Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik

Ash-Sh fi' said, "After the Book of Allah, there is no book on the face of the earth sounder than the book of M lik."

'Al ' ad-D n Maghlä y al- anaf said, "The first person to compile the ä was M lik."

Ibn ajar said, "The book of M lik is sound by all the criteria that are demanded as proofs in the mursal, munqäi' and other types of transmission."

As-Suy followed Ibn ajar's judgement and said, "It is absolutely correct to say that the Muwä a' is sound ( ä ) without exception."

Al-Bukh r and Muslim transmitted most of its ad ths and included them in their ä collections. The authors of the rest of the six books, the Im m of the ad th scholars, A mad ibn anbal, and others did the same.

But, in addition, the Muwä a' contains a record of the practice of the people of Mad nah of the first generations, a transmission of the ethos that permeated the city and Im m M lik's painstaking clarification of the Sunna, the ad ths, the practice and legal judgements.

Imam M lik's full name is M lik ibn Anas ibn M lik ibn Ab ' mir al-A bä and he was related to Dh A bä, a sub-tribe of imyar. He was instructed in the learning and recitation of the Noble Qur' n by Im m N fi' ibn 'Abd ar-Räm n ibn Ab Nu'aym, the Im m of the reciters of Mad na and one of the "seven reciters". Among the huge number of his teachers in ad th and fiqh were N fi', the mawl of 'Abdull h ibn 'Umar and Ibn Shih b az-Zuhr . He sat to give fatw when he was seventeen years old after seventy Im ms had testified that he was worthy to give fatw and teach.

His own students included Im m ash-Sh fi' and Im m Muhammad ibn al- asan ash-Shayb n the anaf mujtahid, as well as a great number of Im ms of ad th and fiqh and thus he is known as Im m al-A'immah 'the Im m of the Im ms'.