[^3] In his Tanwir al-Hawalik...

[^3] In his Tanwir al-Hawalik, Suyuti, commenting on al-Muwatta, says: “Ibn Hazm in his Maratib Diyanat, says that he has counted the traditions in [al-Muwatta], of which more than 500 were musnad, more than 300 mursal and more than 70 traditions ignored by himself. It definitely includes traditions weakened by the majority of scholars”. [^4] 2. A glance at Malik’s biography The second part of our discussion is devoted to the biography of Malik bin Anas.

He is criticized and weakened due to many things. Let us now go through his biography. A. Malik was a member of Khawarij (a notorious group in early Islam) In a discussion pertaining to Khawarij, Abu al-Abbas al-Mubarrad, says: “Some scholars including Akrama, Ibn Abbas‟s freed slave, are related to Khawarij. Malik Bin Anas is also said to have had ties with Khawarij.

Zubayriyun believe that Malik bin Anas used to speak ill of Uthman, Ali (a.s), Talha and Zubair, saying: “By Allah, they did not fight with each other except for a dusty broth” [^5] B. Malik was a Mudallis Describing some Mudallisin[^6] [the plural form of Mudallis], Khatib Baghdadi points out that Malik bin Anas was a Mudallis. [^7] C. Malik joins the ruling class ignoring their crimes Abdullah Bin Ahmad quotes his father as saying: “Ibn Abi Daeb and Malik were regularly visiting the rulers.

The former used to give them directions whereas the later was silent. Ibn Daeb was far better than Malik”. [^8] D. Playing musical instruments In his al-Aghani, Abu al-Faraj Isfahani mentions that Malik used to play musical instruments.[^9] E. Scholars on Malik Commenting on him, Khatib Baghdadi said: “During the time of Malik, some scholars were critical of him”.

Among those criticized by scholars are according to him Ibn Abi Daeb, Abd al-Aziz Majeshun, Ibn Abi Hazim and Muhammad Bin Ishaq.[^10] Concerning Malik, Ibn Abd al-Aziz says: “Ibn Abi Daeb has made about Malik some unkind remarks, which I do not like to mention” [^11] . Other people have also commented about Malik. Ibrahim Bin Sa’d has cursed Malik. Abd al-Rahman Bin Zaid bin Aslam and Bin Abi Yahya have also made some remarks about Malik.[^12] 3.

An evaluation of the chain of tradition of Malik The third part of our discussion goes to assessing the tradition of Malik from the viewpoint of its chain of transmitters. There is no chain of transmitters for this tradition in al-Muwatta.