It constituted the living embodiment of the well-established Sunnah, and its authority rested on the fact that the greater body of jurists of Medina recognized its validity. Imam Malik therefore considered the standard practice of the people of Madinah to be more representative of the conduct of the Prophet ( صلى الله عليه وسلم), and therefore the Sunnah, than the isolated hadith reports of one or two individuals.
Islamic Legal Reasoning in the Formative Period, Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2013, p.122.
