All praise is for Allah Lord of the worlds. Peace and blessings be upon Muhammad (Salallahu-a'laihi wassallam), his pure family, his companions and all those who strive to follow in their footsteps till the last day. To proceed :
Abu Abdullah, Malik bin Anas bin Malik bin Amer Al-Asbahi, well known as Imaam Malik (93-179). His ancestral home was in Yemen, but his grandfather settled in Madinah after embracing Islam. The second of the four major mujtahid imams, whose school filled North Africa, al-Andalus, some of Egypt, as well as some of al-Sham and Yemen. Malik became the Imam of Madinah, and one of the most renowned Imams of Islam. He is the author of al-Muwatta� ("The Approved"), formed of the sound narrations of the Prophet from the people of the Hijaz together with the sayings of the Companions, the Followers, and those after them. He received his education in what was the most important seat of Islamic learning, Madinah, and where lived the immediate descendants and the followers of the companions of the Prophet (Salallahu-a'laihi wassallam) were living.
Born into a well-to-do family, Malik did not need to work for a living. He was highly attracted to the study of Islam, and ended up devoting his entire life to the study of Fiqh. It is said that he sought out over three hundred Tabi�een or those who saw and followed the companions of the Prophet (Salallahu-a'laihi wassallam). Malik held the hadith of the Prophet (Salallahu-a'laihi wassallam) in such reverence that he never narrated, taught any hadith or given a fatwa without being in a state of ritual purity, ghusl. Ismael bin abi Uwaiss said, �I asked my uncle -Imaam Malik- about something. He had me sit, made ablution, then said, �la hawla wala quwata illa billah�. He did not give any fatwa without saying it first.� Also, Malik saw fatwa as a sensitive, precise, and important action that can have far reaching results, and used to be extremely careful about giving it to the extent that if he was not sure about a matter, he would not dare to talk. Al-Haytham said, �I once was with Malik when he was asked more than forty questions and I heard him reply �I do not know�, to thirty two of them.� Yet, he was the man about whom Ash-Shafi�ee said, �When scholars are mentioned, Malik is like the star among them.� Malik said that he did not sit to give fatwa, before seventy of the Madinah scholars first witnessed to his competence in doing so.
Like all scholars of Islam, Imaam Malik was famous for his piety and integrity. He courageously stood up, and was prepared to suffer, for his convictions. When the governor of Madinah demanded and forced people to take oath of allegiance to Khalifah al-Mansour, Imam Malik issued a fatwa that such an oath was not binding because it was given under coercion. He based this opinion on the hadith, �The divorce of the coerced does not take effect� (laysa ala mustakrahin talaq). This resulted in many people finding courage to express their opposition, but the Imam was arrested, found guilty of defiance, and publicly flogged.
Qutayba said: "When we went to see Malik, he would come out to us adorned, wearing kuhl on his eyes, perfumed, wearing his best clothes, sit at the head of the circle, call for palm-leaf fans, and give each one of us a fan." Muhammad ibn `Umar: "Malik�s circle was a circle of dignity and courtesy. He was a man of majestic countenance and nobility. There was no part for self-display, vain talk, or loud speech in his circle. His reader would read for all, and no-one looked into his own book, nor asked questions, out of awe before Malik and out of respect for him."
Among Malik�s sayings:
From Ibn Wahb: "Knowledge Allah places wherever He wills. It does not consist in narrating a lot."
From Ibn Wahb: "The saying has reached me that none renounces the world and guards himself except he will speak wisdom."
From Ibn Wahb: "Knowledge diminishes and does not increase. Knowledge has diminished incessantly after the Prophets and the Books."
From `Abdullah ibn `Abd al-Hakam: "The Companions differed in the Branches (al-fur�`) and split into factions (tafarraq�), and each one of them was correct in himself."
From Yahya ibn Yahya al-Tamimi and Malik�s shaykh Rabi`a ibn Abi `Abd al-Rahman: "We were with Malik when a man came and asked him: �O Abu `Abdullah! "The Merciful is established over the Throne" [Quran Surah #20 Verse #5] how is He established?� Malik lowered his head and remained thus until he was completely soaked in sweat. Then he said: �The establishment is not unknown; the "how" is inconceivable; belief in it is obligatory; asking about it is an innovation; and I do not think that you are anything but an innovator.� Then he ordered that the man be led out."
In the Muwatta�: "Shaving the moustache is an innovation." It is elsewhere related that Malik himself was tall, heavyset, imposing of stature, very fair, with white hair and beard but bald, with a huge beard and blue eyes; he "detested and condemned" shaving of the moustache, and he always wore beautiful clothes, especially white.
Narrated by Ibn Abi Zayd: "The turban was worn from the beginning of Islam and it did not cease to be worn until our time. I did not see anyone among the People of Excellence except they wore the turban, such as Yahya ibn Sa`id, Rabi`a, and Ibn Hurmuz. I would see in Rabi`a�s circle more than thirty men wearing turbans and I was one of them; Rabi`a did not put it down until the Pleiades rose and he used to say: �I swear that I find it increases intelligence.� Jibril was seen in the image of (the Companion) Dihya (ibn Khalifa) al-Kalbi wearing a turban with its extremity hanging between his shoulder-blades." Ashhab said: "When Malik wore the turban he passed it under his chin and let its extremity hang behind his back, and he wore musk and other scents."
Imam Maalik died in the year (170 AH) 796 CE at Madinah and is buried in the famous al-Baqie cemetery in Madinah.