Page 70 - The Importance of the Ahl Al-Sunnah

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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