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 Maghla?ay al-?anafi said, "The first person to compile the ?a?i? was Malik."
Ibn ?ajar said, "The book of Malik is sound by all the criteria that are demanded as proofs in the mursal, munqa?i' and other types of transmission."
As-Suyu?i followed Ibn ?ajar's judgement and said, "It is absolutely correct to say that the Muwa??a' is sound (?a?i?) without exception."
Al-Bukhari and Muslim transmitted most of its ?adiths and included them in their ?a?i? collections. The authors of the rest of the six books, the Imam of the ?adith scholars, A?mad ibn ?anbal, and others did the same.
But, in addition, the Muwa??a' 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 ?adiths, the practice and legal judgements.
Imam Malik's full name is Malik ibn Anas ibn Malik ibn Abi 'Amir al-A?ba?i and he was related to Dhu A?ba?, a sub-tribe of ?imyar. He was instructed in the learning and recitation of the Noble Qur'an by Imam Nafi' ibn 'Abd ar-Ra?man 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 ?adith 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-?asan ash-Shaybani the ?anafi mujtahid, as well as a great number of Imams of ?adith and fiqh and thus he is known as Imam al-A'immah 'the Imam of the Imams'.