peace, and he said:

“The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said, ‘Medina is better for them if they only knew.’ As for the money, it is still with me just as it was (1).”

Maḥmūd ibn Ghaylān reported: Ismāʿīl ibn Dāwūd al-Mikhraqī told us, “I heard Mālik say:
‘Rabīʿah al-Raʾy took me by the hand and said, “By the Lord of this sanctuary, I have never seen an Iraqi whose intellect was wholly sound.” I also heard Mālik say, “ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ was weak-minded.”’

Yāsīn ibn ʿAbd al-Aḥad narrated to me: ʿUmar ibn al-Muḥabbir al-Ruʿaynī said:
‘When al-Mahdī arrived in Medina he sent for Mālik, so Mālik came. The caliph said to Hārūn and Mūsā, “Listen to him.”

‘They summoned Mālik, but he did not answer them. They informed al-Mahdī, who spoke to him. Mālik said, “Commander of the Faithful, it is the seeker who goes to the people of knowledge.”

‘He replied, “Mālik has spoken the truth; go to him.”

‘When the two princes reached Mālik, their tutor said to him, “Read to us.”

‘Mālik answered, “In Medina the people read to the scholar just as children read to their teacher; when they make a mistake, he gives them a ruling.”

‘They returned to al-Mahdī, who again summoned Mālik and spoke with him. Mālik said:
“I heard Ibn Shihāb say, ‘We collected this knowledge in the Rawḍah from a group of men, and they were, O Commander of the Faithful: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, Abū Salamah, ʿUrwah, al-Qāsim, Sālim, Khārijah ibn Zayd, Sulaymān ibn Yasār, Nāfiʿ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Hurmuz; and after them: Abū al-Zinād, Rabīʿah, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and Ibn Shihāb. Every one of these men had the text read before him.’”