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Recordings › The Legendary Imam Malik Ibn Anas | Mufti Abu Layth · 10 Mar 2023 › Segment 7 of 14

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Is the Muwatta of Imam Malik more authentic than Sahih al-Bukhari?

haj pilgrimage hadj hadeeth ahadith ahaadeeth hadis hadees ahaadith saheeh sahih hadith saheeh hadith sound hadith malik ibn anas malik bin anas imam maalik imam malik ibn anas sahih bukhari saheeh al-bukhari saheeh bukhari imam al-bukhari imaam imams prayer leader muftis al-muwatta muwatta malik muwatta imam malik muwata iman imaan eemaan eeman salafi salafism wahhabi wahabi wahhabism 'alim aalim al-din ad-deen ad-din religion

Malik's fame, the golden chain, and why the Muwatta is not ranked first

LessonRecorded 10 Mar 2023Segment 7 of 14 in the recording2023-03-10-S07

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This segment26:01 to 31:02 · 5 min 01 sGeneral teaching

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The Muwatta, with Malik's 'golden chain', is arguably the most authentic book of hadith and predates al-Bukhari, though others do not rank it first.

In more detail

Mufti Abu Layth says Malik became an imam celebrated in his lifetime, so that at Hajj people imitated even his straightening of his cloak. He says Malik was untouchable in hadith: al-Bukhari considered his chain, with two people between him and the Prophet, the golden chain, and the Muwatta is one of the earliest compendiums, a selection rather than a collection, and arguably the most authentic book of hadith, predating al-Bukhari by generations. He says the Malikis and others rank it first, and asks why the Shafi'is who dominated hadith literature and the Salafis do not, suggesting its small size of about 1,800 hadith and, more importantly, what Malik says in it.

Position stated

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Mufti Abu Layth says the Muwatta is arguably the most authentic book of hadith from a hadith perspective.

In his words

“it is the mother is arguably the most authentic book in Hadith from a hadithi perspective”

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Transcript

machine26:01 to 31:02 · click a time to seek · dotted terms open the glossary
25:22

about and he said well it would keep people strong and the faith would if they were people of Faith then people around them felt their presence and by feeling their presence the faith had a presence as in when they spoke of the Deen it had an awe to it so he was very and he was criticized a lot about this kind of stuff so he did he did speak about that let me just oh this I see this just moved yeah so he did um he did do that that was um

26:01

his his whole attitude and people used to criticize him that how can you you know it's not from this is Indulgence and but he he what he was who he was the legend Allah and he became so committed to the study of Hadith and ferk and learning that he became an Imam in his age in his lifetime he was so celebrated that everybody people would come to they knew who he was you know they say in Hajj he um

26:40

people would follow like they would just see what is Malik doing and they would just imitate that to the extent they say once uh Imam Malik something um he was sitting in I think Mina and as he's sitting something he had this already like a cloak and he got trapped under him under him so he stood up and he straightened his thing and people stood up like they're thinking that they were thinking this is this is the religious

27:18

act to do at this stage this is the way that they would copy him and when it came to matters of the faith in Hadith he was untouchable in Hadith his chain is considered by Imam bukhari to be the most strongest chain that exists in Hadith literature it's called the Golden Chain

27:55

um from the prophet so between Malik and the prophet there are two people so this is considered the golden chain which is not it's it's in the mothball but it's not the only as in Imam Malik uses other chains but that's in there as well and the mother was one of the first and one of the earliest compendiums of Hadith literature Imam Malik was not trying to compile Hadith as a collective but what he was doing is

28:33

putting together a selection okay it is the mother is arguably the most authentic book in Hadith from a hadithi perspective okay it is it naturally it predates it predates by some generations the very existence of Imam bukhar so let alone his book acknowledgment

29:04

Imam Malik's chain is it is nothing it is the most authentic chain in the entire Hadith literature this is the position of Imam Malik why do people not put Imam Malik's book as number one because the malikia do and some of the people do Allah and other people do consider them to be the the most authentic book there is but why does why do the shafi's or the other people not the chef dominated the Hadith literature

29:44

why do they not consider why do the salafia not consider it why do um and there may be many reasons amongst them that well some people felt well it's well it's it's only a small number of Hadith there's only about 1800 Hadith in there whereas the other books have whether it's going to be seven thousand six thousand four thousand ten thousand twelve thousand and so this is a small collection of Hadith therefore it's not of equal measure that may be a reason another reason is as well that Imam Malik speaks in the model

30:23

and you say well what's the problem with him speaking doesn't Imam turmidi speaks in history he says well such and such scholar acted according to this Hadith such and such didn't he says well such and such person is weak such and such person so that's fine you know it's not a uh I would I would sometimes speaks in his uh Imam bukhari sometimes speaks in his book so what's the problem with speaking well it's not speaking per se it's what's being spoke [Laughter]

31:01

Imam Malik brings the Hadith not always but he brings the Hadith and then he says we don't act according to this Hadith he says he says you know this Hadith we in our city and here I ask you what city in our city in this city in the one that counts

Paragraphs overlapping 26:01 to 31:02. Full text on the recording page.

Cite this segment

Stable id, transcript version and tier are part of the citation. Every change to a transcript is logged.

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 2023-03-10-S07, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/7/ (accessed 1 November 2026)

APA 7
Mufti Abu Layth. (2023, March 10). Is the Muwatta of Imam Malik more authentic than Sahih al-Bukhari? [Video, segment 2023-03-10-S07, auto-transcribed, may contain errors]. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/7/
Chicago author-date
Mufti Abu Layth. 2023. "Is the Muwatta of Imam Malik more authentic than Sahih al-Bukhari?" Video, segment 2023-03-10-S07, auto-transcribed, may contain errors. Mufti Abu Layth Archive. Recorded March 10, 2023. Accessed November 1, 2026. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/7/
BibTeX
@misc{abulayth-2023-03-10-S07,
  author = {Mufti Abu Layth},
  title = {{Is the Muwatta of Imam Malik more authentic than Sahih al-Bukhari?}},
  year = {2023},
  month = {3},
  date = {2023-03-10},
  howpublished = {\url{https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/7/}},
  url = {https://muftiabulayth.org/r/vhqvm47pns0/s/7/},
  organization = {Mufti Abu Layth Archive},
  urldate = {2026-11-01},
  note = {Segment 2023-03-10-S07, auto-transcribed, may contain errors}
}
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