Ahmad ibn Abi Khaythamah said: Muṣʿab narrated to us, saying, “Sufyān informed us, ‘We believe that this ḥadith refers to Mālik.’” Sufyān used to ask me about the reports concerning Mālik.

I say: This al-ʿUmari possessed sound knowledge, fine understanding of jurisprudence, and great merit. He spoke the truth, enjoined what was commonly acknowledged as good, and kept himself apart from people. Whenever he was alone with Mālik he would urge him to adopt asceticism, withdrawal, and seclusion—may Allah have mercy on them both.

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No scholar remained in Madinah after the generation of the Successors who resembled Mālik in knowledge, jurisprudence, eminence, and powers of memorisation. After the Companions there were scholars there such as Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib and the Seven Jurists (1), together with al-Qāsim, Sālim, ʿIkrimah, Nāfiʿ, and their peers; then Zayd ibn Aslam, Ibn Shihāb, Abū al-Zinād, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, Ṣafwān ibn Sulaym, Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, and their peers. When they had all passed away, Mālik’s name became renowned in the city, as did that of Ibn Abī Dhiʾb, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mājishūn, Sulaymān ibn Bilāl, Fulayḥ ibn Sulaymān, al-Darāwardī, and their contemporaries. Among them Mālik was incontestably the foremost—the one for whom travellers would spur on their camels from every direction, exalted is He.

Among the elevated chains that have reached me (2) is the recension of the Muwattaʾ transmitted by Abū Muṣʿab (3). In the chain