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.
In addition, the Muwä¿a' contains a record of the practice ('amal) 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.
Im¿m M¿lik ibn anas
(93 AH/711 CE - 179 AH/795 CE)
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'.
He is recognised to be the subject of the hadith from Ab¿ Hurayra î:
"The Messenger of Allah @ said, 'There will come a time when the people will beat the livers of their camels in search of knowledge and they will not find an '¿lim with more knowledge than the '¿lim of Mad¿na.'"
