# Was Imam Malik an ascetic?

*A wealthy cloth merchant who enjoyed fine clothes and meat*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/6/
- Date: 2023-03-10 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: The Legendary Imam Malik Ibn Anas | Mufti Abu Layth (23:27–26:01)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqVM47pNS0&t=1407s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/

**Topics:** Imam Malik; Gratitude, giving and contentment

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** No: Imam Malik was a wealthy merchant who enjoyed fine clothes and daily meat, unlike the ascetic tradition, and was criticised for it.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says Imam Malik was not from the ascetic tradition in Islam; he enjoyed the wealth God had given him.

**Evidence, his words at 24:44:** “there is a tradition like that in Islam but Imam Malik was not from that tradition he spent money he enjoyed money” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqVM47pNS0&t=1484s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says Malik became a very successful trader, a cloth merchant whose investments were traded in Madinah, and that he spent his wealth on expensive clothes and enjoyed what God had given him without shyness. He says there is an ascetic tradition in Islam of abstaining from the dunya, but Malik was not from it. He says Malik ate meat daily, holding that it kept people strong so that people of faith had a presence and their talk of the deen carried awe, and that he was criticised for this as indulgence.

## Sources and names cited

- Imam Malik
- zuhd (asceticism)

## Transcript (machine tier, 23:27–26:01)

[23:26] not only that perfectly um instantiates this this debate of Hadith versus Sunnah so these were um Imam Malik's his teachers some of his teachers he he lived in Medina he was a Trader as he grew up he got into trade he was incredibly successful um in trade people said he would um he was a merchant in cloth and things like that he would have Investments coming to Madina he would then trade them in Medina and he made a lot of money from it so he was wealthy and he

[24:05] took to it to spend money as well he would buy himself expensive suits he would he would spend money he was he was like very not only wealthy but he he enjoyed the world that Allah had given him and he and he took pride in that he wasn't shy about it so sometimes we do have a tradition in Islam where people are very they prefer to almost a a hermetic a hermetics or a hermit kind of or an asceticism that to abstain from the Dunya so there are

[24:44] there is a tradition like that in Islam but Imam Malik was not from that tradition he spent money he enjoyed money he uh was known to really he was particular about his food as well he would always eat meat I don't think the vegans would have liked him for that matter always on a daily basis he would he said that that meat helps people maintain a strong posture I guess protein is what he was talking

[25:22] about and he said well it would keep people strong and the faith would if they were people of Faith then people around them felt their presence and by feeling their presence the faith had a presence as in when they spoke of the Deen it had an awe to it so he was very and he was criticized a lot about this kind of stuff so he did he did speak about that let me just oh this I see this just moved yeah so he did um he did do that that was um

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment VhqVM47pNS0/s/6. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/6/

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