Tribal Prejudice was very strong. Everyone imagined that he came from the noblest stock. The Advent of Prophet Muhammad 
and the coming of Islam would change the Arabs way of life and thinking.
Tribal Prejudice was very strong. Everyone imagined that he came from the noblest stock. The Advent of Prophet Muhammad and the coming of Islam would change the Arabs way of life and thinking.
For centuries, the Ottoman sultans did not place much emphasis on their role as caliphs. It was an official title that was called in to use when needed, but was mostly neglected. During the decline of the empire in the 1800s, however, a sultan came to power that would decide to revive the importance and power of the caliphate. Abdülhamid II was determined to reverse the retreat of the Ottoman state, and decided that the best way to do it was through the revival of Islam throughout the Muslim world and pan-Islamic unity, centered on the idea of a strong caliphate. While Abdülhamid’s 33-year reign did not stop the inevitable fall of the empire, he managed to give the Ottomans a final period of relative strength in the face of European encroachment and colonialism, with Islam being the central focus of his empire.
Islamic Reform
The Ottoman Empire in 1878
Throughout the 1800s, the Ottoman government had been trying desperately to slow the decline of the empire. Beginning with Mahmud II and throughout the reigns of Abdülmecid and Abdülaziz, attempts at reforming the empire were at the forefront of the government agenda. These Tanzimat (reorganization) reforms attempted to rebuild the Ottoman state along liberal, European lines. Islam (and religion in general) was given a back seat in public life, as secular ideas began to influence laws and government practices.
These reforms proved to do nothing to reverse the decline of the empire. If anything, the increased emphasis on non-Islamic identities of Ottoman subjects just further promoted the nationalistic aims of the Ottoman Empire’s numerous subjects, which created further disunity in the empire. During the Tanzimat Era, the Ottoman provinces of Serbia, Greece, Wallachia, Modova, Abkhazia, Bulgaria, and Algeria were all lost to European encroachment or nationalism.
Abdülhamid decided to take a radically different approach. Because of the loss of European territory that had occurred just before and in the first few years of his reign, the empire was now overwhelmingly Muslim. Throughout Ottoman history, Christians had been a major part of the population, at some times being about 80% of the population. Throughout the 1800s, however, the Ottoman Empire was losing Christian-majority lands in Europe, and was getting a net influx of Muslim immigrants coming into the empire. With about 3/4th of his empire Muslim, Abdülhamid decided to emphasize Islam as the dominant uniting factor among his subjects.
Tughra of Abdulhamid II
The rest of Europe was experiencing powerful nationalistic movements in the 1800s. Pan-Slavism and Pan-Germanism were examples of uniting factors for people who spoke the same languages and had similar cultures. The Ottoman empire had always been multi-cultural. Turks, Arabs, Albanians, Bosnians, Kurds, Armenians, and many others made up the empire. Abdülhamid attempted to make Pan-Islamism a uniting factor for Muslims, both inside and outside of the empire’s borders.
To show his role as supreme leader of Muslims worldwide, Abdülhamid placed much emphasis on the holy sites of Makkah and Madinah. In the 1800s, a building program commenced in the holy cities, with hospitals, barracks, and infrastructure being built in the Hejaz to aid in the yearly gathering of Muslims in Makkah – the Hajj. The Ka’aba itself and the Masjid al-Haram that surrounded it were also renovated with a modern water system that helped reduce the severity of floods.
In 1900, Abdülhamid commenced the beginning of the Hejaz Railway. It began in Istanbul and traveled through Syria, Palestine, and the Arabian desert, ending in Madinah. The goal of the railway was to better connect the holy sites with the political authority of Istanbul, as well as make the pilgrimage easier. To show his emphasis on the protection of Makkah and Madinah, Abdülhamid decided that the gauge (width of the rails) of the Hejaz Railway should be slightly smaller than standard European ones. His reasoning for this was that if Istanbul were to ever fall to European imperialists, he wanted to make sure they could not use the Hejaz Railway with European trains to easily invade Makkah and Madinah.
Non-Ottoman Muslims
Throughout Ottoman history, there have been examples of the sultans helping Muslim communities outside their borders whenever the opportunity arose and the Ottoman state was capable. For example, in the 1500s, the Ottoman navy was a key force in the Indian Ocean, aiding local Muslims fighting Portuguese colonialism as far away as India and Indonesia. Abdülhamid considered it his duty to do the same in the 1800s, especially since large populations of Muslims in Africa and Asia were under European imperial control.
The opening of the Hamidiye University in Beijing
Delegations were sent to African Muslim kingdoms such as Zanzibar, giving gifts from Abdülhamid and asking them to acknowledge the caliph as their protector against European imperialism. Similar delegations were sent to Muslims living within Russian and Chinese borders.
In 1901, Abdülhamid sent one of his advisors, Enver Pasha, along with numerous Islamic scholars, to China. When they arrived in Shanghai, they were warmly greeted by the Chinese authorities, and especially so by the local Chinese Muslims, who had lived in China for centuries. Abdülhamid later helped establish a Muslim university in Beijing, called the Peking (Beijing) Hamidiye University. Even as far away as China, Abdülhamid wanted to create a sense of belonging and unity among Muslims, centered on the caliphate.
Abdülhamid’s efforts resulted in the caliph of the Muslim world being acknowledged in Friday prayers from small towns throughout Africa to the major Muslim communities of India and China.
The Issue of Palestine
In the late 1800s, a potent nationalist movement was forming among European Jews: Zionism. Zionist ideology called for a Jewish state to be established in their ancient homeland, Palestine. Although European Jews were dispersed throughout Europe, the unique financial and political power of numerous Jewish families was able to make Zionism a major force in the late 1800s.
In the late 1800s, Sultan Abdülhamid II attempted to bring back the Islamic character of the Ottoman Empire.
Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement, personally requested from Abdülhamid II special permission to settle in Palestine, in exchange for 150 million pounds of gold, which could have helped the Ottomans repay their enormous debts. Herzl’s aims were not to settle there and live under Ottoman authority, he clearly wanted to establish a Jewish state carved out of Muslim lands (as of course happened in 1948). Abdülhamid realized that his role as caliph required him to protect the sanctity and sovereignty of Muslim land, so he responded to Herzl with the following:
Even if you gave me as much gold as the entire world, let alone the 150 million English pounds in gold, I would not accept this at all. I have served the Islamic milla [nation] and the Ummah of Muhammad for more than thirty years, and never did I blacken the pages of the Muslims- my fathers and ancestors, the Ottoman sultans and caliphs. And so I will never accept what you ask of me.
He further prevented the purchase of tracts of land within Palestine by Zionist organizations, ensuring that their attempts at establishing a foothold there were futile. Ultimately, the Zionists were allowed to purchase land and settle in Palestine after the reign of Abdülhamid II, when the Young Turk movement was in charge of the Ottoman Empire.
Legacy
Abdülhamid II was the last of the Ottoman sultans who had any real power. He was overthrown in 1909 by a group known as the Young Turks. They were Western-educated liberal secularists who vehemently disagreed with the Islamic direction that Abdülhamid took the empire in from 1876 to 1909. After his overthrow, his brother Mehmed Reshad was chosen as sultan by the Young Turks, but he effectively had no power, and the empire was run by an oligarchy of three ministers in the Young Turk government.
Three more people held the office of caliph after Abdülhamid II: Mehmed V, Mehmed VI, and Abdülmecid II, none of which had any power. In 1924, the caliphate was abolished by the new Turkish parliament and Abdülmecid and the rest of the Ottoman family were forced into exile. As such, Abdülhamid II was the last of the caliphs to have had any power over the Muslim world. The tradition of a strong, in charge caliph that commenced with Abu Bakr in 632 was upheld by Abdülhamid in the late 1800s before finally being overthrown by liberal elements within the empire.
Abdülhamid II died in Istanbul in 1918, and was buried in a mausoleum along with Sultans Mahmud II and Abdülaziz near Sultanahmet Square.
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Lessons from the history of Islam – Lecture by Ahmad Ayad
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Imam Shafi`i, who was one of Malik’s students for nine years and a scholarly giant in his own right, stated, “when scholars are mentioned, Malik is the star.”
The second of the four major mujtahid imams, whose school filled North Africa, al-Andalus, much of Egypt, and some of al-Sham, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, and Khurasan.
Imam Malik is the author of al-Muwatta’ (“The Approved”), formed of the sound narrations of the Prophet from the people of the Hijaz together with the sayings of the Companions, the Followers, and those after them. It was hailed by al-Shafi`i as the soundest book on earth after the Qur’an, nearest book on earth to the Qur’an, most correct book on earth after the Qur’an, and most beneficial book on earth after the Qur’an according to four separate narrations.
Among those Malik narrated from in the Muwatta’: Ayyub al-Sakhtyani, Ja`far ibn Muhammad (al-Sadiq), Zayd ibn Aslam, `Ata’ al-Khurasani, al-Zuhri, Ibn al-Munkadir, `Alqama, Nafi` the freedman of Ibn `Umar, and others. Among those who narrated from Malik: al-Zuhri, Ibn Jurayj, Abu Hanifa, al-Awza`i, Sufyan al-Thawri, Shu`ba, Ibn al-Mubarak, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, `Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, Waki`, Yahya al-Qattan, al-Shafi`i, Ibn Wahb, Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi, `Abd al-Razzaq, and many others.
The Prophet said: “Very soon will people beat the flanks of camels in search of knowledge, and they shall find no-one more knowledgeable than the knowledgeable scholar of Madina.” Al-Tirmidhi, al-Qadi `Iyad, Dhahabi and others relate from Sufyan ibn `Uyayna, `Abd al-Razzaq, Ibn Mahdi, Ibn Ma`in, Dhu’ayb ibn `Imama, Ibn al-Madini, and others that they considered that scholar to be Malik ibn Anas. It is also related from Ibn `Uyayna that he later considered it to be `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-`Aziz al-`Umari. Al-Dhahabi said of the latter: “He possessed knowledge and good fiqh, spoke the truth fearlessly, ordered good, and remained aloof from society. He used to press Malik in private to renounce the world and seclude himself.”
Abu Mus`ab said: “Malik did not pray in congregation [in the Prophet’s mosque] for twenty-five years. He was asked: ‘What is preventing you?’ He said: ‘Lest I see something reprehensible and be obligated to change it.’” Another narration from Abu Mus`ab states: “After Malik left the [Prophet’s] mosque he used to pray in his house with a congregation that followed him, and he prayed the Jum`a prayer alone in his house.” Ibn Sa`d narrates from Muhammad ibn `Umar: “Malik used to come to the Mosque and pray the prayers and the Jum`a, as well as the funeral prayers. He used to visit the sick and sit in the Mosque where his companions would came and saw him. Then he quit sitting there, instead he would pray and leave, and he quit attending the funeral prayers. Then he quit everything, neither attending the prayers nor the Jum`a in the mosque. Nor would he visit anyone who was sick or other than that. The people bore with it, for they were extremely fond of him and respected him too much. This lasted until he died. If asked about it, he said: ‘Not everyone can mention his excuse.’”
Ibn `Abd al-Barr said that Malik was the first who compiled a book formed exclusively of sound narrations. Abu Bakr ibn al-`Arabi said: “The Muwatta’ is the first foundation and the core, while al-Bukhari’s book is the second foundation in this respect. Upon these two all the rest have built, such as Muslim and al-Tirmidhi.” Shah Wali Allah said something similar and added that it is the principal authority of all four Schools of Law, which stand in relation to it like the commentary stands in relation to the main text. Malik composed it in the course of forty years, having started with ten thousand narrations until he reduced them to their present number of under 2,000.
Imam Malik is the connection of the entire Islamic Community to the knowledge of the Sunna as it was preserved by the scholars of the Prophet’s city, al-Madina. This reference-point of his school of jurisprudence is observed time and again in the Muwatta’ with the phrase: “And this is what I have found (or seen) the people of knowledge practicing.” He was keenly aware of his mission as both the transmitter and the elucidator of the Sunna. This is characteristic of his students’ praise of him, beginning with al-Shafi`i’s famous sayings: “No-one constitutes as great a favor to me in Allah’s Religion as Malik” and “When the scholars of knowledge are mentioned, Malik is the guiding star.” `Abd Allah ibn Wahb said: “Every memorizer of hadith that does not have an Imam in fiqh is misguided (dâll), and if Allah had not rescued us with Malik and al-Layth (ibn Sa`d), I would have been misguided.” Abu Mus`ab recounts the following story:
I went in to see Malik ibn Anas. He said to me: “Look under my place of prayer or prayer-mat and see what is there.” I looked and found a certain writing. He said: “Read it.” It contained the account of a dream which one of his brothers had seen and which concerned him. Malik recited it [from memory]: “I saw the Prophet in my sleep. He was in his mosque and the people were gathered around him, and he said: ‘I have hidden for you under my pulpit (minbar) something good – or: knowledge – and I have ordered Malik to distribute it to the people.’” Then Malik wept, so I got up and left him.
The caliph Abu Ja`far al-Mansur had forbidden Malik to narrate the hadith: “The divorce of the coerced does not take effect” (laysa `ala mustakrahin / li mukrahin talâq). Then a spy came to Malik and asked him about the issue, whereupon Malik narrated the hadith in front of everyone. He was seized and lashed until his shoulder was dislocated and he passed out. When he came to, he said: “He [al-Mansur] is absolved of my lashing.” When asked why he had absolved him, Malik replied: “I feared to meet the Prophet after being the cause for the perdition of one of his relatives.” Ibrahim ibn Hammad said he saw Malik being carried up and walking away, carrying one of his hands with the other. Then they shaved his face and he was mounted on a camel and paraded. He was ordered to deprecate himself aloud, whereupon he said: “Whoever knows me, knows me; whoever does not know me, my name is Malik ibn Anas, and I say: The divorce of the coerced is null and void!” When news of this reached Ja`far ibn Sulayman (d. 175) the governor of Madina and cousin of al-Mansur, he said: “Bring him down, let him go.”
Imam Malik held the hadith of the Prophet in such reverence that he never narrated anything nor gave a fatwa unless in a state of ritual purity. Isma`il ibn Abi Uways said: “I asked my uncle û Malik û about something. He bade me sit, made ablution, sat on the couch, and said: la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. He did not give a fatwa except he said it first.” Al-Haytham said: “I heard Malik being asked forty eight questions, to thirty-two of which he replied: ‘I do not know.’” Abu Mus`ab reported that Malik said: “I did not give fatwas before seventy scholars first witnessed to my competence to do it.”
Malik’s ethics, together with the states of awe and emotion which were observed on him by his entourage, were no doubt partly inherited from great shaykhs of his such as Ja`far al-Sadiq, Ibn Hurmuz, and Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri. He visited his shaykh Ibn Hurmuz (d. 148) every day from morning to night for a period of about eight years and recounts: “I would come to Ibn Hurmuz, whereupon he would order the servant to close the door and let down the curtain, then he would start speaking of the beginning of this Umma, and tears would stream down his beard.” The Maliki shaykh Ibn Qunfudh al-Qusantini (d. 810) wrote:
It was the practice of the Pious Predecessors and the Imams of the past that whenever the Prophet was mentioned in their presence they were overwhelmed by reverence, humbleness, stillness, and dignity. Ja`far ibn Muhammad ibn `Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn `Ali ibn Abi Talib would turn pale whenever he heard the Prophet mentioned. Imam Malik would not mention a hadith except in a state of ritual purity. `Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr al-Siddiq would turn red and stammer whenever he heard the Prophet mentioned. As for `Amir ibn `Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al-`Awamm al-Asadi (one of the early Sufis), he would weep until his eyes had no tears left in them. When any hadiths were mentioned in their presence they would lower their voices. Malik said: “The Prophet’s sacredness(hurma) is in death is as his sacredness was in life.”
Qutayba said: “When we went to see Malik, he would come out to us adorned, wearing kuhl on his eyes, perfumed, wearing his best clothes, sit at the head of the circle, call for palm-leaf fans, and give each one of us a fan.” Muhammad ibn `Umar: “Malik’s circle was a circle of dignity and courtesy. He was a man of majestic countenance and noblity. There was no part for self-display, vain talk, or loud speech in his circle. His reader would read for all, and no-one looked into his own book, nor asked questions, out of awe before Malik and out of respect for him.”
When the caliph al-Mahdi sent his sons Harun and Musa to learn from Malik, the latter would not read to them but told them: “The people of Madina read before the scholar just like children read to the teacher, and if they make a mistake, he corrects them.” Similarly when Harun al-Rashid with his own two sons requested Malik to read for them, he replied: “I have stopped reading for anybody a long time ago.” When Harun requested the people to leave so that he could read freely before Malik, the latter also refused and said: “If the common people are forbidden to attend because of the particulars, the latter will not profit.” It is known that Malik’s way in the transmission of hadith, like Ibn al-Musayyib, `Urwa, al-Qasim, Salim, Nafi`, al-Zuhri, and others, was `ard (“reading by the student”) and not samâ` (“audition from the shaykh”), although the student states by convention, in both cases: “So-and-so narrated to us.”
The caliph Harun al-Rashid said to Malik after hearing his answers to certain questions he put to him: “You are, by Allah! the wisest of people and the most knowledgeable of people.” Malik replied: “No, by Allah! O Leader of the Believers.” He said: “Yes! But you keep it hidden. By Allah! If I live, I shall put your sayings in writing like the mushafs are put down in writing, and I shall disseminate them to the ends of the world.” But Malik refused.
When one of the caliphs manifested his intention to replace the Prophet’s wooden pulpit with a pulpit of silver and jewels Malik said: “I do not consider good the hindrance of the people from access to the Prophet’s relics.” (lâ ara an yuhrama al-nâsu athara rasulillah.)
From Ibn Wahb: “The saying has reached me that none renounces the world and guards himself except he will speak wisdom.”
From Ibn Wahb: “Knowledge diminishes and does not increase. Knowledge has diminished incessantly after the Prophets and the Books.”
From `Abd Allah ibn `Abd al-Hakam: “The Companions differed in the Branches (al-furû`) and split into factions (tafarraqû), and each one of them was correct in himself.”
From Ja`far ibn `Abd Allah: “We were with Malik when a man came and asked him: ‘O Abu `Abd Allah! “The Merciful is established over the Throne” (20:5): how is He established?’ Nothing affected Malik as much as that man’s question. He looked at the ground and started prodding it with a twig he held in his hand until he was completely soaked in sweat. Then he lifted his head and said: ‘The “how” of it is inconceivable; the “establishment” part of it is not unknown; belief in it is obligatory; asking about it is an innovation; and I believe that you are a man of innovation.’ Then he gave an order and the man was led out.” From Ibn Wahb: “We were with Malik when a man asked him: ‘O Abu `Abd Allah! “The Merciful is established over the Throne” (20:5): how is His establishment?’ Malik lowered his head and began to sweat profusely. Then he lifted up his head and said: ‘”The Merciful is established over the Throne” just as He described Himself. One cannot ask “how.” “How” does not apply to Him. And you are an evil man, a man of innovation. Take him out!’ The man was led out.” From Yahya ibn Yahya al-Tamimi and Malik’s shaykh Rabi`a ibn Abi `Abd al-Rahman: “We were with Malik when a man came and asked him: ‘O Abu `Abd Allah! “The Merciful is established over the Throne” (20:5): how is He established?’ Malik lowered his head and remained thus until he was completely soaked in sweat. Then he said: ‘The establishment is not unknown; the “how” is inconceivable; belief in it is obligatory; asking about it is an innovation; and I do not think that you are anything but an innovator.’ Then he ordered that the man be led out.”
From Ma`n: “Disputation (al-jidâl) in the Religion fosters self-display, does away with the light of the heart and hardens it, and bequeaths aimless wandering.”
From Ma`n and others: “There are four types of narrators one does not take from: An outright scoffer, even if he is the greatest narrator; an innovator who invites people to his innovation; someone who lies about people, even if I do not charge him with mendacity in hadith; and a righteous, honorable worshipper if he does not memorize what he narrates.” Malik’s last clause refers to the two conditions sine qua non of the trustworthy narrator, who must possess not only moral uprightness (`adâla) but also accuracy in transmission (dabt). The clause elucidates the paradox current among hadith scholars whereby “No-one lies more than the righteous.” The reason for this is that the righteous do not doubt the Muslim’s attribution of a saying to his Prophet, and so they accept it without suspicion, whereas al-Shafi`i said: “If Malik had the slightest doubt about a hadith, he discarded the entire hadith.”
Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr said: “The manner of the righteous who narrate everything indiscriminately stems from purity of heart and good opinion, and the scholars have said about such narrators: ‘Lies run off their tongue without their intending it.’” There is a fundamental difference between the latter and those who deliberately forge lies or narrate forgeries passed for hadith, and who are condemned by the Prophet’s saying: “Whoever lies about me willfully, let him take now his seat in the Fire!” From Ibn al-Qasim: “Malik used to say: ‘Belief increases.’ He would stop short of saying that it decreases.” From Ibn Abi al-Zubayr: “I saw `Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah enter the [Prophet’s] Mosque, then take hold of the pommel of the Pulpit, after which he faced the Qibla [to pray].” In the Muwatta’: “Shaving the moustache is an innovation.” It is elsewhere related that Malik himself was tall, heavyset, imposing of stature, very fair, with white hair and beard but bald, with a huge beard and blue eyes; he “detested and condemned” shaving of the moustache, and he always wore beautiful clothes, especially white. Narrated by Ibn Abi Zayd: “The turban was worn from the beginning of Islam and it did not cease to be worn until our time. I did not see anyone among the People of Excellence except they wore the turban, such as Yahya ibn Sa`id, Rabi`a, and Ibn Hurmuz. I would see in Rabi`a’s circle more than thirty men wearing turbans and I was one of them; Rabi`a did not put it down until the Pleiades rose and he used to say: ‘I swear that I find it increases intelligence.’ Jibril was seen in the image of (the Companion) Dihya (ibn Khalifa) al-Kalbi wearing a turban with its extremity hanging between his shoulder-blades.” Ashhab said: “When Malik wore the turban he passed it under his chin and let its extremity hang behind his back, and he wore musk and other scents.”
Imam Malik died at the age of 84 in Medina in 795 CE and is buried in the famous Jannat ul-Baqi cemetery across from the Masjid al Nabawi. Malik’s last words were related by one Isma’il Ibn Abi Uways who said, “Malik became sick, so I asked some of our people about what he said at the time of his death. They said, `He recited the shahadah (testification of faith), then he recited:
Their affair is for Allah, before and after.
Main sources: Abu Nu`aym, Hilya al-Awliya’ 6:345-392 #386; al-Dhahabi, Siyar A`lam al-Nubala’ 7:382-437 #1180; M. Fouad `Abd al-Baqi, Introduction to Malik’s Muwatta’.
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OMAR FAROQ(R) AND HAZRAT SADIQ(R) SERAT in Pashto high quality audio.
By Alhaj Mulla Enayatullah Almi
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بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Recitation by Sheikh Mishary Rashed Alafasy
الشيخ مشاري بن راشد العفاسي
Juz Amma Tafseer (Nouman Ali Khan – English)
was a prestigious Mujtahid, Muhaddith, authoritative person, truthfully spoken, abstinent, wise, and pious.