Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik

"Imam Malik lived about 100 years after Muhammad, in the 8th century CE. After the Prophet’s death Islam was very much concentrated in Madina, but then it spread extraordinarily quickly, almost at the speed of light. It was initially spread by the Companions of the Prophet, and then the Followers – who had met the Companions of the Prophet, but hadn’t met the Prophet Muhammad. And the heart of this process was Madina, and people would come from all over the rapidly expanding Muslim world to learn, and to get knowledge by direct transmission from the people of Madina. Imam Malik was one of the Followers of the Followers, and he became established as one of the great people of knowledge in Madina. Perhaps his most well-known book is The Muwatta , which means ‘the well-trodden path’. It’s like survival-kit Islam if you like – this is the essentials, this is what you have to know. And so you’d find all the great people of knowledge of that time would know both the Qur’an and the Muwatta by heart. It’s not just a collection of sayings – it’s about action, about behaviour: often he says: ‘This is what the people of knowledge (in Madina) do.’ There are many wonderful stories about Imam Malik. People would come from many hundreds of miles just to ask a question: he would ask: ‘Do you want me to transmit a hadith to you (including the human chain of transmission all the way back to the person who saw it or heard it), or do you have a question about jurisprudence?’ And often if they had a question of jurisprudence, he might do a complete washing of the body beforehand, and put on perfume, and listen to the question, and then say: ‘I don’t know.’ So there was no pretence to knowledge of what he did not know. We’re 14 centuries-plus from the time of the Prophet now, and if you look at the history of Islam there have been high points and low points. As within any religion, you find people of wisdom and also people of great ignorance who use Islam for political expediency, who distort it knowingly or unknowingly. And so, for anyone who wants to follow in the dust of the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be on him, you have to get to the point before there are any schools of jurisprudence, before Sunni and Shia – and if you go to that point there’s no argument, just knowledge. For anyone who wants to get to that point, and in so doing bypass some of the nonsense that’s around today – whether it’s people who don’t know what they’re talking about or ignorant attacks in the media – if you want to stay clear of that and get back to a pure Islam, this is an essential book. Translated by Aisha Bewley and Ya’qub Johnson"