Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki
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Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Alawi ibn Abbas ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Maliki (1947 - 2004) was a prominent Sunni islamic scholar from Saudi Arabia. He was born in Mecca to a family of reputed scholars who, like himself, taught in the Sacred Mosque. The Maliki family is one of the most respected families in Makkah and has produced great scholars, who have taught in the Haram of Makkah for centuries. With his fathers instruction, he also studied and mastered the various traditional Islamic sciences of Aqidah, Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh, Usul al-fiqh, Mustalah, Nahw …etc at the feet of other great scholars of Makkah, as well as Madinah, all of whom granted him full Ijazah (certification) to teach these sciences to others. Some of the scholars from whom he obtained ijazahs and chains of transmission from include: Shaikh Muḥammad Zakarīyā al-Kāndahlawī, Shaikh Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad, Shaikh Hasanain Makhlouf, Dya al-Din al-Qadiri, and numerous others.
By the age of 15, the Sayyid was already teaching the books of Hadith and Fiqh in the Haram of Makkah to fellow students, by the orders of his teachers!
After finishing his traditional education in his hometown of Makkah, he was sent by his father to study at the esteemed Al-Azhar University of Egypt.
He received his Ph.D. from the Azhar at the age of 25, making him the first and youngest Saudi to earn a Ph.D. from there.
His thesis on Hadith was rated excellent and highly praised by the eminent Ulama of the Azhar at that time, such as Imam Abu-Zahrah.
Five of the Sayyid’s ancestors have been the Maliki Imams of the Haram of Makkah. His grandfather, al-Sayyid Abbas al-Maliki was the Mufti and Qadi of Makkah and the Imam and Khatib of the Haram. He held this position during the Ottoman then Hashemite times, and continued to hold it after the Saudi Kingdom was established too. The late King Abd-al-Aziz bin Sa‘ud had great respect for him.
His father, al-Sayyid Alawi al-Maliki was one of the greatest Ulama of Makkah in the previous century. He taught the various traditional Islamic sciences in the Haram of Makkah for nearly 40 years.
Hundreds of students from all over the Islamic world benefited from his lessons in the Haram and many hold key religious positions in their lands today.
The King Faisal of Saudi Arabia would not make any decision on Makkah without consulting al-Sayyid Alawi.
He died in 2004 and his funeral was the biggest in Makkah in a 100 years. For the next three days after his death, the local Saudi radio stations played the holy Qur’an only. This was something that was done only for him.
Sayyid Abbas is also a learned scholar but is better known for his beautiful voice and as the topmost Qasidah reciter of Saudi Arabia.
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[edit] His Teaching Career
The Sayyid however, like all traditional Shaykhs, and like his ancestors before him, taught number of students at his own residence, providing them with food, drink, shelter, clothes, books and everything else they need. In return, they are only required to follow the rules and etiquette of students of sacred knowledge. These students usually stay with him for many years, learning the various branches of Islamic knowledge, then return to their lands.
Hundreds of students have learnt at his feet and have become savants of Islamic knowledge and spirituality in their countries, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Yemen and Dubai.
After returning from the Azhar however, he was also an appointed professor of Sharia at the Umm al-Qura University in Makkah, where he taught from 1970.
In 1971, after his father’s death, the scholars of Makkah asked him to accept his father’s position as a teacher in the Haram, which he did. Thus, he sat on the Chair from which his family had taught for more than century.
He also taught in the Haram of Madinah occasionally. His lessons were the largest attended lessons in the Two Harams.
In the early eighties however, he relinquished his teaching position in the Umm al-Qura University as well as his ancestral chair of teaching in the Haram, due to the Fatwas of some fanatical scholars of the Wahhabi sect, who considered his presence a threat to their extremist ideology and authority.
Since then, he teaches the great books of Hadith, Fiqh, Tafsir and Tasawwuf at his home and mosque on al-Maliki street in the Rusayfah district of Makkah, and his public lessons, between Maghrib and Isha'a, were attended by no less than 500 people daily. Many students from the University used to attend his lessons in the evenings. Even the night before he died, his lesson was well-attended.
Sayyid Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki was highly respected by the Saudi government and was often consulted by the respected King himself on important affairs. He was also nominated as the head judge at the international Qira’at (Qur’anic reading) competition in Makkah for three consecutive years.
[edit] His Writings
The Sayyid was a prolific writer and has produced close to one hundred books till now. He has written on a variety of religious, legal, social and historical topics and many of his books are considered masterpieces on the subject and are prescribed textbooks in Islamic institutes around the world. According to one of his students, Shaykh Muhamad Fuad Kamaludin, a Muslim scholar from Malaysia, Dr Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki can write up a book of 150 pages just in one night.
We mention here some selected works on various subjects:
[edit] Aqidah
- Mafahim Yajib ‘an Tusahhah
- Manhaj al-Salaf fi Fahm al-Nusus
- Al-Tahzir min al-Takfir
- Huwa Allah
- Qul Hazihi Sabeeli
- Sharh ‘Aqidat al-‘Awam
[edit] Tafsir
- Zubdat al-Itqan fi ‘Ulum al-Qur’an
- Wa Huwa bi al-Ufuq al-‘A’la
- Al-Qawa‘id al-Asasiyyah fi ‘Ulum al-Quran
- Hawl Khasa’is al-Quran
[edit] Hadith
- Al-Manhal al-Latif fi Usul al-Hadith al-Sharif
- Al-Qawa‘id al-Asasiyyah fi ‘Ilm Mustalah al-Hadith
- Fadl al-Muwatta wa Inayat al-Ummah al-Islamiyyah bihi
- Anwar al-Masalik fi al-Muqaranah bayn Riwayat al-Muwatta lil-Imam Malik
[edit] Sirah
- Muhammad(Sall Allahu ‘Alayhi Wa Sallam) al-Insan al-Kamil
- Tarikh al-Hawadith wa al-Ahwal al-Nabawiyyah
- ‘Urf al-T ‘arif bi al-Mawlid al-Sharif
- Al-Anwar al-Bahiyyah fi Isra wa M’iraj Khayr al-Bariyyah
- Al-Zakha’ir al-Muhammadiyyah
- Zikriyat wa Munasabat
- Al-Bushra fi Manaqib al-Sayyidah Khadijah al-Kubra
[edit] Usul
- Al-Qawa‘id al-Asasiyyah fi Usul al-Fiqh
- Sharh Manzumat al-Waraqat fi Usul al-Fiqh
- Mafhum al-Tatawwur wa al-Tajdid fi al-Shari‘ah al-Islamiyyah
[edit] Fiqh
- Al-Risalah al-Islamiyyah Kamaluha wa Khuluduha wa ‘Alamiyyatuha
- Labbayk Allahumma Labbayk
- Al-Ziyarah al-Nabawiyyah bayn al-Shar‘iyyah wa al-Bid‘iyyah
- Shifa’ al-Fu’ad bi Ziyarat Khayr al-‘Ibad
- Hawl al-Ihtifal bi Zikra al-Mawlid al-Nabawi al-Sharif
- Al-Madh al-Nabawi bayn al-Ghuluww wa al-Ijhaf
[edit] Tasawwuf
- Shawariq al-Anwar min Ad‘iyat al-Sadah al-Akhyar
- Abwab al-Faraj
- Al-Mukhtar min Kalam al-Akhyar
- Al-Husun al-Mani‘ah
- Mukhtasar Shawariq al-Anwar
[edit] Miscellaneous
- Fi Rihab al-Bayt al-Haram (History of Makkah)
- Al-Mustashriqun Bayn al-Insaf wa al-‘Asabiyyah (Study of Orientalism)
- Nazrat al-Islam ila al-Riyadah (Sports in Islam)
- Al-Qudwah al-Hasanah fi Manhaj al-Da‘wah ila Allah (Methods of Dawah)
- Ma La ‘Aynun Ra’at (Description of Paradise)
- Nizam al-Usrah fi al-Islam (Islam and Family)
- Al-Muslimun Bayn al-Waqi‘ wa al-Tajribah (Contemporary Muslim world)
- Kashf al-Ghumma (Virtues of helping fellow Muslims)
- Al-Dawah al-Islahiyyah (Call for Reform)
- Fi Sabil al-Huda wa al-Rashad (Collection of speeches)
- Sharaf al-Ummah al-Islamiyyah (Superiority of the Muslim Ummah)
- Usul al-Tarbiyah al-Nabawiyyah (Prophetic methods of education)
- Nur al-Nibras fi Asanid al-Jadd al-Sayyid Abbas (Set of Grandfather’s Ijazahs)
- Al-‘Uqud al-Lu’luiyyah fi al-Asanid al-Alawiyyah (Set of father’s Ijazahs)
- Al-Tali‘ al-Sa‘id al-Muntakhab min al-Musalsalat wa al-Asanid (Set of Ijazahs)
- Al-‘Iqd al-Farid al-Mukhtasar min al-Athbah wa al-Asanid (Set of Ijazahs)
This was a selected list of the works the learned Sayyid has authored and published. There are many other publications that were not mentioned and many works that are still to be published.
Many of the Sayyid’s works have been translated into foreign languages.
[edit] Other Activities
Whereas Salafism (known to some as Wahhabism) is the official branch of Islam in Saudi Arabia, al-Maliki adhered to traditionalist Islam, following the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, and was a renowned teacher of Sufism. Because of this difference with the Wahhabi religious establishment, al-Maliki has been accused of heresy, banned from preaching at the Sacred Mosque, had his passport revoked, and has even been arrested.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Getting to know the Sufis by Stephen Schwartz, The Weekly Standard
- Video of Shaikh Muhammad al-Maliki delivering a lecture in Arabic
- Video of Shaikh Muhammad al-Maliki at a mawlid gathering in Malaysia
- The Prophets in Barzakh and the Hadith of Isra and Miraj Followed by the Immense Merits of Al-Sham - Online book by Shaikh Muhammad
- The path ahead, Macleans.ca
- Obituary by Shaykh Seraj Hendricks
- Obituary by Shafiq Morton
- Obituary on Islamica Magazine
- Biography of al-Maliki
- A defence of the Ash'ari school by Muhammad al-Maliki
