Al-Bukhari said, on the authority of ʿAli ibn ʿAbd Allah: “Mālik has roughly one thousand hadiths.”

I say: He was referring to the reports that became famous in al-Muwattaʾ and elsewhere; in fact, Mālik possessed far more material, which he habitually refrained from transmitting. (1)

ʿAli ibn al-Madini narrated, from Sufyān, who said: “May Allah have mercy upon Mālik—how rigorous he was in scrutinising narrators!” (2)

Ibn Abī Khaythamah related: Ibn Maʿīn told us that Ibn ʿUyaynah said, “We were nothing compared to Mālik. All we did was follow in Mālik’s footsteps: we would look at a shaykh, and if Mālik had written from him, we would write from him as well.”

Tāhir ibn Khālid al-Aylī narrated, from his father, from Ibn ʿUyaynah: “Mālik would convey only a sound hadith, and he would relate only from a trustworthy transmitter. I do not think Madinah will remain thriving after his death—that is, in terms of knowledge.”

Al-Ṭaḥāwī reports: Yūnus told us, “I heard Sufyān”—and he mentioned a hadith—“and they said to him, ‘Mālik disagrees with you about it.’” He replied, “Do you place me on a par with Mālik? Between him and me it is only as Jarīr said (3):”