Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik

Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik
Ash-Shfi' said, "After the Book of Allah, there is no book on the face of the earth sounder than the book of Mlik."
'Al' ad-Dn Maghlay al-anaf said, "The first person to compile the a was Mlik."
Ibn ajar said, "The book of Mlik is sound by all the criteria that are demanded as proofs in the mursal, munqai' and other types of transmission."
As-Suy followed Ibn ajar's judgement and said, "It is absolutely correct to say that the Muwaa' is sound (a) without exception."
Al-Bukhr and Muslim transmitted most of its adths and included them in their a collections. The authors of the rest of the six books, the Imm of the adth scholars, Amad ibn anbal, and others did the same.
In addition, the Muwaa' contains a record of the practice ('amal) of the people of Madnah of the first generations, a transmission of the ethos that permeated the city, and Imm Mlik's painstaking clarification of the Sunna, the adths, the practice and legal judgements.

Imm Mlik ibn anas
(93 AH/711 CE - 179 AH/795 CE)
Imam Mlik's full name is Mlik ibn Anas ibn Mlik ibn Ab 'mir al-Aba and he was related to Dh Aba, a sub-tribe of imyar. He was instructed in the learning and recitation of the Noble Qur'n by Imm Nfi' ibn 'Abd ar-Ramn ibn Ab Nu'aym, the Imm of the reciters of Madna and one of the 'seven reciters'.
Among the huge number of his teachers in adth and fiqh were Nfi', the mawl of 'Abdullh ibn 'Umar, and Ibn Shihb az-Zuhr. He sat to give fatw when he was seventeen years old after seventy Imms had testified that he was worthy to give fatw and teach.
His own students included Imm ash-Shfi' and Imm Muhammad ibn al-asan ash-Shaybn the anaf mujtahid, as well as a great number of Imms of adth and fiqh, and thus he is known as Imm al-A'immah 'the Imm of the Imms'.
He is recognised to be the subject of the hadith from Ab Hurayra :
"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 Madna.'"