AL-MALĀʾIKAH (الملائكه‎). Lit. “The Angels.” The title of the XXXVth Chapter of the Qurʾān in the first verse of which the word occurs:—“Who employeth the angels as envoys.” It is also called Sūratu ʾl-Fāt̤ir, the “Chapter of the Originator.”

MALAK (ملك‎). [[ANGEL].]

MALAKU ʾL-MAUT (ملك الموت‎). “The Angel of Death.” See Qurʾān, [Sūrah xxxii. 11]: “The angel of death who is charged with you shall cause you to die: then ye shall be returned to your Lord.” He is also called ʿIzrāʾīl.

MALANG (مـلـنـگ‎). An order of Muḥammadan faqīrs or darveshes, who are the descendants and followers of Jaman Juti, a follower of Zindu Shah Madār. They usually wear the hair of the head very full and matted and formed into a knot behind. The order is a very common one in India. (Herklots’ Musalmans, p. 290.)

AL-MĀLIK (المالك‎). “The Possessor, lord, ruler.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It frequently occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. in the first Sūrah, “Ruler of the Day of Judgment.”

MĀLIK (مالك‎). Lit. “One in authority, a possessor.” The angel who is said to preside over hell, and superintend the torments of the damned. He is mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xliii. 77]: “And they shall cry out, O Mālik! let thy Lord make an end of us; he shall say, Verily, tarry here.” Perhaps the same as ‏מֹלֶך‎ Molech, the fire-god and tutelary deity of the children of Ammon.

MĀLIK (مالك‎). The founder of a sect of Sunnī Muslims.

The Imām Abū ʿAbdi ʾllāh Mālik ibn Anas, the founder of one of the four orthodox sects of Sunnīs, was born at al-Madīnah, A.H. 94 (A.D. 716). He lived in the same place and received his earliest impressions of Islām from Sahl ibn Saʿd, the almost sole survivor of the Companions of the Prophet. He was considered to be the most learned man of his time, and his self-denial and abstinence were such that he usually fasted four days in the week. He enjoyed the advantages of a personal acquaintance and familiar intercourse with the Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, although differing from him on many important questions regarding the authority of the Traditions. His pride, however, was at least equal to his literary endowments. In proof of this, it is related of him that when the great K͟halīfah Hārūnu ʾr-Rashīd came to al-Madīnah to visit the tomb of the Prophet, Mālik having gone forth to meet him, the K͟halīfah addressed him, “O Mālik! I entreat as a favour that you will come every day to me and my two sons, Amīn and Maʾmūn, and instruct us in traditional knowledge.” To which the sage haughtily replied, “O K͟halīfah, science is of a dignified nature, and instead of going to any person, requires that all should come to it.” The story further says that the sovereign, with much humility, asked his pardon, acknowledged the truth of his remark, and sent both his sons to Mālik, who seated them among his other scholars without any distinction.

With regard to the Traditions, his authority is generally quoted as decisive; in fact, he considered them as altogether superseding the judgment of a man, and on his death-bed severely condemned himself for the many decisions he had presumed to give on the mere suggestion of his own reason. The Qurʾān and the Sunnah excepted, the only study to which he applied himself in his latter days, was the contemplation of the Deity; and his mind was at length so much absorbed in the immensity of the Divine attributes and perfections, as to lose sight of all more insignificant objects! Hence he gradually withdrew himself from the world, became indifferent to its concerns, and after some years of complete retirement, died at al-Madīnah, A.H. 179 (A.D. 795). His authority is at present chiefly received in Barbary and the other northern states of Africa. Of his works, the only one upon record is one of tradition, known as the Muwat̤t̤aʾ. His principal pupil was ash-Shāfiʿī, who afterwards himself gave the name to a sect.

MĀLIKU ʾL-MULK (مالك الملك‎). “The Lord of the Kingdom.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It occurs once in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iii. 25]: “Say, O God, Lord of the Kingdom, Thou givest the kingdom to whomsoever Thou pleasest, and strippest the kingdom from whomsoever Thou pleasest.”