Page 70 - The Importance of the Ahl Al-Sunnah
P. 70

HARUN YAHYA

             Like Imam Abu Hanifah, Imam Malik too attracted the wrath
            of Caliph al-Mansur, and was tortured in prisons for days on
            end. Years later, however, al-Mansur realized the error of his
            ways and apologized to Imam Malik. Imam Malik spent the final
            years of his life in sickness, dying in the blessed city of Madinah
            in 179 AH.
             Members of his school can today be found in Tripoli, Libya,
            Tunisia, Morocco, the Hijaz, Egypt, Algeria and along the
            African coast. Imam Malik’s most important work, which he
            spent 40 years writing, is al-Muwatta’. As the result of his study
            of more than 100,000 traditions, he used 1,720 of these in his
            book. Bediüzzaman Said Nursi praised Imam Malik and his
            great work al-Muwatta’ in his own collection.

              The Hanbali School and Imam Ahmad ibn
              Hanbal

             Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal was born in Baghdad in 164 AH. His
            life coincided with the most illustrious period of the Abbasid
            state. Despite losing his father at an early age, he enjoyed an
            excellent education in the study of religion. He received
            instruction from several well-known scholars, but was most
            influenced by Imam al-Shafi‘i. For that reason, he began study-
            ing the hadiths; this was a difficult sphere of knowledge to pur-
            sue, requiring much travel from one country to another as it
            did, and especially at an early age.
             He had the greatest respect for the teachers who instructed
            him. During their lifetime he never gave any personal opinion
            regarding the hadiths, and issued no fatwa on any subject until
            reaching the age of 40, the age of maturity. This demonstrates
            his humility – it shows that he did not wish to give major opin-
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