Ash-Shfi' said, "After the Book of Allah, there is no book on the face of the earth sounder than the book of Mlik."
'Al' ad-Dn Maghläy al-anaf said, "The first person to compile the ä was Mlik."
Ibn ajar said, "The book of Mlik is sound by all the criteria that are demanded as proofs in the mursal, munqäi' and other types of transmission."
As-Suy followed Ibn ajar's judgement and said, "It is absolutely correct to say that the Muwäa' is sound (ä) without exception."
Al-Bukhr and Muslim transmitted most of its adths and included them in their ä collections. The authors of the rest of the six books, the Imm of the adth scholars, Amad ibn anbal, and others did the same.
But, in addition, the Muwäa' contains a record of the practice of the people of Madnah of the first generations, a transmission of the ethos that permeated the city and Imm Mlik's painstaking clarification of the Sunna, the adths, the practice and legal judgements.
Imam Mlik's full name is Mlik ibn Anas ibn Mlik ibn Ab 'mir al-Abä and he was related to Dh Abä, a sub-tribe of imyar. He was instructed in the learning and recitation of the Noble Qur'n by Imm Nfi' ibn 'Abd ar-Rämn ibn Ab Nu'aym, the Imm of the reciters of Madna and one of the "seven reciters". Among the huge number of his teachers in adth and fiqh were Nfi', the mawl of 'Abdullh ibn 'Umar and Ibn Shihb az-Zuhr. He sat to give fatw when he was seventeen years old after seventy Imms had testified that he was worthy to give fatw and teach.
His own students included Imm ash-Shfi' and Imm Muhammad ibn al-asan ash-Shaybn the anaf mujtahid, as well as a great number of Imms of adth and fiqh and thus he is known as Imm al-A'immah 'the Imm of the Imms'.