Muwatta of Imam Malik

The Muwatta is a book collected by the scholar Malik ibn Anas in Medina more than twelve hundred years ago, containing the Prophet ﷺ's hadiths and the sayings and rulings of the people of Medina. Muslims count it among the first great books of the religion, and it is still read and taught.

The Muwatta is Imam Malik ibn Anas's work of hadith and fiqh, composed in Medina in the second Islamic century and refined over years. In it he gathered the Prophet ﷺ's hadiths, reports of the Companions, rulings of the Successors and his own opinions, arranged on the doors of fiqh from purity to the 'compendium', and it is famous for relying on the practice of the people of Medina as evidence. It circulated through his students in many recensions; the best known is Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi's. Scholars describe it as the first comprehensive composed book in Islam, and al-Shafi'i said there is no book after God's book sounder than Malik's book.

The Muwatta is the work of Malik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH) in hadith and Medinan fiqh, the oldest surviving comprehensive book in the Islamic tradition. Malik composed it in Medina on the doors of fiqh from purity to the compendium, refining its contents over some forty years until it held about two thousand hadiths and reports. It contains mursal reports of the Prophet ﷺ, sayings of the Companions, rulings of the Successors and Malik's own fatwas, and is famous for relying on the practice of Medina's people as a juridical proof built on continuity of dealing since the Prophet's era. Its recensions through his students — Yahya ibn Yahya al-Laythi, Ibn al-Qasim, Asbagh and others — are many, with Yahya's the most widespread, reaching about nine hundred sections. Al-Shafi'i called it the soundest book after God's book; al-Suyuti, al-Zurqani and Ibn Abd al-Barr commented on it, and modern studies debate its genesis and sources.