Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik

Ash-Shafi'i said, "After the Book of Allah, there is no book on the face of the earth sounder than the book of Malik." 'Ala' ad-Din Maghlażay al-żanafi said, "The first person to compile the żażiż was Malik." Ibn żajar said, "The book of Malik is sound by all the criteria that are demanded as proofs in the mursal, munqażi' and other types of transmission." As-Suyużi followed Ibn żajar's judgement and said, "It is absolutely correct to say that the Muważża' is sound (żażiż) without exception." Al-Bukhari and Muslim transmitted most of its żadiths and included them in their żażiż collections. The authors of the rest of the six books, the Imam of the żadith scholars, Ażmad ibn żanbal, and others did the same. But, in addition, the Muważża' contains a record of the practice of the people of Madinah of the first generations, a transmission of the ethos that permeated the city and Imam Malik's painstaking clarification of the Sunna, the żadiths, the practice and legal judgements. Imam Malik's full name is Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn Abi 'Amir al-Ażbażi and he was related to Dhu Ażbaż, a sub-tribe of żimyar. He was instructed in the learning and recitation of the Noble Qur'an by Imam Nafi' ibn 'Abd ar-Rażman ibn Abi Nu'aym, the Imam of the reciters of Madina and one of the "seven reciters". Among the huge number of his teachers in żadith and fiqh were Nafi', the mawla of 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar and Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri. He sat to give fatwa when he was seventeen years old after seventy Imams had testified that he was worthy to give fatwa and teach. His own students included Imam ash-Shafi'i and Imam Muhammad ibn al-żasan ash-Shaybani the żanafi mujtahid, as well as a great number of Imams of żadith and fiqh and thus he is known as Imam al-A'immah 'the Imam of the Imams'.