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Abu Malik al-Ash'ari

أبو مالك الأشعري

An Ash'ari Companion who transmits 'purity is half of faith; praise belongs to God fills the scale … every person sets out each day selling his own soul, freeing it or destroying it', the twenty-third hadith of al-Nawawi's Forty, transmitted by Muslim (223) through Abu Salam from him, while the al-Nasa'i–Ibn Majah route inserts Abd al-Rahman ibn Ghunam between them.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Companion
Counted among
Sunni
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Overview

Abu Malik al-Ash'ari, a Companion who came to the Prophet ﷺ by ship with the Ash'aris, and is counted among the Syrians. 1

His coming

He came to the Prophet by ship with the Ash'aris, and he had companionship. 1

His name

His name is disputed: it is said to be Ka'b ibn Malik, Ka'b ibn Asim, Ubayd, Amr, or al-Harith. 1

Transmission from him

Yazid ibn al-Had transmitted from him, from Tha'laba ibn Abi Malik. 1

For young visitors

Abu Malik al-Ash'ari was a Companion who came to the Prophet with his people, the Ash'aris, by ship. Scholars differ on his name, and he is known by his kunya.

Notes for researchers

  • The entry in "Usd al-Ghaba" is brief, and it does not connect him with the well-known hadith on purification in the Jami'; we have not linked it here, and it should be checked before relying on it.
  • "Usd al-Ghaba" on the same page mentions Abu Malik al-Ash'ja'i, Abu Malik al-Ghifari, Abu Malik al-Qurazi and al-Nakha'i. These are different people, and this material concerns al-Ash'ari alone.
  • Ibn al-Athir says he is "counted among the Syrians"; this has not been checked in a second source.

Connections

Explore the connections

Mentioned in
Arba'un 23 — purity is half of faith· Muslim 223 — Purity is half of faith

People and things also explored

Ritual purity· Sabr (patience and steadfast endurance)· Muhammad· Arba'un 23 — purity is half of faith· Muslim 223 — Purity is half of faith

Sources

  1. Usd al-ghaba fi ma'rifat al-sahaba — Ibn al-Athir , p.1391
  • Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam — Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Abu Malik al-Ash'ari”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/abu-malik-al-ashari/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-16.

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Related

Ritual purity

Ritual purity in the jurists' terminology is lifting the state of ritual impurity and removing filth with water or tayammum; the hadith of Abu Malik al-Ash'ari sets it in a sweeping faith-scale — 'purity is half of faith', transmitted by Muslim (223), worded 'the ablution is half of faith' in al-Tirmidhi's route and 'perfecting the ablution is half of faith' in Mu'awiya ibn Salam's route in Ibn Majah; within the same hadith it stands alongside the scale-filling praise, prayer as light, almsgiving as proof, patience as radiance and the Qur'an as argument, so that purity is one of the measures by which a servant's works are weighed on the Day of Resurrection, as Ibn Rajab's commentary presents it.