Product Code Database
A madhhab (, , pl. , ) refers to any school of thought within fiqh. The major Sunni Islam madhhab are Hanafi school, Maliki school, Shafi'i and Hanbali school. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all Islamic jurist aligned themselves with a particular madhhab. These four schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries. Fatwa of these schools are followed across the Muslim world without exclusive regional restrictions, but they each came to dominate in different parts of the world. For example, the Maliki school is predominant in North and West Africa; the Hanafi school in South and Central Asia; the Shafi'i school in East Africa and Southeast Asia; and the Hanbali school in North and Central Arabia. The first centuries of Islam also witnessed a number of short-lived Sunni madhhabs. The Zahiri school, which is considered to be endangered, continues to exert influence over legal thought. The development of Shia legal schools occurred along the lines of theological differences and resulted in the formation of the Ja'fari madhhab amongst Twelver Shias, as well as the Ismaili and Zaidiyyah madhhabs amongst Isma'ilis and Zaydism respectively, whose differences from Sunni legal schools are roughly of the same order as the differences among Sunni schools. The Ibadi legal school, distinct from Sunni and Shia madhhabs, is predominant in Oman. Unlike Sunnis, Shias, and Ibadis, non-denominational Muslims are not affiliated with any madhhab.Rane, Halim, Jacqui Ewart, and John Martinkus. "Islam and the Muslim World." Media Framing of the Muslim World. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014. 15-28Obydenkova, Anastassia V. "Religious pluralism in Russia." Politics of religion and nationalism: Federalism, consociationalism and secession, Routledge (2014): 36-49
The transformations of Islamic legal institutions in the modern era have had profound implications for the madhhab system. With the spread of codified state laws in the Muslim world, the influence of the madhhabs beyond personal ritual practice depends on the status accorded to them within the national legal system. State law codification commonly drew on rulings from multiple madhhabs, and legal professionals trained in modern law schools have largely replaced traditional ulama as interpreters of the resulting laws. In the 20th century, some jurists began to assert their intellectual independence from traditional madhhabs. With the spread of Salafi movement influence and Islah currents in the 20th century; a handful of Salafi scholars have asserted independence from being strictly bound by the traditional Fiqh of the four schools. Nevertheless, the majority of Sunni scholarship continues to uphold post-classical creedal belief in rigorously adhering ( Taqlid) to one of the four schools in all legal details.
The Amman Message, which was endorsed in 2005 by prominent Islamic scholars around the world, recognized four Sunni Islam schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali), two Shia Islam schools (Ja'fari, Zaidiyyah), the Ibadi school, and the Zahiri school. Schools of Islamic jurisprudence are located in Pakistan, Iran, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, China, the Philippines, Algeria, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and multiple other countries.
10th century Shia Islam scholar Ibn al-Nadim named eight groups: Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Zahiri, Twelver, Ahl al-Hadith, Jariri and Kharijites.Devin J. Stewart, THE STRUCTURE OF THE FIHRIST: IBN AL-NADIM AS HISTORIAN OF ISLAMIC LEGAL AND THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS, International Journal of Middle East Studies, v.39, pg.369–387, Cambridge University Press, 2007 Abu Thawr also had a school named after him. In the 12th century Jariri and Zahiri schools were absorbed by the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools respectively. Ibn Khaldun defined only three Sunni madhahib: Hanafi, Zahiri, and one encompassing the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools as existing initially,Ignác Goldziher, The Zahiris, pg. 5. Trns. Wolfgang Behn, intro. Camilla Adang. Volume three of Brill Classics in Islam. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2008. Meinhaj Hussain, A New Medina, The Legal System, Grande Strategy, 5 January 2012 noting that by the 14th-century historian the Zahiri school had become extinct, only for it to be revived again in parts of the Muslim world by the mid-20th century.Daniel W. Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought: Vol. 5 of Cambridge Middle East Studies, pgs. 28 and 32. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. M. Mahmood, The Code of Muslim Family Laws, pg. 37. Pakistan Law Times Publications, 2006. 6th ed.Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim, "An Overview of al-Sadiq al-Madhi's Islamic Discourse." Taken from The Blackwell Companion to Contemporary Islamic Thought, pg. 172. Ed. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi'. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.
Historically, the fiqh schools were often in political and academic conflict with one another, vying for favor with the ruling government in order to have their representatives appointed to legislative and especially judiciary positions.
Experts and scholars of fiqh follow the usul al-fiqh (principles) of their own madhhab, but they also study the usul, evidences, and opinions of other madhahib.
Jasser Auda (2025). 9781565644243, The International Institute of Islamic Thought. ISBN 9781565644243
"Ancient" schools
According to John Burton, "modern research shows" that fiqh was first "regionally organized" with "considerable disagreement and variety of view." In the second century of Islam, schools of fiqh were noted for the loyalty of their jurists to the legal practices of their local communities, whether Mecca, Kufa, Basra, Syria, etc.Burton, Islamic Theories of Abrogation, 1990: p.13 (Egypt's school in Fustat was a branch of Medina's school of law and followed such practices—up until the end of the 8th century—as basing verdict on one single witness, not two, and the oath of the claimant. Its principal jurist in the second half of the 8th century was al-Layth b. Sa'd.) Al-Shafiʽi wrote that, "every capital of the Muslims is a seat of learning whose people follow the opinion of one of their countrymen in most of his teachings". The "real basis" of legal doctrine in these "ancient schools" was not a body of reports of Muhammad's sayings, doings, silent approval (the ahadith) or even those of his Companions, but the "living tradition" of the school as "expressed in the consensus of the scholars", according to Joseph Schacht.
Al-Shafi‘i and after
It has been asserted that madhahib were consolidated in the 9th and 10th centuries as a means of excluding dogmatic theologians, government officials and non-Sunni sects from religious discourse. Historians have differed regarding the times at which the various schools emerged. One interpretation is that Sunni Islam was initially split into four groups: the , , Shafi'ites and .Mohammad Sharif Khan and Mohammad Anwar Saleem, Muslim Philosophy And Philosophers, pg. 34. New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House, 1994. Later, the and developed two more schools; then various dynasties effected the eventual exclusion of the Jarirites;Christopher Melchert, The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law: 9th–10th Centuries C.E., pg. 178. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1997. eventually, the Zahirites were also excluded when the Mamluk Sultanate established a total of four independent Qadi, thus solidifying the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools. During the era of the Islamic Gunpowders, the Ottoman Empire reaffirmed the official status of these four schools as a reaction to Shi'ite Persia.Chibli Mallat, Introduction to Middle Eastern Law, pg. 116. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Some are of the view that Sunni jurisprudence falls into two groups: Ahl al-Ra'i ("people of opinions", emphasizing scholarly judgment and reason) and Ahl al-Hadith ("people of traditions", emphasizing strict interpretation of scripture).Murtada Mutahhari, The Role of Ijtihad in Legislation, Al-Tawhid volume IV, No.2, Publisher: Islamic Thought Foundation
Modern era
The transformations of Islamic legal institutions in the modern era have had profound implications for the madhhab system. Legal practice in most of the Muslim world has come to be controlled by government policy and state law, so that the influence of the madhhabs beyond personal ritual practice depends on the status accorded to them within the national legal system. State law codification commonly utilized the methods of takhayyur (selection of rulings without restriction to a particular madhhab) and talfiq (combining parts of different rulings on the same question). Legal professionals trained in modern law schools have largely replaced traditional ulema as interpreters of the resulting laws. Global Islamic movements have at times drawn on different madhhabs and at other times placed greater focus on the scriptural sources rather than classical jurisprudence. The Hanbali school, with its particularly strict adherence to the Quran and hadith, has inspired conservative currents of direct scriptural interpretation. In the 20th century many Islamic jurists began to assert their intellectual independence from traditional schools of jurisprudence. Examples of the latter approach include networks of Indonesian ulema and Islamic scholars residing in Muslim-minority countries, who have advanced liberal interpretations of Islamic law.
Schools
Generally, Sunnis will follow one particular madhhab which varies from region to region, but also believe that ijtihad must be exercised by the contemporary scholars capable of doing so. Most rely on taqlid, or acceptance of religious rulings and epistemology from a higher religious authority in deferring meanings of analysis and derivation of legal practices instead of relying on subjective readings.
Sunni
four main schools of jurisprudence of Sunni Islam are the Hanafi school, Shafi'i, Maliki school and Hanbali school schools. There's also the Zahiri school but it has less followers. Historically, there were other schools of jurisprudence but they became extinct which include the Jariri school, Awza'i, Laythi school, Thawri school and Qurtubi school schools. The reason for the survival and dominance of the main schools was because of a number of factors including state support for specific scholars, dominance in debates and student numbers. Sunni schools take their name from the classical jurist who founded them.
Hanafi
The order of priority for deducing law by the Hanafi school is:
Maliki
The order of priority for deducing law by the Maliki school is:
Shafi'i
The order of priority for deducing law by the Shafi'i school is:
Hanbali
The order of priority for deducing law by the Hanbali school is:
Zahiri
The Zahiri school was founded by Dawud al-Zahiri (815–883). And flourished in Spain during the Caliphate of Córdoba under the leadership of Ibn Hazm. It was also followed by the majority of Muslims in Mesopotamia, Portugal, the Balearic Islands, and North Africa. The Zahiri school lost it's presence around the 14th-century. Today It is followed by minority communities in Morocco and Pakistan. The order of priority for deducing law by the Zahiri school is:
Shia
The Twelver school of jurisprudence is known as the Ja'fari school. The other two schools are the Zaydism and Ismaili schools.
Ja'fari
The Ja'fari school was named after the sixth Imam, Ja'far al-Sadiq. The order of priority for deducing law by the Ja'fari school is:
See also
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
|
|
