4 Sunni schools of Fiqh

Shafi'i   School Shafi'iyyah

Shafi'iyyah was the third school of Islamic jurisprudence. According to the Shafi'i school the paramount sources of legal authority are the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Of less authority are the Ijma' of the community and thought of scholars (Ijitihad) exercised through qiyas. The scholar must interpret the ambiguous passages of the Qur'an according to the consensus of the Muslims, and if there is no consensus, according to qiyas.

History: The Shafi'iyyah school of Islamic law was named after Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (767-819). He belonged originally to the school of Medina and was also a pupil of Malik ibn Anas (d.795), the founder of Malikiyyah. However, he came to believe in the overriding authority of the traditions from the Prophet and identified them with the Sunnah.
Baghdad and Cairo were the chief centres of the Shafi'iyyah. From these two cities Shafi'i teaching spread into various parts of the Islamic world. In the tenth century Mecca and Medina came to be regarded as the school's chief centres outside of Egypt. In the centuries preceding the emergence of the Ottoman Empire the Shafi'is had acquired supremacy in the central lands of Islam. It was only under the Ottoman sultans at the beginning of the sixteenth century that the Shafi'i were replaced by the Hanafites, who were given judicial authority in Constantinople, while Central Asia passed to the Shi'a as a result of the rise of the Safawids in 1501. In spite of these developments, the people in Egypt, Syria and the Hidjaz continued to follow the Shafi'i madhhab. Today it remains predominant in Southern Arabia, Bahrain, the Malay Archipelago, East Africa and several parts of Central Asia.
Symbols: The school has no symbol system.
Adherents: There are no figures for the number of followers of the school. It has some adherents in the following countries: Jordan, Palestine, Syria, the Lebanon and Yemen. It has a large following in the following countries: Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and among the Kurdish people.
Headquarters/Main Centre: The school does not have a headquarters or main centre.
 

Taken from:http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/sunni/shaf.html

 

For more information:His life:  http://www.sunnah.org/publication/khulafa_rashideen/shafii.htm
 

The Method of al Imam al Shafi'i in His Book: Al Risalah:  http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/law/alalwani_usulalfiqh/ch4.html  

 

Hanbali School (Hanbaliyyah)

The Hanbali School is the fourth orthodox school of law within Sunni Islam. It derives its decrees from the Qur'an and the Sunnah, which it places above all forms of consensus, opinion or inference. The school accepts as authoritative an opinion given by a Companion of the Prophet, providing there is no disagreement with anther Companion. In the case of such disagreement, the opinion of the Companion nearest to that of the Qur'an or the Sunnah will prevail.
History: The Hanbali School of law was established by Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d.855). He studied law under different masters, including Imam Shafi'i (the founder of his own school). He is regarded as more learned in the traditions than in jurisprudence. His status also derives from his collection and exposition of the hadiths. His major contribution to Islamic scholarship is a collection of fifty-thousand traditions known as 'Musnadul-Imam Hanbal'.
In spite of the importance of Hanbal's work his school did not enjoy the popularity of the three preceding Sunni schools of law. Hanbal's followers were regarded as reactionary and troublesome on account of their reluctance to give personal opinion on matters of law, their rejection of analogy, their fanatic intolerance of views other than their own, and their exclusion of opponents from power and judicial office. Their unpopularity led to periodic bouts of persecution against them.
The later history of the school has been characterized by fluctuations in their fortunes. Hanbali scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya (d.1328) and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzia (d.1350), did display more tolerance to other views than their predecessors and were instrumental in making the teachings of Hanbali more generally accessible.
From time to time Hanbaliyyah became an active and numerically strong school in certain areas under the jurisdiction of the 'Abbassid Caliphate. But its importance gradually declined under the Ottoman Turks. The emergence of the Wahabi in the nineteenth century and its challenge to Ottoman authority enabled Hanbaliyyah to enjoy a period of revival. Today the school is officially recognised as authoritative in Saudi Arabia and areas within the Persian Gulf.
Symbols: Hanbaliyyah does not possess a distinctive symbol system.
Adherents: There are no official figures identifying the number of people associated with the school.
Headquarters/Main Centre: The school has no headquarters or main centre.
Taken from: http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/sunni/hanb.html

For more information:  His life: http://sunnah.org/publication/khulafa_rashideen/hanbal.htm
Hanbali Fiqh: http://www.ummah.net/islam/mba/fiqhofthe4/qadir.htm

 

Maliki School  (Malikiyyah)

Malikiyyah is the second of the Islamic schools of jurisprudence. The sources of Maliki doctrine are the Qur'an, the Prophet's traditions (hadith), consensus (ijma'), and analogy (qiyas). The Malikis' concept of ijma' differed from that of the Hanafis in that they understood it to mean the consensus of the community represented by the people of Medina. (Overtime, however, the school came to understand consensus to be that of the doctors of law, known as 'ulama.)
Imam Malik's major contribution to Islamic law is his book al-Muwatta (The Beaten Path). The Muwatta is a code of law based on the legal practices that were operating in Medina. It covers various areas ranging from prescribed rituals of prayer and fasting to the correct conduct of business relations. The legal code is supported by some 2,000 traditions attributed to the Prophet.

History: Malikiyyah was founded by Malik ibn Anas (c.713-c.795), a legal expert in the city of Medina. Such was his stature that it is said three 'Abbasid caliphs visited him while they were on Pilgrimage to Medina. The second 'Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur (d.775), approached the Medinan jurist with the proposal to establish a judicial system that would unite the different judicial methods that were operating at that time throughout the Islamic world.
The school spread westwards through Malik's disciples, becoming dominant in North Africa and Spain. In North Africa Malikiyyah gave rise to an important Sufi order, Shadhiliyyah, which was founded by Abu al-Hasan, a jurist in the Malikite School, in Tunisia in the thirteenth century.
During the Ottoman period Hanafite Turks were given the most important judicial in the Ottoman Empire. North Africa, however, remained faithful to its Malikite heritage. Such was the strength of the local tradition that qadis (judges) from both the Hanafite and Malikite traditions worked with the local ruler. Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire, Malikiyyah regained its position of ascendancy in the region. Today Malikite doctrine and practice remains widespread throughout North Africa, the Sudan and regions of West and Central Africa.
 

Adherents: There are no figures indicating the size of the school.

Headquarters/Main Centre: The school has no headquarters or main centre.

Taken from:
http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/sunni/malik.html


His life: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Abewley/Malik.html

Translation of Malik's Muwatta :http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/muwatta


The Fundamental Principles of Imam Malik'sFiqh(Muhammad Abu Zahrah) :http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Abewley/usul.html

Hanafism - Hanafiyyah


 The Hanafiyyah School is the first of the four orthodox Sunni schools of law. It is distinguished from the other schools through its placing less reliance on mass oral traditions as a source of legal knowledge. It developed the exegesis of the Qur'an through a method of analogical reasoning known as Qiyas. It also established the principle that the universal concurrence of the Ummah (community) of Islam on a point of law, as represented by legal and religious scholars, constituted evidence of the will of God. This process is called ijma', which means the consensus of the scholars. Thus, the school definitively established the Qur'an, the Traditions of the Prophet, ijma' and qiyas as the basis of Islamic law. In addition to these, Hanafi accepted local customs as a secondary source of the law.

History: The Hanafi School of law was founded by Nu'man Abu Hanifah (d.767) in Kufa in Iraq. It derived from the bulk of the ancient school of Kufa and absorbed the ancient school of Basra. Abu Hanifah belonged to the period of the successors (tabi'in) of the Sahabah (the companions of the Prophet). He was a Tabi'i since he had the good fortune to have lived during the period when some of the Sahabah were still alive. Having originated in Iraq, the Hanafi School was favoured by the first 'Abbasid caliphs in spite of the school's opposition to the power of the caliphs.The privileged position which the school enjoyed under the 'Abbasid caliphate was lost with the decline of the 'Abbasid caliphate. However, the rise of the Ottoman Empire led to the revival of Hanafi fortunes. Under the Ottomans the judgment-seats were occupied by Hanafites sent from Istanbul, even in countries where the population followed another madhhab.Consequently, the Hanafi madhhab became the only authoritative code of law in the public life and official administration of justice in all the provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Even today the Hanafi code prevails in the former Ottoman countries. It is also dominant in Central Asia and India. There are no official figures for the number of followers of the Hanafi School of law. It is followed by the vast majority of people in the Muslim world. Main Centre: The school has no headquarters as such. It is followed by the majority of the Muslim population Of Turkey, Albania, the Balkans, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India and Iraq.

 Taken from:http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/islam/sunni/hana.html

For more information: http://www.muslim-canada.org/hanifah.htm   http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~burraaq/abuhanifa.html

 

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