ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Naṣr narrated to us; I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam say, “I heard al-Shāfiʿī remark:

‘Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan said to me, “Our teacher is more knowledgeable than yours”—meaning Abū Ḥanīfah and Mālik—“and your teacher had no right to speak, whereas ours had no right to remain silent.”

I became upset and said, “I adjure you by Allah: who is better versed in the Sunnah, Mālik or your teacher?”

He answered, “Mālik—yet our teacher is stronger in qiyās (analogical reasoning).”

So I replied, “Indeed. Moreover, Mālik is more knowledgeable of the Book of Allah, of its abrogating and abrogated verses, and of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ than Abū Ḥanīfah. Whoever excels in the Quran and the Sunnah is the one most entitled to speak.” (1)

Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā said: al-Shāfiʿī told me,

“One day I debated Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan; our discussion grew heated until I could see the veins in his neck bulging and his buttons threatening to tear. I said, ‘I adjure you by Allah: do you acknowledge that our teacher was more knowledgeable of the Book of Allah?’

He replied, ‘By Allah, yes.’

I continued, ‘And that he was well acquainted with the differing views of the Companions?’

He said, ‘Yes.’”

Ibn Mahdī said, “The leading imams among the people in their time were four: al-Thawrī, Mālik, al-Awzāʿī, and Ḥammād ibn Zayd. I have never seen anyone more intelligent than Mālik.” (2)

Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā also reported: Ibn Wahb narrated to us; he said, “I heard Mālik.” Ibn al-Qāsim once said to Mālik, “After the people of Madinah, no one is more knowledgeable about commercial transactions than the people of Egypt.” Mālik asked, “How did they come to know that?”

He replied, “From you, O Abū ʿAbd Allāh.”

Mālik said, “I do not possess that knowledge myself, so how could they have learned it through me?”