Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki

Shaykh
Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki
Title Shaykh
Born 1944
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Died 2004 (aged 59-60)
Nationality Saudi Arabian
Ethnicity Arab
Era Modern
Region Arabian Peninsula
Occupation Islamic scholar, Imam
Religion Islam
Denomination Sunni (Sufism)
Jurisprudence Maliki
Creed Ash'ari
Alma mater Al-Azhar University
Sufi order Shadhili

Shaykh al-Sharif Al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Alawi ibn Abbas ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Maliki al-Hasani al-'Idrisi al-Makki (1944–2004) was a prominent Sunni, Shadhili Islamic scholar from Saudi Arabia.

Life

Family background

Muhammad Alawi al-Maliki was born in Mecca to a family of well known scholars who, like himself, taught in the Sacred Mosque.[1] Five of the his ancestors have been the Maliki Imams of the Masjid al-Haram of Mecca. His grandfather, al-Sayyid Abbas al-Maliki was the Mufti and Qadi of Mecca and the Imam and Khatib of Masjid al-Haram. He held this position during the Ottoman then Hashemite times, and continued to hold it after the Saudi Kingdom was established too. He taught the various traditional Islamic sciences in the Masjid al-Haram of Mecca for nearly 40 years.

Education

With his father’s instruction, he also studied and mastered the various traditional Islamic sciences of Aqidah (Islamic theology), Tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), Hadith (Prophetic tradition (Sallalahu 'Alaihi Wa Salam)), [[Prophetic biography|Seerah] (Sallalahu 'Alaihi Wa Salam)] (Prophetic biography (Sallalahu 'Alaihi Wa Salam)), Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Usul (origins and fundamentals), Mustalah (hadith terminology), Nahw (Arabic grammar), etc. Scholars of Mecca, as well as Medina, 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: His father, Shaykh al-Sayyid 'Alawi ibn 'Abbas al-Maliki al-Hasani, Shaykh as-Sayyid al-Habib Ahmad Mashhur TaHa al-Haddad, Shaikh Hasanain Makhlouf, Shaykh Muhammad Hafidh al-Tijani, Shaykh Amin Kutbi, and numerous others.[2] His brother, Sayyid Abbas & Sayyid Muhammad Abd al-Hasan is also a learned scholar but is better known for his beautiful voice and as the topmost Qasidah reciter of Saudi Arabia.

After finishing his traditional education in his hometown of Makkah, he was sent by his father to study at Al-Azhar University of Egypt. He received his Ph.D. from the Al-Azhar University 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 (Islamic scholar) of the university at that time, such as Muhammad Abu Zahra.

Career

By the age of 15, the al-Maliki started teaching Hadith and Fiqh in the Masjid al-Haram of Makkah to fellow students, by the orders of his teachers.

Al-Maliki, like all traditional Shaykhs, and like his ancestors before him, taught a number of students at his own residence, providing them with food, shelter, and learning material free of cost. These students usually stayed with him for many years, learning the various branches of Islamic knowledge, then return to their lands. Hundreds of his students have become savants of Islamic knowledge and spirituality in their own countries, particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, and Yemen. After returning from the Al-Azhar University he was an appointed professor of Sharia at the Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, where he taught from 1970. In 1971, after his father’s death, the scholars of Mecca asked him to accept his father’s position as a teacher in the Masjid al-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 Al-Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina occasionally. His lessons were the largest attended lessons in the Two Masjids. The entire family of Al-Maliki follows Shadhiliyah Sufi order and particularly Fassiya branch of it through Qutbul Ujood Imam Fassi who was leading the Sufi order from Makkah. Muhammad alawi al-Maliki took vow from Sheikh Dr. Muhammad bin Ibrahim al Fassi who was the Sheikh-us-Sujjadah and the international leader of the Fassiyatush Shadhiliya sufi order at his times.

In the early 1980s, he relinquished his teaching position in the Umm al-Qura University as well as his ancestral chair of teaching in the Masjid al-Haram, due to the Fatwās of the Council of the Senior Scholars of Saudi Arabia headed by Mufti Ibn Baaz, who considered his beliefs to be in violation of the purity of the Monotheistic belief (Tawhid). Shaykh Saalih Aal-Shaykh, the incumbent Minister of Islamic affairs authored a book entitled "Haazihi Mafaahimuna" [these are our views] in which he attacked the beliefs of the Sayyid, pronouncing him to be deviant and misguided. The book was in fact a rebuttal of Sayyid Al-Maliki's book: "Mafaahim yajib An Tusahhah" [Views that must be corrected].

Regardless of criticisms against him, Maliki retained prominence. In an attempt to counter the Islamic revival in the early 1990s, the Government of Saudi Arabia began supporting practitioners of Sufism in the Hijaz region as a way to bolster religious support of the state; Maliki became the self-imposed leader of Hijazi Sufism under state sponsorship, with several thousand supporters.[3]

From that time until his death in 2004, he taught Hadith, Fiqh, Tafsir and Tasawwuf at his home and mosque on al-Maliki street in the Rusayfah district of Mecca, and his public lessons, between Maghrib and Isha', 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. Hundreds of students from all over the Islamic world benefited from his lessons in the Masjid al-Haram Makkah and many hold key religious positions in their lands today.

He was also nominated as the head judge at the international Qira'at (Qur'anic reading) competition in Mecca for three consecutive years.

Death

He died in 2004 and was buried in Mecca. After his death, high Saudi dignitaries made widely publicized condolence visits to his family.[4] Crown Prince 'Abd Allah (the future king) was quoted as stating that al-Maliki "was faithful both to his religion and country"[5] as one western journalist noted, "the rehabilitation of his legacy was almost complete." [6]

Students

The Shaykh had over 1,000 or more students who studied under him, both in the Haram in Makkah as well as at his residence in Makkah. Amongst his students is Shaykh Ahmad bin Muhammad ibn Alawi al-Maliki, the son of Shaykh Muhammad, as well as the following


Ijazahs

Al-Maliki had the opportunity to study from leading Ulama of his time. Some of the scholars who gave him Ijazah include:

From Mecca:

  1. His learned father and his first teacher, al-Sayyid Alawi bin Abbas al-Maliki
  2. Shaykh Muhammad Yahya Aman al-Makki
  3. Shaykh al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Arabi al-Tabbani
  4. Shaykh Hasan Sa'id al-Yamani
  5. Shaykh Hasan bin Muhammad al-Mashshat
  6. Shaykh Muhammad Nur Sayf
  7. Shaykh Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani
  8. Al-Sayyid Muhammad Amin Kutbi
  9. Al-Sayyid Ishaq bin Hashim 'Azuz
  10. Habib Hasan bin Muhammad Fad'aq
  11. Habib Abd-al-Qadir bin 'Aydarus al-Barah
  12. Shaykh Khalil Abd-al-Qadir Taybah
  13. Shaykh Abd-Allah al-Lahji

From Medina:

  1. Shaykh Hasan al-Sha'ir, Shaykh al-Qurra of Madinah
  2. Shaykh Diya-al-Din Ahmad al-Qadiri
  3. Al-Sayyid Ahmad Yasin al-Khiyari
  4. Shaykh Muhammad al-Mustafa al-Alawi al-Shinqiti
  5. Shaykh Ibrahim al-Khatani al-Bukhari

From Hadhramaut and Yemen:

  1. Al-Habib Umar bin Ahmad bin Sumayt, Grand Imam of Hadhramaut
  2. Shaykh al-Sayyid Muhammad Zabarah, Mufti of Yemen
  3. Shaykh al-Sayyid Ibrahim bin Aqeel al-Ba-Alawi, Mufti of Ta'iz
  4. Al-Imam al-Sayyid Ali bin Abd-al-Rahman al-Hibshi
  5. Al-Habib Alawi ibn Abd-Allah bin Shihab
  6. Al-Sayyid Hasan bin Abd-al-Bari al-Ahdal
  7. Shaykh Fadhl bin Muhammad Ba-Fadhal
  8. Al-Habib Abd-Allah bin Alawi al-Attas
  9. Al-Habib Muhammad bin Salim bin Hafiz
  10. Al-Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad
  11. Al-Habib Abd-al-Qadir al-Saqqaf

From Syria:

  1. Shaykh Abu-al-Yasar ibn Abidin, Mufti of Syria
  2. Shaykh al-Sayyid al-Sharif Muhammad al-Makki al-Kattani, Mufti of the Malikis
  3. Shaykh Muhammad As'ad al-Abaji, Mufti of the Shafi'is
  4. Shaykh al-Sayyid Muhammad Salih al-Farfur
  5. Shaykh Hasan Habannakah al-Maydani
  6. Shaykh Abd-al-Aziz 'Uyun al-Sud al-Himsi
  7. Shaykh Muhammad Sa'id al-Idlabi al-Rifa'i

From Egypt:

  1. Shaykh al-Sayyid Muhammad al-Hafiz al-Tijani, Imam of Hadith in Egypt
  2. Shaykh Hasanayn Muhammad Makhluf, Mufti of Egypt
  3. Shaykh Salih al-Ja'fari, Imam of the Azhar
  4. Shaykh Amin Mahmud Khattab al-Subki
  5. Shaykh Muhammad al-'Aquri
  6. Shaykh Hasan al-'Adawi
  7. Shaykh al-Sayyid Muhammad Abu-al-'Uyun al-Khalwati
  8. Shaykh Dr.Abd-al-Halim Mahmud, Rector of al-Azhar

From the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia):

  1. Shaykh al-Sayyid al-Sharif Abd-al-Kabir al-Saqali al-Mahi
  2. Al-Sharif Idris al-Sanusi, King of Libya
  3. Shaykh Muhammad al-Tahir ibn 'Ashur, Imam of the Zaytunah, Tunis
  4. Shaykh al-Tayyib al-Muhaji al-Jaza'iri
  5. Shaykh al-Faruqi al-Rahhali al-Marrakashi
  6. Shaykh al-Sayyid al-Sharif Muhammad al-Muntasir al-Kattani

From the Sudan:

  1. Shaykh Yusuf Hamad al-Nil
  2. Shaykh Muddassir Ibrahim
  3. Shaykh Ibrahim Abu-al-Nur1) Shaykh al-Faqih Abul Wafa al-Afghani, Imam of the Hanafis, Hyderabad Deccan 2) Shaykh al-Allamah `Abdul Mu`id Khan, Hyderabad Deccan 3) al-Imam al-`Arif-Billah Mustafa Rida Khan al-Barelawi, Mufti of India 4) Mufti Muhammad Shafi`i al-Deobandi, Mufti of Pakistan 5) Mawlana Muhammad Zakariyyah al-Kandahlawi, Master of Hadith 6) Malawana Zafar Ahmad Thanawi, author of ‘Ila al-Sunan 7) Shaykh al-Muhaddith Habib al-Rahman al-`Azami 8) Mawlana Sayyid Abul Hasan `Ali al-Nadaw.
  4. Shaykh al-Tayyib Abu-Qinayah

From the Indo-Pak subcontinent:

  1. Shaykh Abu-al-Wafa al-Afghani al-Hanafi,
  2. Shaykh Abd-al-Mu'id Khan Hyderabadi
  3. Mufti al-Azam al-Hindal-Imam al'Arif Billah Mustafa Rida Khan al-Barelawi, Mufti of India
  4. Shaykh Dhiya al-Din Ahmad al-Madani, the Hanafi scholar of India who later moved to Madinat al-Munawwarah
  5. Mawlana Muhammad Zakariyyah al-Kandahlawi, Master of Hadith
  6. Malawana Zafar Ahmad Thanawi, author of ‘Ila al-Sunan
  7. Shaykh al-Muhaddith Habib al-Rahman al-`Azami
  8. Mawlana Sayyid Abul Hasan `Ali al-Nadaw

[7]

Works

Al-Maliki was a prolific writer and has produced close to one hundred books. He has written on a variety of religious, legal, social and historical topics and many of his books are prescribed textbooks in Islamic institutes around the world.

Selected works on various subjects

Aqidah

Tafsir

Hadith

Seerah

Fiqh

Usul

Tasawwuf

Miscellaneous

See also

References

  1. ↑ Marion Holmes Katz, The Birth of the Prophet Muhammad: Devotional piety in Sunni Islam, p. 185. ISBN 0203962141. Publication Date: June 6, 2007
  2. ↑ Obituary to al-Sayyid Muhammad bin Alawi al-Maliki
  3. ↑ Stephane Lacroix, Awakening Islam, pg. 220. Trns. George Holoch. Cambridge: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2011.
  4. ↑ Marion Holmes Katz, The Birth of the Prophet Muhammad: Devotional piety in Sunni Islam, p. 215. ISBN 0203962141. Publication Date: June 6, 2007. See Khalid ' Abd Allah, " al-Amlr Sultan yazuru usrat al-Duktur Muhammad 'Alawl al-Malikl mu'azziyan," Jaridat al-Riyad, 19 Ramadan 1425 (accessed at www.alriyadh.com/Contents/02-l l-2004/Mainpage/LOCALl_24136.php on May 25, 2006).
  5. ↑ See P.K. Abdul Ghafour, "Abdullah Lauds Noble Efforts of Al-Malki," Arab News, November 2, 2004.(http://www.arabnews.com/node/257480)
  6. ↑ Marion Holmes Katz, The Birth of the Prophet Muhammad: Devotional piety in Sunni Islam, p. 215. ISBN 0203962141. Publication Date: June 6, 2007. Quoting Ambah, "In Saudi Arabia," p. A13.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑ Zakha'ir al-Muhammadiyyah Urdu Translation
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