# Why did Imam Malik sometimes reject authentic hadith? *'Our city does not act on this hadith': Malik and the hadith dogmatists* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/8/ - Date: 2023-03-10 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: The Legendary Imam Malik Ibn Anas | Mufti Abu Layth (31:02–37:24) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqVM47pNS0&t=1862s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/ **Topics:** Imam Malik; Sunnah versus hadith **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Malik would cite a hadith and say Madinah did not act on it, a devastating stance for later hadith-centred scholars, given his unmatched authority. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth calls Malik's saying that his city does not act upon a hadith a catastrophe for the later hadith dogmatists. **Evidence, his words at 31:37:** “so he says we in our city do not act upon this Hadith this is a catastrophic meteor hahaha in the face of the second wave mahadithin project” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhqVM47pNS0&t=1897s) ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth says Malik sometimes brings a hadith in the Muwatta and then says that in his city, Madinah, the city of the Prophet, they do not act upon it. He describes this as a catastrophic meteor for the second wave of hadith scholars, whose project centred on hadith, while Malik belonged to the first wave when hadith was being compiled. He says it is worse for them because of who said it, citing the hadith that people will travel far seeking knowledge and find none more knowledgeable than the scholar of Madinah, which many, Sufyan among them, applied to Malik, since by his old age he was the one scholar of Madinah to whom students came from Khurasan to al-Andalus. Coming from the holder of the golden chain, he says, such a statement was a bomb in the face of the later hadith dogmatists. ## Sources and names cited - Imam Malik - al-Muwatta - 'amal ahl al-madinah (the practice of the people of Madinah) - report: people will not find anyone more knowledgeable than the scholar of madinah - Sufyan [?] - silsilat al-dhahab (the golden chain) ## Transcript (machine tier, 31:02–37:24) [30:23] and you say well what's the problem with him speaking doesn't Imam turmidi speaks in history he says well such and such scholar acted according to this Hadith such and such didn't he says well such and such person is weak such and such person so that's fine you know it's not a uh I would I would sometimes speaks in his uh Imam bukhari sometimes speaks in his book so what's the problem with speaking well it's not speaking per se it's what's being spoke [Laughter] [31:01] Imam Malik brings the Hadith not always but he brings the Hadith and then he says we don't act according to this Hadith he says he says you know this Hadith we in our city and here I ask you what city in our city in this city in the one that counts [31:37] in the city of the prophet no other City matters it is just Madina full stop so he says we in our city do not act upon this Hadith this is a catastrophic meteor hahaha in the face of the second wave mahadithin project this attitude [32:16] so Imam Malik is the part of the first wave of where Hadith is being developed uh not developed it is is development is the Proto stage but now it's being compiled and written and and they are part and parcel of the Hadith project the first era a first wave the second wave is the Mahadev theme like all these people and these people so in the first wave Imam Malik has said this with in the second wave it is all about the Hadith project [32:54] to bring a Hadith and say well according in our city we don't practice this you know there's no action this Hadith is not to be actioned in our city Allah that's that's a collision of biblical proportions people for the Hadith dogmatists this is why but then you could say well what makes this worse or more complicated is the person who's saying [33:33] it see the person who's saying it is Allah see now Imam Malik in the Islamic Legacy is a force of nature he is that the prophet said that there will be a time you shook that there is almost a time it's almost here it's not here but it's almost [34:12] where people will start to rush to seek knowledge they will be you know like a a gold rush they will be an elmrush a knowledge Rush people will come from Far distances to seek knowledge in that time foreign but in that age they will not find anyone more knowledgeable than the Alim of [34:50] shortly after the sahaba's time in the turbine time in the late turbine time this culture began where people started to travel to seek knowledge and they say there was never in such an era they were either let's say just shortly before Imam Malik many people in Medina so there was never a scholar that people referred to as the designated skarov Madina they were the for example Imam Malik's teachers [35:28] you know that's the poet says and so uh these they were these many ulama of Medina but in Malik's time which is the same time he's growing up but as he grows into an older man and they've all passed away and this era has fully blossomed people are traveling from Horizon people are coming from uh Uzbekistan people are coming from people are coming from andalus Muslim Spain to seek knowledge in that time [36:08] there was only one scholar in Medina and that was referred to as that was Imam Malik this is why many Allama said Sophia the other people said we understood this Hadith to be embodied in Imam Malik see this is the status of Malik when it comes to [36:43] untouchable when it comes to Hadith he's Amir now what do you do with a guy like that when he says oh this Hadith who's transmitting it I'm transmitting it what Senate are you transmitting it with golden chain nobody can beat this on Earth he says oh yeah that Hadith there is no action upon this Hadith in our city maybe in your city there is but in our city the city of the Prophet we don't act according to that ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment VhqVM47pNS0/s/8. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/8/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.