Imam Malik has forbidden it too.

Imam Malik has forbidden it too." I said, "Gentlemen, you are eight and I am one, and if I speak to all of you, I will not be able to convince you and the discussion might well lose its aim. I suggest you choose one man from among you to discuss the matter with me, and you will act as an arbitrator between us." They liked the idea and chose the religious advisor as their representative because they thought he was more knowledgeable and more able than anybody else.

The man started his deliberation by asking me how I allowed something that had been forbidden by Allah, His Messenger and by all the Imams. I said, "God forbid! I never did such thing.

But Allah forbade the marriage (in case of common breast-feeding) by stating it briefly in a Qur'anic verse and did not specify the details; rather, He left it to His Messenger to explain how and how much." He said, "Imam Malik forbids the marriage when one drop of milk has been taken through breast-feeding." I said, "I know that.

But Imam Malik is not an absolute authority over all Muslims, and what do you say about the opinions of other Imams?" He said, "May Allah he pleased with them, they all followed the steps of the Messenger of Allah." I said, "What is then your reasoning before Allah about following Imam Malik who contradicted a text by the Messenger of Allah (saw)?" He looked bemused and said, "Praise be to Allah!

I did not know that Imam Malik could contradict the Prophetic texts.” The rest of the men looked even more puzzled and were amazed at my daring criticism of Imam Malik, which they had never heard before.

I continued by asking, "Was Imam Malik one of the ?" He replied, "No." I asked, "Was he one of the Followers?" He replied, "No, but he followed the earlier Followers." I asked, "Who is nearer, him or Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib?" He replied, "Imam ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib was one of the rightly guided caliphs." One of the men added, "Our master ‘Ali (a.s.) is the gate to the city of knowledge." I said, "Why did you leave the gate to the city of knowledge and follow a man who was neither a Companion nor a Follower, and he was born after the civil war and after the city of the Messenger of Allah had been sacked by Yazid's forces who killed the best of the and violated all aspects of human morality and changed the Messenger's tradition to some heretical doctrines of their own make.