day and Imam Malik he's not fond of revolutions but he implicitly lends some support because people say well look
they say well is it permissible we want to we want to support the revolution but we have already pledged our allegiance to and the Abbasi caliph at the time and is it haram and then people had said to them well were you happy when present when you pledged Your Allegiance and they said well we weren't really happy about it we were we were somewhat coerced we had no choice and they asked Imam Malik can you give a
ruling and Imam Malik he wasn't political he didn't want to get involved but he understood the quandary and their dilemma so he said look he said the talaq of a person who is coerced is not a talaq make of that what you will and then he transmitted it as a Hadith which is a Hadith from who from IBN Abbas and who are the rulers
and they said to Imam Malik you're not allowed to transmit you've got to stop transmitting this hubby but the divorce of a coerced person is not a divorce and Malik said but why not he said if you ask me to not get involved in things sure but to not transmit the words of the prophet he said who Do You Think You Are tomorrow
to say Do not transmit the words of the prophet and on purpose Imam Malik transmitted this chain he used the chain going through ibrahamas to say that look for your greed you built this caliphate on the back of IBN Abbas and his teaching of the Prophet today you will sabotage for your Creed let that be a lesson to you let you drop your head and hang your head in shame
and they what they did is they did they beat Imam Malik for that and one of the punishments they did is they made him sit on a donkey and ride that donkey in Medina and Imam Malik would never ride a beast or a donkey or a horse or a mule inside matinee in the inner part of Medina and they made him do it as in they tied him up and put him on this donkey and just as a kind of humiliation
but honor and humiliation is ultimately from Allah today look at the name of him where are those abbasically and those governors that try to humiliate him they apologized later on they tried to apologize to him and say that ah you know said look I'm I don't hold no grudges what's happened to Sam they whipped him
publicly um they they beat him severely publicly and he he he stood he took it they never and then he just kind of kept himself to him see the thing was Imam Malik didn't like the politics he didn't like the bureaucracy even regular things people get shocked that Imam Malik for the last 25 years of his life didn't even attend the local Masjid he did used to teach though at home but he just didn't now people say well why didn't he attend the Masjid why didn't he and then this disturbs them
you see because they have a and say well maybe it's because he was sick maybe but he could teach at home but he it seems that when he was asked about this in one of the narrations he just says that look he says I I don't want to see something that irritates me because then I I can't help but speak if I speak I'm going to create problems what tell you you guys live your life I'm gonna live my life
and that's what it seems to be some people say maybe it was because he his health was really bad after the beating and I doubt it I mean it could be but then he used to teach at home he continues to teach up until his he dedicated so much time so it's not like people say oh he couldn't control his he had incontinence couldn't control his urine if that was the case how was he teaching Hadith at home for hours upon hours he would teach new teach fatwa he would teach all these things right up until his his dying breath so to me it doesn't
seem that but sure people could um could say that and he was uh one of the things that he he had this Integrity about teaching and he did used to say and this it made me think as well you know I came across this recently and I thought yeah I have to start again you know Imam Maliki said that anybody who's who's learned something he said whatever happens never give up teaching says no matter
you know where and how you find yourself in life never let go of the path of teaching yeah I came across this recently and I came across it again recently and I thought I have to teach again [Laughter] ah there is something about about the Legacy
foreign as the poet says that these are titles and these are words they don't increase them in any any kind of Value Inn you know we mention it because it gives us a it gives us a pleasure an enjoyment but I I will continue more about uh Imam Malik but what we can see is there was this man who
Paragraphs overlapping 49:58 to 57:27. Full text on the recording page.
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Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2023-03-10-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/12/ (accessed 1 November 2026)
- APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2023, March 10). Why was Imam Malik flogged? [Video, segment 2023-03-10-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/12/
- Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2023. "Why was Imam Malik flogged?" Video, segment 2023-03-10-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded March 10, 2023. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/12/
- BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2023-03-10-S12, author = {Mufti Abu Layth}, title = {{Why was Imam Malik flogged?}}, year = {2023}, month = {3}, date = {2023-03-10}, howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/12/}}, url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/12/}, organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive}, urldate = {2026-11-01}, note = {Segment 2023-03-10-S12, auto-transcribed, may contain errors} }
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