‘Amal ahl al-Madinah was of fundamental importance to the legal reasoning of Malik b. Anas. He extensively relied upon the ‘amal insofar as it constituted for him an absolute non-textual source of Islamic law by which he would interpret or elaborate the textual sources of law. The Muwatta’ is a perfect example of the source book of the precepts of al-Madinah ‘amal. It is a general fact that al-Madinah ‘amal constitutes Malik’s most authoritative legal argument, although some did mention that Malik’s legal reasoning had two basic elements: ‘amal and ra’y. ‘Amal ahl al-Madinah as meant by Malik is the practice of the people of al-Madinah at his time and the previous times. These practices are those which were common and known among the people of al-Madinah which they had inherited from their ancestors going back to the period of the Prophet s.a.w. However, some of the scholars such as al-Shafi’i, al-Sarakhsi and al-Ghazali have a different interpretation of the concept of ‘amal as they understand ‘amal as the consensus of the people of al-Madinah. The first meaning that was mentioned above seems the closest to the meaning of ‘amal which is meant by Malik in his writings, particularly in his Muwatta’. Although Malik has been using different terminology when describing ‘amal, it gives the same meaning, namely, the practice of al-Madinah’s people. Some of the terms commonly used by Malik are as follows:
Al-Amr al-mujtama’ ‘layhi ‘indana which means the matter that is agreed among us.
Al-Amr ‘indana which means the matter according to us.
Hadha al-‘amr alladhi adraktu ‘alayhi al-nas wa ahl al-‘ilm bi-baladina which means this is the matter that I have meet (known) from the common people and the scholars among them in our town.
Al-ladhi lam yazal ‘alayhi ahl al-‘ilm bi baladina which means (the matter) that is still being practised by the knowledgeable people in our town.
Al-Sunnah ‘indana which means the practice according to us.
Al-Amr alladhi la ikhtilafa fi hi ‘indana which means the matter which is not disputed among us.
Al- ‘amr al-makruh alladhi la ikhtilafa fi-hi ‘indana which means the reprehensible matter which involves no dispute among us.
