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MADHAB FIQH SHARIA
Technical parts of Sunni version of Islam:
Articles:
# Islamic schools and branches
# Madh'hab
# Islamic theology
# Sunni Islam
# Ijazah
# Silsila
# Usul al-fiqh
# Sharia
# Sources of sharia law
# Urf
# Qiyas
# Istihsan
# Ijma
# Istislah
# Hanafi
# Maliki
# Shafi'i
# Hanbali
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# Islamic schools and branches
Sunni Islam
Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam and are known as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jamā‘h or simply as Ahl as-Sunnah. The word Sunni comes from the word sunnah, which means the teachings and actions or examples of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Therefore, the term "Sunni" refers to those who follow or maintain the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad.
The Sunnis believe that Muhammad did not specifically appoint a successor to lead the Muslim ummah (community) before his death, and after an initial period of confusion, a group of his most prominent companions gathered and elected Abu Bakr Siddique, Muhammad's close friend and a father-in-law, as the first caliph of Islam. Sunni Muslims regard the first four caliphs (Abu Bakr, `Umar ibn al-Khattāb, Uthman Ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abu Talib) as "al-Khulafā’ur-Rāshidūn" or "The Rightly Guided Caliphs." Sunnis also believe that the position of caliph may be attained democratically, on gaining majority votes, but after the Rashidun, the position turned into a hereditary dynastic rule because of the divisions that started by the Shias and others. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, there has never been another caliph as widely recognized in the Muslim world.
Schools of jurisprudence
Madhhab is an Islamic term that refers to a school of thought or religious jurisprudence, or fiqh, within Sunni Islam. Each of the Sahaba had a unique school of jurisprudence, but these schools were gradually consolidated or discarded so that there are currently four recognized schools. The differences between these schools of thought manifest in some practical and philosophical differences. Sunnis generally do not identify themselves with a particular school of thought — simply calling themselves "Sunnis", but they do follow their individual 'Madh'habs exclusively and respectfully.
Hanafi
The Hanafi school was founded by Imam Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man; it is the largest school of thought followed by most Muslims around the world. It is predominant among Sunni Muslims in Central Asia, Afghanistan , Pakistan , India , Bangladesh , northern Egypt , Iraq , Turkey India
Shafi`i
Shafi`i was founded by Imam Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i, is the second largest school of thought in terms of followers. It is practiced throughout the Muslim world, but is most prevalent in Egypt , Somalia , Indonesia , Thailand , Singapore , Philippines , Yemen , among Kurds, Kerala (Mappilas) and is officially followed by the governments of Brunei and Malaysia
Maliki
The Maliki school derives from the work of Imam Malik ibn Anas. It is practiced in North and West Africa . It is the third-largest of the four schools.
Hanbali
Hanbali is considered to be the most conservative of the four schools and the one that relies on hadith the most. Hanbalis reject the use of philosophical argument in matters of religious belief. The school was started by the students of Imam Ahmad. Hanbali jurisprudence is predominant among Muslims in Saudi Arabia
Ẓāhirī
Ẓāhirī is a fifth school, established in 800s by Dawud ibn Khalaf al-Zahiri and Ibn Hazm. Zahiris rely on the literal expression of the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Movements
Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun
The Al-Ikhwan Al-Muslimun, or Muslim Brotherhood, is an organisation that was founded by Egyptian scholar Hassan al-Banna, a graduate of Dar al-Ulum. With its various branches, it is the largest Sunni movement in the Arab world, and an affiliate is often the largest opposition party in many Arab nations. The Muslim Brotherhood is not concerned with theological differences, accepting Muslims of any of the four Sunni schools of thought. It is the world's oldest and largest Islamist group. Its aims are to re-establish the Caliphate and in the mean time push for more Islamisation of society. The Brotherhood's stated goal is to instill the Qur'an and sunnah as the "sole reference point for... ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community... and state."
Jamaat-e-Islami
The Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist political party in the Indian Subcontinent. It was founded in Lahore , India , by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi in 1941 and is the oldest religious party in Pakistan and India India , (Jamaat-e-Islami Hind), Bangladesh (Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh ), Kashmir, Afghanistan , and Sri Lanka Pakistan , Bangladesh and Afghanistan
Jamaat-al-Muslimeen
The Jamaat ul-Muslimeen is a movement in Sunni Islam revived by the Imam Syed Masood Ahmad in the 1960s. The present leader of this group is Muhammad Ishtiaq.
Salafi
The Salafi movement was revived by the 18th century teacher Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab in the Arabian peninsula , and was instrumental in the rise of the House of Saud to power. Salafism is a puritanical and legalistic Islamic movement under the Sunni umbrella, and is the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia
In addition to the Qur'an and hadith, the works of earlier scholars like Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn Al Qayyim and Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab are used for religious guidance. Salafism is, in general, opposed to Sufism as well as sects outside of the Sunni fold, which they regard as heresies. They see their role as a movement to restore Islam from what they perceive to be innovations, superstitions, deviances, and idolatries.
Salafis view the first three generations of Muslims, Muhammad's companions and the two succeeding generations after them, the Tabi‘un and the Tabi‘ al-Tabi‘in, and those who followed in their path as being the best sources in order to understand the foundational principles of Islam, this being the methodology of the salaf. From this they follow the Athari creed with regards to their beliefs and regarding fiqh, as Sheikh Muhammad ibn al Uthaymeen once explained, the clearest path is for Muslims who are laymen to follow, do taqlid to, a local scholar or teacher. However for those who wish to further their knowledge in fiqh then these Muslims are advised to take learning from a scholar well versed in a particular Madh`hab and study it thoroughly. The notable thing with regards to the salafi methadology is that it allows for scholars and sheikhs to reach a level whereby if they master the four madha'hib then they are capable of ijtihad, deriving their own fiqh rulings.
The methodology predominates mainly in countries such as Saudi Arabia , and other Arabian Peninsula states. There are also significant numbers of adherents in the Indian subcontinent (known as the Ahl al-Hadith), Egypt United Kingdom , Canada and the United States
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# Madh'hab
Madhhab, "doctrine", is a Muslim school of law or fiqh (religious jurisprudence). In the first 150 years of Islam, there were many such "schools". In fact, several of the Sahābah, or contemporary "companions" of Muhammad, are credited with founding their own. The prominent Islamic jurisprudence schools of Damascus in Syria (often named Awza'iyya), Kufa and Basra in Iraq , and Medina in Arabia survived as the Maliki madhhab, while the other Iraqi schools were consolidated into the Hanafi madhhab. The Shafi'i, Hanbali, Zahiri and Jariri schools were established later, though the latter school eventually died out.
It is claimed that the schools of thought were developed 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 time at which each of the various schools had emerged. It is said that Sunni Islam was initially split into six schools (Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali, Zahiri, Jariri) before various ruling dynasties later narrowed the number down to four, with the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt eventually creating four independent judicial positions, thus solidifying the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools. Conversely, some view that Sunni jurisprudence falls into two groups: Ahl al-Ra'i, or people of opinions, due to their emphasis on scholarly judgment and reason; and Ahl al-Hadith, or people of traditions, due to their emphasis on restricting juristic thought to only what is found in scripture.
Ibn Khaldun, on the other hand, defined the Sunni schools as three: the Hanafi school, the Zahiri school, and a broader, middle school encompassing the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools. Shi'ite historian Ibn al-Nadim, on the other hand, divides the Islamic schools of thought into eight groups: Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Zahiri, Imami Shi'ite, Ahl al-Hadith, Jariri and Kharijite.
The four mainstream schools of Sunni jurisprudence today, named after their founders (sometimes called the A’immah Arba‘a or four Imaams of Fiqh), are not generally seen as distinct sects, as there has been harmony for the most part among their various scholars throughout Islamic history.
Generally, Sunni Muslims prefer one madhhab out of the four (normally a regional preference) 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.
Experts and scholars of fiqh follow the usul (principles) of their own native madhhab, but they also study the usul, evidences, and opinions of other madhhabs.
The Amman
The Amman Message is a statement which was issued on 9 November 2004 (27th of Ramadan 1425 AH) by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein of Jordan
The Amman Message was delivered in Amman
The recognition of eight legal schools of thought (madhāhib) and the varying strains of Islamic theology viz.
1. Hanafi
2. Maliki
3. Shafi'i
4. Hanbali
5. Ja'fari
6. Zaidi
7. Ibadi
8. Zahiri
1. The forbiddance from pronouncing disbelief (Takfir) upon (or excommunicating) others recognized as Muslims
2. The stipulations placed as preconditions to the issuing of religious edicts, intended to prevent the circulation of illegitimate edicts
Explaining why the message was issued, King Abdullah stated: "[W]e felt that the Islamic message of tolerance was being subjected to a fierce and unjust attack from some in the West who do not understand Islam's essence, and others who claim to be associated with Islam and hide behind Islam to commit irresponsible deeds."
Following are conferences and declarations:
· The International Islamic Conference: True Islam and Its Role in Modern Society, (Amman
· Forum of Muslim 'Ulama' and Thinkers, (Mecca
· First International Islamic Conference Concerning the Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence and the Modern Challenges, (Al al-Bayt University, 13-15 Shawwal ah /15–17 November 2005 ce)
· The Third Extraordinary Session of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, (5-6 Dhu'l-Qa'da 1426 ah / 7–8 December 2005 ce)
· The Second International Conference of the Assembly for Moderate Islamic Thought and Culture, (25-27 1 Rabi' 1427 ah / 24–26 April 2006 ce)
· The International Islamic Fiqh Academy Conference Seventeenth Session, (Amman
· Muslims of Europe Conference, (Istanbul
· The ninth session of the council of the Conference of Ministers of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs, (Kuwait
· Amman Message in the Eyes of Others: Dialogue, Moderation, Humanity, (The Hashemite University
Suhail Nakhouda, writing in the Amman-based Islamica, stated that the Amman
Not all names said to have signed the Amman Message have actually endorsed it in its entirety. For example, Hazrat Mufti Saheb declares some Sufis to be Kafirs.
[Source: wikipedia, 24 July 2012.]
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# Islamic theology
Islamic theology, Aqīdah, is a branch of Islamic studies describing the beliefs of the Islamic faith. Any religious belief system, or creed, can be considered an example of aqīdah. However, this term has taken a significant technical usage in Islamic history and theology, denoting those matters over which Muslims hold conviction. Literally, the word aqīdah is derived from the triconsonantal root qd, which means "to tie" or "knot".
Muslims enumerate their creed to include the Six articles of belief (called arkān al-īmān). There is a consensus on the elements of this creed across all spectrums as they are clearly articulated in the Qurʾān. While some Muslim groups may hold different beliefs regarding the attributes of God or the purpose of angels, there are no disputes concerning the existence of God, that he has sent his revelation via messengers, and that man will be held to account and rewarded or punished in the afterlife.
In the Hadith of Gabriel, the Islamic prophet Muḥammad explains, "Faith is to affirm your faith in Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Last Day, and to believe in the Divine Destiny whether it be good or bad."
The six Sunni articles of belief are:
1. Belief in God (Allāh), the one and only one worthy of all worship (tawhid).
2. Belief in the Angels (malāʾika).
3. Belief in the Books (kutub) sent by Allah (including the Qurʾān, Gospel and Torah/Tanakh).
4. Belief in all the Messengers (rusul) sent by Allah (including Muḥammad, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Noah, and Adam)
5. Belief in the Day of Judgment (yawm al-qiyāmah) and in the Resurrection (life after death).
6. Belief in Destiny (Fate) (qadar).
The first five are based on several Qurānic creeds including but not limited to the following the verse:
"O ye who believe! Believe in Allah and His Messenger, and the scripture which He hath sent to His Messenger and the scripture which He sent to those before (him). Any who denieth Allah, His angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Day of Judgment, hath gone far, far astray. " [4:136]
The sixth point made it into the creed because of the first theological controversy in Islām. Although not connected with the Sunni—Shii controversy about the succession, the majority of Twelver Shiites do not stress God's limitless power (qadar), but rather his boundless justice adl as the sixth point of belief. This does not mean either that Sunnis deny his justice or that Shiites negate his power; it simply reflects a difference in emphasis.
In both the Sunni and the Shii view, having īmān literally means to have belief in the six articles of faith. However, the importance of īmān relies heavily upon reasons. Islam explicitly asserts that belief should be maintained in that which can be proven using faculties of perception and conception.
There is a well-known short formula of creed which summarises the articles of faith, called the Āmantu (“I believe”). The text (in one of the slightly differing versions), followed by the shahada is:
"I believe in (the One) God (Allāh), His angels, His Books, His Messengers and the Last Day, and in the Destiny, from God, whether it be good or bad; and the Resurrection after death is true. I bear witness that there is no god but God (Allāh), and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and His Messenger."
Many Muslim scholars have attempted to explain Islamic creed in general, or specific aspects of aqidah. The following list contains some of the most well-known literature.
· al-Aqīdah aṭ-Ṭaḥāwiyya or "The Fundamentals of Islamic Creed by the Imām aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī. This has been accepted by almost all Sunnī Muslims (Atharis, Asharīs, Māturīdīs). A well-known explanation exists by Ibn Abī 'l-Izz, however, his commentary and that by the late Saudi Mufti Abdullāh Ibn Bāz. Several mainstream Sunni scholars have written about the Tahawiyya creed, including a commentary by Ibn al-Seraj al-Dimashqi al-Hanafi called Al-Qala'id fi Sharh il-
· al-Aqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah or "The Fundamentals of Islamic Creed as given to the people of Wāsiṭ , Iraq
· Sharh as Sunnah or the Explanation of the Sunna by Al-Barbahaaree. Lists approximately 170 points pertaining to the fundamentals of Aqidah.
· Khalq Af'aal al-Ibad (The Creation of the acts of Servants) by Bukhari. It shows the opinion of early scholars (Salaf) but it does not cover all topics.
· Lum'at-ul-'Itiqaad by Ibn Qudamah. Details the creed of the early Imams of the Sunni Muslims, defining the Athari school of thought.
· al-Uloow by al-Dhahabī. Details the opinions of early scholars on matters of creed.
· Ibaanah by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. Accepted by Atharis and early Ash'aris.
· Tahāfut al-Falāsifah or "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" by Imam al-Ghazali. An Ash'ari refutation of Greek philosophy.
· "Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani on the Creed of Najm al-Din al-Nasafi
Shii beliefs and practices
Shii Muslims hold that there are five articles of belief. Similar to the Sunnis, the Shiis do not believe in complete predestination, or complete free will. They believe that in human life there is a both free will and predestination.
Twelver's Roots of Religion (Uṣūl ad-Dīn)
1. Tawhīd (Oneness): The Oneness of Allah.
2. Adalah (Justice): The Justice of Allah.
3. Nubuwwah (Prophethood): Allah has appointed perfect and infallible prophets and messengers to teach mankind the religion (i.e. a perfect system on how to live in "peace".)
4. Imamah (Leadership): God has appointed specific leaders to lead and guide mankind — a prophet appoints a custodian of the religion before his demise.
5. Qiyamah (The Day of Judgment): Allah will raise mankind for Judgment
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# Sunni Islam
Estimates of the world Sunni population varies from over 75% to 90% of all Muslims.
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam. Sunni Muslims are referred to in Arabic as Ahlu-s-Sunnati wa-l-Jamāah), "people of the tradition of Muhammad and the consensus of the Ummah" or Ahlu-s-Sunnah for short; in English, they are known as Sunni Muslims, Sunnis or Sunnites.
Sunni Islam is sometimes referred to as the orthodox version of the religion. The word "Sunni" comes from the term Sunnah, which refers to the sayings and actions of Muhammad that are recorded in hadiths (collections of narrations regarding Muhammad).
The primary hadiths Al-Kutub Al-Sittah, in conjunction with the Quran, form the basis of all jurisprudence methodologies within Sunni Islam. Laws are derived from the text of the Quran and the hadith, in addition to using methods of juristic reasoning (like qiyas) and consensus (ijma). There are a multitude of scholarly opinions in each field; however, these can be summarised as either derived from the four major schools of thought (Madh'hab) or from an expert scholar who exercises independent derivation of Islamic Law (ijtihad). Both are considered valid as differences of opinion (which were present at the time of the early Muslims, the Salaf).
Sunnī) is a broad term derived from sunnah , means "habit" or "usual practice". The Muslim usage of this term refers to the sayings and living habits of Muhammad. In its full form, this branch of Islam is referred to as "Ahl al-Sunnah wa Jama'ah" (literally, "People of the Sunan and the Community"). People claiming to follow the Sunnah who can demonstrate that they have no action or belief against the prophetic Sunnah can consider themselves to be Sunni Muslims.
HISTORY
After the death of Muhammad, the Muslims accepted Abu Bakr as the first caliph. But many years later, a new sect known as Shiasm was founded. Those who accepted Abu Bakr were known as Sunnis, in order to differentiate them from the new sect of Shiasm.
According to Sunni Muslims, the first four caliphs were known as the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. The first was Abu Bakr Siddique, followed by the second, Umar ibn al-Khattāb. Uthman ibn Affan and Ali ibn Abi Talib also were called by the same title.
The rulers succeeding these first four did not receive this title by consensus, and as it was turned into a monarchy thereafter.
After the first four caliphs, the Caliphate was claimed by dynasties such as the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Ottomans, and for relatively short periods by other, competing dynasties in al-Andalus, North Africa, and Egypt Republic of Turkey
Sunnis believe that the companions were the best of the Muslims, based on hadiths such as this one: It was narrated from ‘Abd-Allah ibn Mas’ud that Muhammad said: "The best of the people are my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them." Support for this view is also found in verses of Quran such as this one in Surah Tawba verse 100 (9:100) "Those who believed, and went into exile and fought for God's cause with their property and their persons, as well as those who sheltered and helped them,- these shall be friends, one of another."
Sunnis believe that the companions were true believers since it was the companions who were given the task of compiling the Quran. Furthermore, narrations that were narrated by the companions are a great source of knowledge for Muslims and a great source on the Sunnah i.e. example of Muhammad.
Schools of law
There are several intellectual traditions within the field of Islamic law. These varied traditions reflect differing viewpoints on some laws and obligations within Islamic law. While one school of thought may see a certain act as a religious obligation, another may see the same act as optional. These schools of thought aren't regarded as sects; rather, they represent differing viewpoints on issues that are not considered the core of Islamic belief.
Historians have differed regarding the exact delineation of the schools based on the underlying principles they follow. Many traditional scholars saw Sunni Islam in two groups: Ahl al-Ra'i, or people of opinions, due to their emphasis on scholarly judgment and reason; and Ahl al-Hadith, or people of traditions, due to their emphasis on restricting juristic thought to only what is found in scripture. Ibn Khaldun defined the Sunni schools as three: the Hanafi school representing opinions, the Zahiri school representing scripture, and a broader, middle school encompassing the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools.
Abu Hanifah (died 767), was the founder of the Hanafi school. He was born in the year 702 CE in Kufa , Iraq Syria , Lebanon , Bangladesh , Mauritius , Pakistan , India , Afghanistan , Central Asia, the Muslim areas of Southern Russia, the Caucasus, most of the Muslim areas of the Balkans and Turkey and parts of Egypt
Imam Malik ibn Anas (died 795) developed his ideas in Medina Tunisia , Morocco , Algeria , Libya , Mali , Nigeria , [upper Egypt] and Sudan Kuwait , Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates Tunisia
Shafi'i school
Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i (died 820 CE) was a student of Malik. He taught in Iraq and then in Egypt
The Shafi'i madhab today is the dominant school of jurisprudence in Yemen , Lower Egypt , Djibouti , Eritrea , Somalia , Sudan , Syria , the Palestinian Territories , Jordan , the North Caucasus, Kurdistan (East Turkey, North west Iran , North Iraq, Northern Syria), Maldives , Malaysia , Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia
It is also practised by large communities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia (in the Hejaz and Asir), the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, the Swahili Coast, Mauritius, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan (by Chechens) and Indian States of Kerala (most of the Mappilas), Karnataka (Bhatkal, Mangalore and Coorg districts), Maharashtra (by Konkani Muslims), Tamil Nadu, Lakshadweep Islands.
Ahmad bin Hanbal (died 855), the namesake of the Hanbali school, was born in Baghdad Arabian Peninsula . The methodology focuses primarily on sound textual evidence and scholarly consensus in deriving fiqh. The majority of Hanbali scholars, as well as many from the other schools of thought, follow the Athari Aqeedah which adopts the middle path of accepting the texts of Qur'an and Hadeeth without extensive philosophical interpretation or denial. This being the way of the early generations of Muslims (the salaf) and those that followed them (the Tabi‘un), and so on, where the key points of Islamic belief are established and any attributes regarding Allah are accepted as they are without delving into possible rational and philosophical explanations, thus keeping far from anthropomorphism or complete denial.
Differences in the Schools
Interpreting Islamic law by deriving specific rulings - such as how to pray - is known as fiqh, commonly termed jurisprudence. A madh'hab is a particular tradition of interpreting this jurisprudence. These schools possess different focuses, such as specific evidence (Shafi'i and Hanbali) or general principles (Hanafi and Maliki) derived from specific evidences. As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting Islamic law, there has been little change in the methodology. However, as the social and economic environment changes, new rulings are being made. For example, when tobacco appeared, it was considered disliked because of its smell. When medical information showed that smoking was dangerous, most jurists took the view that it's forbidden. Current issues include topics such as downloading pirated software and cloning.
Sunni theological traditions
Some Islamic scholars faced questions that they felt were not explicitly answered in the Qur'an, especially questions with regard to philosophical conundra like the nature of God, the existence of human free will, or the eternal existence of the Qur'an. Various schools of theology and philosophy developed to answer these questions, each claiming to be true to the Qur'an and the Muslim tradition (sunnah). Among Sunnites, the following were the dominant traditions; however the key beliefs of the Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a are founded upon the treatise on Aqeedah by Imam al-Tahawi:
· Athari, or "textualism", is derived from the Arabic word athar, literally meaning "remnant", and also referring to "narrations". Their disciples are called the Atharis. The Atharis are considered to be one of three Sunni schools of Aqidah: Athari, Ashari, and Maturidi.
oThe Athari methodology of textual interpretation is to avoid delving into extensive theological speculation. They believe in Allah and his attributes in the exact fashion that they were mentioned in the Quran, the Sunnah, and by the Sahabah. They do not attempt to further interpret the aforementioned texts by giving a literal meaning like in Ẓāhirīya (literalism) or the Tashbih (simile or likening), nor through tahrif (distortion), nor ta`weel (allegory or metaphor), nor ta'teel (denial). They avoid entering into deep rational philosophical discussions of matters relating to Islamic beliefs that are not supported by the Quran, the Sunnah or the understanding of the Sahabah with specific wording; rather, their discussion and presentation of beliefs revolves entirely around textual evidences found in these three main sources, while remaining cautious to avoid taking the path of the Ẓāhirīs (literalists) either. The Atharis believe this to be the methodology adhered to by the first three generations of Muslims (i.e. the Salaf), therefore making it the school of Sunni Aqidah
Due to the emphasis of the Hanbali school of thought on textualism, Muslims who are Hanbali usually prefer the Athari methodology in Aqidah. However, Atharis are not exclusively Hanbali, many Muslims from other schools of thought adhere to the Athari school of Aqidah
Atharism is also the select interpretation as followed by the Salafi movement (including the "Ahle Hadith" movement). As such, their theological system of Aqidah is often called Aqidat al-Salaf (or in fewer occasions: Aqidat As-hab al-Hadith).
* Ash'ari, founded by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (873–935). This theological system of Aqidah was embraced by plenty of Muslim scholars such as Imam al-Ghazali.
* Ash'ari theology stresses divine revelation over human reason. Contrary to the Mu'tazilites, they say that ethics cannot be derived from human reason, but that God's commands, as revealed in the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the practices of Muhammad and his companions as recorded in the traditions, or hadith), are the sole source of all morality and ethics.
* Regarding the nature of God and the divine attributes, the Ash'ari rejected the Mu'tazilite position that all Qur'anic references to God as having physical attributes were not metaphorical. The Ash'aris insisted that these attributes were as they "best befit him". The Arabic language is a wide language in which one word can have 15 different meanings, so the Ash'aris endeavor to find the meaning that best befits Allah and is not contradicted by the Qur'an. Therefore when Allah states in the Holy Qur'an, "He who does not resemble any of this creation," this clearly means Allah can't be attributed with body parts because he created body parts. This is one way which differentiates these Muslims from most Christians and Jews.
* Ash'aris tend to stress divine omnipotence over human free will.
* Ash'aris believe that the Qur'an is eternal and uncreated.
* Maturidi, founded by Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (died 944). Maturidiyyah was a minority tradition until it was accepted by the Turkish tribes of Central Asia (previously they had been Ash'ari and followers of the Shafi'i school, it was only later on migration into Anatolia that they became Hanafis and followers of the Maturidi creed). One of the tribes, the Seljuk Turks, migrated to Turkey , where later the Ottoman Empire was established. Their preferred school of law achieved a new prominence throughout their whole empire although it continued to be followed almost exclusively by followers of the Hanafi school while followers of the Shafi and Maliki schools within the empire followed the Ash'ari and Athari schools of thought. Thus, wherever can be found Hanafi followers, there can be found the Maturidi creed.
* Maturidis argue that the knowledge of God's existence can be derived through pure reason.
Articles of faith
Sunni Islam has 6 articles of faith.
· Reality of one God
· Existence of angels of God
· Authority of the books of God
· Following the prophets of God
· Preparation for the Day of Judgment
· Supremacy of God’s will
Sunni view of hadith
The Qur'an as it exists today in book form was compiled by Muhammad's companions (Sahaba) in approximately 650 CE, and is accepted by all Muslim denominations. However, there were many matters of belief and daily life that were not directly prescribed in the Qur'an, but were actions that were observed by Muhammad and the early Muslim community. Later generations sought out oral traditions regarding the early history of Islam, and the practices of Muhammad and his first followers, and wrote them down so that they might be preserved. These recorded oral traditions are called hadith. Muslim scholars have through the ages sifted through the hadith and evaluated the chain of narrations of each tradition, scrutinizing the trustworthiness of the narrators and judging the strength of each hadith accordingly.
Al-Kutub Al-Sittah
Al-Kutub al-Sittah translates as "the Six Books". Most Sunni Muslims accept the hadith collections of Bukhari and Muslim as the most authentic (sahih, or correct), and while accepting all hadiths verified as authentic, grant a slightly lesser status to the collections of other recorders. There are, however, four other collections of hadith that are also held in particular reverence by Sunni Muslims, making a total of six:
· Sahih al-Bukhari of Muhammad al-Bukhari
· Sahih Muslim of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
· Sunan al-Sughra of Al-Nasa'i
· Sunan Abu Dawud of Abu Dawood
· Sunan al-Tirmidhi of Al-Tirmidhi
· Sunan Ibn Majah of Ibn Majah
There are also other collections of hadith which also contain many authentic hadith and are frequently used by scholars and specialists. Examples of these collections include:
· Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq of ‘Abd ar-Razzaq as-San‘ani
· Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal
· Mustadrak of Al Haakim
· Muwatta of Imam Malik
· Sahih Ibn Hibbaan
· Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah of Ibn Khuzaymah
· Sunan al-Darimi of Al-Darimi
· Sahih ibn Awana
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# Ijazah
An ijazah is a certificate used primarily by Sunni Muslims to indicate that one has been authorized by a higher authority to transmit a certain subject or text of Islamic knowledge. This usually implies that the student has learned this knowledge through face-to-face interactions "at the feet" of the teacher.
In a paper titled Traditionalism in Islam: An Essay in Interpretation, Harvard professor William A. Graham explains the ijazah system as follows:
The basic system of "the journey in search of knowledge" that developed early in Hadith scholarship, involved travelling to specific authorities (shaykhs), especially the oldest and most renowned of the day, to hear from their own mouths their hadiths and to obtain their authorization or "permission" (ijazah) to transmit those in their names. This ijazah system of personal rather than institutional certification has served not only for Hadith, but also for transmission of texts of any kind, from history, law, or philology to literature, mysticism, or theology. The isnad of a long manuscript as well as that of a short hadith ideally should reflect the oral, face-to-face, teacher-to-student transmission of the text by the teacher's ijazah, which validates the written text. In a formal, written ijazah, the teacher granting the certificate typically includes an isnad containing his or her scholarly lineage of teachers back to the Prophet through Companions, a later venerable shaykh, or the author of a specific book.
The Ijazah qualification appeared as early as the 9th century. According to Guinness Book of World Records, the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco is the oldest degree-granting institution in the world, with its founding in 859 by Fatima al-Fihri; although its founding date as a Western-style university was as late as 1947. The Ijazah was limited to the study of Islamic law. Philosphy, natural sciences and Islamic theology (kalam), were excluded.
The generally accepted view, as expounded by Lexikon des Mittelalters and "A History of the University in Europe ", is that the origin of the doctorate lies in European high medieval teaching with its roots going back to late antiquity and the early days of Christian teaching of the Bible. This view is indirectly supported by the entry on the "Madrasa" in Encyclopedia of Islam which draws no parallels between Islamic and Christian medieval learning and does not refer to any transmission process either way.
This view is further echoed by George Makdisi in a 1970 investigation into the differences between the Christian university and the Islamic madrasah, where he is of the opinion that the Christian doctorate of the medieval university was the one element in the university that was the most different from the Islamic ijazah certification.
According to a 1989 hypothesis by George Makdisi, the origins of the Christian medieval doctorate ("licentia docendi") dates back to the ijāzah al-tadrīs wa al-iftā' ("license to teach and issue legal opinions") in the medieval Islamic legal education system. Makdisi proposed that the ijazat attadris was the origin of the European doctorate, and went further in suggesting an influence upon the magisterium of the Christian Church. According to the 1989 paper, the ijazat was equivalent to the Doctor of Laws qualification and was developed during the 9th century after the formation of the Madh'hab legal schools. To obtain a doctorate, a student "had to study in a guild school of law, usually four years for the basic undergraduate course" and at least ten years for a post-graduate course. The "doctorate was obtained after an oral examination to determine the originality of the candidate's theses," and to test the student's "ability to defend them against all objections, in disputations set up for the purpose" which were scholarly exercises practiced throughout the student's "career as a graduate student of law." After students completed their post-graduate education, they were awarded doctorates giving them the status of faqih (meaning "master of law"), mufti (meaning "professor of legal opinions") and mudarris (meaning "teacher"), which were later translated into Latin as magister, professor and doctor respectively. However, Norman Daniel criticizes Makdisi for relying exclusively on superficial similarities between the two education systems, while failing to cite any historical evidence for an actual transmission.
The commonly held view is that all these titles were proper developments of the medieval university in Europe and completely unrelated to the Islamic mosque schools.
It should be noted that madrasas only issued the ijazat attadris in one field, the Islamic religious law of Sharia, and in no other field of learning. Other academic subjects, including the natural sciences, philosophy and literary studies, were only treated "ancillary" to the study of the Sharia. The Islamic law degree in Al-Azhar University University of Bologna Bologna
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# Silsila
Silsila is an Arabic word meaning chain, often used in various senses of lineage. In particular, it may be translated as "(religious) order" or "genealogy".
Centuries ago, Arabia did not have schools for formal education. Students went to masters who taught them. Upon completion of their study, they received ijazah (permission) which acted as the certification of education. A graduate then acted as a master having his own students. This chain of masters was known as Silsila. Somewhat analogous to the modern situation where degrees are only accepted from recognized universities, the certification of a master having a verifiable chain of masters was the only acceptable legitimation:
"Theoretically one can only receive instruction in these practices (talqîn) from an authorised teacher of the tariqa, and only after pledging a vow of obedience (bay'ah) to this shaikh. The shaikh gives his disciples permission (ijâza) to practice the tariqa: he may also authorise one or more of them to teach it to others, i.e. appoint them as his khalîfa. In this way a hierarchically ordered network of teachers may emerge. Each shaikh can show a chain of authorities for the tarekat he teaches, his silsila or spiritual genealogy. Usually the silsila reaches back from one's own teacher up to the Prophet, with whom all tarekats claim to have originated although there have been modifications along the way. A Sufi's silsila is his badge of identity and source of legitimation; it provides him with a list of illustrious predecessors and shows how he is related to other Sufis."
Silsila can be of a partial knowledge or a book as well. All Hafiz (memorizers of Quran), Muhaddiths (narrators of Hadiths), Qaries (reciters of Quran with correct accent and pronunciation) are given a chain of credible narrators linking to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Even today, when there are formal religious schools known as Madrasah, traditional madrassas will mention in their certification the chain of masters linking to Muhammed.
For Muslims, the Chain of Authenticity is an important way to ascertain the validity of a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (also known as a Hadith). The Chain of Authenticity relates the chain of people who have heard and repeated the saying of the Prophet Muhammad through the generations, until that particular Hadith was written down (Ali abu Talib said that Ai’ysha said that the Prophet Muhammad said…). A similar idea appears in Sufism in regards to the lineage and teachings of Sufi masters and students. This string of master to student is called a silsila, literally meaning “chain”. The focus of the silsila like the Chain of Authenticity is to trace the lineage of a Sufi order to the Prophet Muhammad through his Companions: Ali abu Talib (the primary link between Sufi orders and the Prophet), Abu Bakr, and Umar (three of the Four Righteously Guided Caliphs). When a Sufi order can be traced back to the Prophet through one of the three aforementioned Companions the lineage is called the Silsilat al-Dhahab (dhahab meaning gold) or the “Chain of Gold” (Golden Chain). In early Islamic history, gold was an extremely desired prize and was used for currency, to show wealth and power, and for scientific purposes including medicine. Thus, gold was the most desired commodity in the material world, just as the Golden Chain is the most desired commodity of Sufi orders.
When Sufism began in the second century of Islam, according to some experts, it was an individual choice; many Sufis aimed to be more like the Prophet Muhammad by becoming ascetic and focusing their lives fully on God; more so than the Five Daily Prayers and usual prescripted religious practices. This often included removing oneself from society and other people in general. As Sufism became a greater movement in Islam, individual Sufis began to group together. These groups (also known as orders) were based on a common master. This common master then began spiritual lineage, which is a connection between a Sufi order in which there is a common spiritual heritage based on the master’s teachings (i.e., ‘path’ or ‘method’) called tariq or tariqah. [As a side note, a tariq or tariqa is like a school of thought (but not quite) in which a student learns the master’s type of teaching, the master’s mystical exercises, and the master’s rule of life]. As the number of Sufi orders grew, there arose a need for legitimacy of the orders to establish each order was following the teachings of the Prophet directly; thus the idea of the Silsilat al-Dhahab. If a Sufi order is able to trace its student to master lineage back to one of the three major caliphs (and in particular Ali abu Talib) who provide a straight link to the Prophet Muhammad (because of their Companion status with him) then the order is considered righteous and directly following the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. In possessing the Golden Chain, a Sufi order is able to establish their order prominently in the mystical world.
Many Sufi orders contain the Golden Chain, most claiming spiritual lineage through the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law Ali abu Talib. A few examples of these orders from the Southern Asia region are: the Chishtiyya, the Qadiriyyah, and the Suhrawardiyyah orders. However, there is one particular order that claims spiritual lineage through the Caliph Abu Bakr, the Naqshbandiyyah order of South Asia . They are a unique Sufi order because they are the only order that traces their spiritual lineage through Abu Bakr, who was generally seen as more of a political leader than a spiritual leader.
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# Fiqh
Fiqh is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is an expansion of the code of conduct (Sharia) expounded in the Quran, often supplemented by tradition (Sunnah) and implemented by the rulings and interpretations of Islamic jurists.
Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam. There are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice and two within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a Faqih (plural Fuqaha).
The word fiqh is an Arabic term meaning "deep understanding" or "full comprehension". Technically it refers to the body of Islamic law extracted from detailed Islamic sources (which are studied in the principles of Islamic jurisprudence) and the process of gaining knowledge of Islam through jurisprudence. The historian Ibn Khaldun describes fiqh as "knowledge of the rules of God which concern the actions of persons who own themselves bound to obey the law respecting what is required (wajib), sinful (haraam), recommended (mandūb), disapproved (makrūh) or neutral (mubah)". This definition is consistent amongst the jurists.
In Modern Standard Arabic, fiqh has come to mean jurisprudence in general, be it Islamic or secular. It is thus possible to speak of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. as an expert in the common law fiqh of the United States , or of Farouk Sultan as an expert in the civil law fiqh of Egypt
Islamic Law
Islamic law (fiqh) covers two main areas:
1. rules in relation to actions, and,
2. rules in relation to circumstances surrounding actions.
Fiqh can also be grouped as:
1. Worships (Ibadaat)
2. Dealings and transactions (Mua'malaat)
Rules in relation to actions (amaliyya) comprise:
· Obligation (fardh)
· Recommendation (mustahabb)
· Permissibility (mubah)
· Disrecommendation (makrooh)
· Prohibition (haraam)
Rules in relation to circumstances (wadia') comprise:
· Condition (shart)
· Cause (sabab)
· Preventor (mani)
· Permit/Enforced (rukhsah, azeemah)
· Valid/Corrupt/Invalid (sahih, faasid, batil)
· In time/Debt/Repeat (adaa, qadaa, i'ada)
The Qur'an gives clear instruction on many issues, such as how to perform the ritual purification (Arabic: wudu) before the obligatory daily prayers (Arabic: salat), but on other issues, some Muslims believe the Qur'an alone is not enough to make things clear. For example the Qur'an states one needs to engage in daily prayers (Arabic: salat) and fast (Arabic: sawm) during the month of Ramadan but some Muslims believe they need further instructions on how to perform these duties. Details about these issues can be found in the traditions of Islamic prophet Muhammad (Arabic: Sunnah), so Qur'an and Sunnah are in most cases the basis for (Arabic: Shariah).
With regard to some topics the Qur'an and Sunnah are silent. In those cases the Muslim jurists (Arabic: Fuqaha) try to arrive at conclusions by other means. Sunni jurists use analogy (Arabic: Qiyas) and historical consensus of the community (Arabic: Ijma). The conclusions arrived at with the aid of these additional tools constitute a wider array of laws than the Sharia consists of, and is called fiqh. Thus, in contrast to the sharia, fiqh is not regarded as sacred and the schools of thought have differing views on its details, without viewing other conclusions as sacrilegious. This division of interpretation in more detailed issues has resulted in different schools of thought (Arabic: madh'hab).
This wider concept of Islamic jurisprudence is the source of a range of laws in different topics that govern the lives of the Muslims in all facets of everyday life.
Methodologies of jurisprudence usul al-fiqh
The Modus operandi of the Muslim jurist is known as usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence).
There are different approaches to the methodology used in fiqh to derive sharia from the Islamic sources. The main methodologies are:
· The four classical Sunni schools are, in chronological order: the Hanafi school, the Maliki school, the Shafi'i school and the Hanbali school. They represent the generally accepted Sunni authority for Islamic jurisprudence.
· Jafari fiqh, or the Shi'a fiqh
Other minor schools are the Zaidi, Zahiri, Sufian Al'thawree, Sufian bin O'yayna, Layth bin Sa'ad, Tabari and Qurtubi schools.
Each school reflects a unique al-urf or culture (a cultural practice that was influenced by traditions), that the classical jurists themselves lived in, when rulings were made. Some suggest that the discipline of isnad, which developed to validate hadith made it relatively easy to record and validate also the rulings of jurists. This, in turn, made them far easier to imitate (taqlid) than to challenge in new contexts. The argument is, the schools have been more or less frozen for centuries, and reflect a culture that simply no longer exists. Traditional scholars hold that religion is there to regulate human behavior and nurture peoples moral side and since human nature has not fundamentally changed since the beginning of Islam a call to modernize the religion is essentially one to relax all laws and institutions.
Early shariah had a much more flexible character, and some modern Muslim scholars believe that it should be renewed, and that the classical jurists should lose special status. This would require formulating a new fiqh suitable for the modern world, e.g. as proposed by advocates of the Islamization of knowledge, which would deal with the modern context. This modernization is opposed by most conservative ulema. Traditional scholars hold that the laws are contextual and consider circumstance such as time, place and culture, the principles they are based upon are universal such as justice, equality and respect. Many Muslim scholars argue that even though technology may have advanced, the fundamentals of human life have not and is in the scope of current laws.
The formative period of Islamic jurisprudence stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with issues of authority and teaching than with theory and methodology.
Progress in theory and methodology happened with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i (767–820), who codified the basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence in his book ar-Risālah. The book details the four roots of law (Qur'an, Sunnah, ijma, and qiyas) while specifying that the primary Islamic texts (the Qur'an and the hadith) be understood according to objective rules of interpretation derived from scientific study of the Arabic language.
Secondary sources of law were developed and refined over the subsequent centuries, consisting primarily of juristic preference (istihsan), laws of the previous prophets (shara man qablana), continuity (istihsab), extended analogy (maslaha mursala), blocking the means (sadd al-dhari'ah), custome urf and saying of a companion (qawl al-sahabi).
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# Usul al-fiqh
Uṣūl al-fiqh (literally: legal theory) is the study of the origins, sources, and principles upon which Islamic jurisprudence (or Fiqh) is based. In the narrow sense, it simply refers to the question of what are the sources of Islamic law. In an extended sense, it includes the study of the philosophical rationale of the law and the procedures by which the law applicable to particular cases is derived from the sources.
In classical Sunni Islam, there are four major sources of jurisprudence: the Qur'an, the Sunnah, ijma' (consensus), and qiyas (analogy).
There is some dispute amongst the Sunni jurists regarding ijma' and qiyas. The Zahirites in particular reject all forms of qiyas, and Dawud al-Zahiri, Abu Hanifa and Ahmad bin Hanbal only accepted ijma' al-sahaba (consensus of the companions of Muhammad).
Abu 'Abd Allah al-Shafi'i (767-819) documented a systematized form of usul, developing a cohesive, systematic procedure for legal reasoning(ijtihad). His approach contrasted with the Hanafite methodology that determined the sources from the sayings and rulings of the companions and successors. Furthermore, he raised the Sunnah to a place of prominence and restricted its legal use. According to al-Shafi'i, only practices directly passed down from Muhammad were valid, eliminating the legitimacy of practices of Muhammad's followers. Prior to al-Shafi'i, legal reasoning included personal reasoning thus suffering from inconsistency. al-Shafi'i is probably best known for writing Al-Risala, a prime example of applying logic and order to Islamic jurisprudence.
In Shia legal theory qiyas is not recognised as a source of law. There are two interpretations of what this entails.
· According to the Akhbari view, the only sources of law are the Quran and the Hadith, and any case not explicitly covered by one of these must be regarded as not having been provided for.
· According to the majority Usuli view, it is legitimate to seek general principles by induction, in order to provide for cases not expressly provided for. This process is known as ijtihad, and 'Aql (reason) is recognised as a source of law. It differs from the Sunni qiyas in that it does not simply extend existing laws on a test of factual resemblance: it is necessary to formulate a general principle that can be rationally supported.
Javadi Amoli, in Tasnim Tafsir about source of revelation in Shiism, wrote:
1. The most important source in Shiite law is the Quran itself, which interprets itself (Quran is a kind of self commentator book)
2. The other source is the tradition of the infallibles (the family of the prophet) peace be upon them, according to the successive tradition (Saqalain) passed down by the family of the prophet (peace upon them) as well as according to the Quran itself: to accept one without the other is equivalent to rejecting both of them.
3. A third source is theoretical wisdom where it is impossible to conceive the contrary, which proves the existence of God and the necessity of his unity, eternity, pre-existence, power, will and other exalted attributes: this cannot be denied with any verse.
4. Although we cannot impose science upon the Quran, we can use verified scientific, experimental, historical, artistic, logical and other evidence to interpret the subject addressed in a given passage, rather than through another verse.
In doubtful cases the law is often derived not from substantive principles induced from existing rules, but from procedural presumptions (usul 'amaliyyah) concerning factual probability. An example is the presumption of continuity: if one knows that a given state of affairs, such as ritual purity, existed at some point in the past but one has no evidence one way or the other whether it exists now, one can presume that the situation has not changed.
The analysis of probability forms a large part of the Shiite science of usul al-fiqh, and was developed by Muhammad Baqir Behbahani (1706-1792 C.E.) and Shaykh Murtada al-Ansari (d. 1864).
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# Sharia
Sharia law, "legislation"; is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia deals with many topics addressed by secular law, including crime, politics, and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer, and fasting. Though interpretations of sharia vary between cultures, in its strictest definition it is considered the infallible law of God—as opposed to the human interpretation of the laws (fiqh).
There are two primary sources of sharia law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Where it has official status, sharia is interpreted by Islamic judges (qadis) with varying responsibilities for the religious leaders (imams). For questions not directly addressed in the primary sources, they extend the application of sharia through consensus of the religious scholars (ulama) thought to embody the consensus of the Muslim Community (ijma). Islamic jurisprudence will also sometimes incorporate analogies from the Quran and Sunnah through qiyas, though Shia jurists prefer reasoning ('aql) to analogy.
The reintroduction of sharia is a longstanding goal for Islamist movements in Muslim countries, but attempts to impose sharia have been accompanied by controversy, violence, and even warfare such as the Second Sudanese Civil War. Some in Israel and other countries in Asia have maintained institutional recognition of sharia, and use it to adjudicate their personal and community affairs. In western countries where Islamic immigration is more recent, Muslim minorities have introduced sharia family law for use in their own disputes, such as Britain
Scholars describe the word sharia as an archaic Arabic word denoting "pathway to be followed", or "path to the water hole". The latter definition comes from the fact that the path to water is the whole way of life in an arid desert environment.
The etymology of sharia as a "path" or "way" comes from the Quranic verse [45:18]: "Then we put you on the Way of religion so you follow that, and follow not the desires of those who know not." The "Way" derives from shara'a, meaning "He ordained". Other forms also appear: shara'u [45:13], "they decreed (a law)" [42:21]; and shir'atun meaning "spiritual law" [5:48].
Sharia, in its strictest definition, is a divine law, as expressed in the Qur'an and Muhammad's example (often called the sunnah). As such, it is related to but different from fiqh, which is emphasized as the human interpretation of the law. Many scholars have pointed out that the sharia is not formally a code, nor a well-defined set of rules. The sharia is characterized as a discussion on the duties of Muslims based on both the opinion of the Muslim community and extensive literature. Hunt Janin and Andre Kahlmeyer thus conclude that the sharia is "long, diverse, and complicated."
From the 9th century, the power to interpret and refine law in traditional Islamic societies was in the hands of the scholars (ulema). This separation of powers served to limit the range of actions available to the ruler, who could not easily decree or reinterpret law independently and expect the continued support of the community. Through succeeding centuries and empires, the balance between the ulema and the rulers shifted and reformed, but the balance of power was never decisively changed. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution introduced an era of European world hegemony that included the domination of most of the lands of Islam. At the end of the Second World War, the European powers found themselves too weakened to maintain their empires. The wide variety of forms of government, systems of law, attitudes toward modernity and interpretations of sharia are a result of the ensuing drives for independence and modernity in the Muslim world.
There are two sources of Sharia (understood as the divine law): the Qur'an and Sunnah. According to Muslims, the Qur'an is the unalterable word of God. Much of the Qur'an exhorts Muslims to general moral values; only 80 verses of the Qur'an contain legal prescriptions. The Sunnah is the life and example of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Sunnah's importance as a source of Sharia, is confirmed by several verses of the Qur'an (e.g. [Quran 33:21]). The Sunnah is primarily contained in the hadith or reports of Muhammad's sayings, his actions, his tacit approval of actions and his demeanor. While there is only one Qur'an, there are many compilations of hadith, with the most authentic ones forming during the sahih period (850 to 915 CE). The six acclaimed Sunni collections were compiled by (in order of decreasing importance) Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu Dawood, Tirmidhi, Al-Nasa'i, Ibn Majah. The collections by al-Bukhari and Muslim, regarded the most authentic, contain about 7,000 and 12,000 hadiths respectively (although the majority of entries are repetitions). The hadiths have been evaluated on authenticity, usually by determining the reliability of the narrators that transmitted them. For Shi'ites, the Sunnah may also include anecdotes The Twelve Imams.
The process of interpreting the two primary sources of Islamic law is called fiqh (literally meaning "intelligence") or Islamic jurisprudence. While the above two sources are regarded as infallible, the fiqh standards may change in different contexts. Fiqh covers all aspects of law, including religious, civil, political, constitutional and procedural law. Fiqh depends on 4 sources:
1. Interpretations of the Qur'an
2. Interpretations of the Sunnah
3. Ijma, consensus amongst scholars ("collective reasoning")
4. Qiyas/Ijtihad analogical deduction ("individual reasoning")
Amongst the sources unique to fiqh, i.e. ijma and qiyas/ijtihad, the former is preferred. In Shi'a jurisprudence the fourth source may be expanded to include formal logic (mantiq). Historically the fiqh also came to include comparative law, local customs (urf) and laws motivated by public interest, so long as they were allowed by the above four sources. Because of the involvement of human interpretation, the fiqh is considered fallible, and thus not a part of Sharia (although scholars categorize it as Islamic law).
There exist five schools of thought of fiqh, all founded within the first four centuries of Islam. Four are Sunni Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali and one Shia: Ja'afri (followed by most Shia Muslims) Many Islamic scholars today advocate renewed approaches to fiqh that don't necessarily follow the traditional five allegiances. The Salafi movement attracts followers from various schools of fiqh, and is based on the Quran, Sunnah and the actions and sayings of the first three generations of Muslims.
History
According to Muslims, sharia law is founded on the words of Allah as revealed in the Quran, and traditions gathered from the life of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad was born 570 CE in Mecca , a trading city in the Arabian desert . In addition to being a centre of trade on the caravan routes, Mecca Mecca
In pre-Islamic Arabia , bonds of common ancestry formed the basis for tribal association. The advent of Islam brought the tribes together under a single religion. Because Islam is not just a religion, but also a culture, a new common basis of law and personal behaviour (Sharia) began to take shape.
Sharia continued to undergo fundamental changes, beginning with the reigns of caliphs Abu Bakr (632–34) and Umar (634–44), during which time many questions were brought to the attention of Muhammad's closest comrades for consultation. During the reign of Muawiya b. Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, ca. 662 CE, Islam undertook an urban transformation, raising questions not originally covered by Islamic law. Since then, changes in Islamic society have played an ongoing role in developing sharia, which branches out into fiqh and Qanun respectively.
Among the Muslims, tribal laws were adapted to conform to sharia "for they could not form part of the tribal law unless and until they were generally accepted as such." Additionally, Noel James Coulson, Lecturer in Islamic law of the University of London
Fiqh
The formative period of fiqh stretches back to the time of the early Muslim communities. In this period, jurists were more concerned with pragmatic issues of authority and teaching than with theory. Progress in theory happened with the coming of the early Muslim jurist Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi'i (767–820), who laid down the basic principles of Islamic jurisprudence in his book Al-Risala. The book details the four roots of law (Quran, Sunnah, ijma, and qiyas) while specifying that the primary Islamic texts (the Quran and the hadith) be understood according to objective rules of interpretation derived from careful study of the Arabic language.
A number of important legal concepts and institutions were developed by Islamic jurists during the classical period of Islam, known as the Islamic Golden Age, dated from the 7th to 13th centuries.
Categories of human behaviour
Fiqh classifies behaviour into the following types or grades: fard (obligatory), mustahabb (recommended), mubah (neutral), makruh (discouraged), and haraam (forbidden). Every human action belongs in one of these five categories.
Actions in the fard category are those required of all Muslims. They include the five daily prayers, fasting, articles of faith, obligatory charity, and the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca
The mustahabb category includes proper behaviour in matters such as marriage, funeral rites and family life. As such, it covers many of the same areas as civil law in the West. Sharia courts attempt to reconcile parties to disputes in this area using the recommended behaviour as their guide. A person whose behaviour is not mustahabb can be ruled against by the judge.
All behaviour which is neither discouraged nor recommended, neither forbidden nor required is of the Mubah; it is permissible.
Makruh behaviour, while it is not sinful of itself, is considered undesirable among Muslims. It may also make a Muslim liable to criminal penalties under certain circumstances.
Haraam behaviour is explicitly forbidden. It is both sinful and criminal. It includes all actions expressly forbidden in the Quran. Certain Muslim dietary and clothing restrictions also fall into this category.
The recommended, neutral and discouraged categories are drawn largely from accounts of the life of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. To say a behaviour is sunnah is to say it is recommended as an example from the life and sayings of Muhammad. These categories form the basis for proper behaviour in matters such as courtesy and manners, interpersonal relations, generosity, personal habits and hygiene.
Topics of Islamic law
Sharia law can be organized in different ways:
Sharia can be divided into six main branches:
1. ibadah (ritual worship)
2. mu'amalat (transactions and contracts)
3. adab (morals and manners),
4. i'tiqadat (beliefs)
5. 'uqubat (punishments)
6. Munakahat (Islamic marriage jurisprudence)
"Reliance of the Traveller", an English translation of a fourteenth century CE reference on the Shafi'i school of fiqh written by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, organizes sharia law into the following topics:
1. Purification
2. Prayer
3. Funeral prayer
4. Taxes
5. Fasting
6. Pilgrimage
7. Trade
8. Inheritance
9. Marriage
10. Divorce
11. Justice
In some areas, there are substantial differences in the law between different schools of fiqh, countries, cultures and schools of thought.
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# Sources of sharia law
Various sources of Islamic law are used by Islamic jurisprudence to elucidate the Sharia, the body of Islamic law. The primary sources, accepted universally by all Muslims, are the Qur'an and Sunnah. The Qur'an is the holy scripture of Islam, believed by Muslims to be the direct and unaltered word of Allah. The Sunnah consists of the religious actions and quotations of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and narrated through his Companions and Imams- (as per the beliefs of the school of Ahle-Sunnah and Ahle-Shia). However, some schools of jurisprudence use different methods to judge the source's level of authenticity. The other two sources are Ijma and Qiyas.Ijma is the decision taken as a council when both Quran and Sunnah prove to be insufficient and Qiyas is the personal opinion of a person himself not in contradiction with all first three sources.the quran says,"Take warnings O you with eyes to see". As Islamic regulations stated in the primary sources do not explicitly deal with every conceivable eventuality, jurisprudence must refer to resources and authentic documents to find the correct course of action. According to Sunni schools of law, secondary sources of Islamic law are consensus among Muslims jurists, analogical deduction, al-Ra'y; independent reasoning, benefit for the Community and Custom. Hanafi school frequently relies on analogical deduction and independent reasoning, and Maliki and Hanbali generally use the Hadith instead. Shafi'i school uses Sunnah more than Hanafi and analogy more than two others. Among Shia, Usuli school of Ja'fari
Primary sources
Qur’an
The Qur'an is the first and most important source of Islamic law. Believed to be the direct word of God as revealed to Muhammad through angel Gabriel in Mecca and Medina Mecca deal with philosophical and theological issues, whereas those revealed in Medina
The verses of the Qur'an are categorized into three fields: "science of speculative theology", "ethical principles" and "rules of human conduct". The third category is directly concerned with Islamic legal matters which contains about five hundred verses or one thirteenth of it. The task of interpreting the Qur'an has led to various opinions and judgments. The interpretations of the verses by Muhammad's companions for Sunnis and Imams for Shias are considered the most authentic, since they knew why, where and on what occasion each verse was revealed.
Sunnah
The Sunnah is the next important source, and is commonly defined as "the traditions and customs of Muhammad" or "the words, actions and silent assertions of him". It includes the everyday sayings and utterances of Muhammad, his acts, his tacit consent, and acknowledgments of statements and activities. According to Shi'ite jurists, the sunnah also includes the words, deeds and acknowledgments of the twelve Imams and Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter, who are believed to be infallible.
Justification for using the Sunnah as a source of law can be found in the Qur'an. The Qur'an commands Muslims to follow Muhammad. During his lifetime, Muhammad made it clear that his traditions (along with the Qur'an) should be followed after his death. The overwhelming majority of Muslims consider the sunnah to be essential supplements to and clarifications of the Qur'an. In Islamic jurisprudence, the Qur'an contains many rules for the behavior expected of Muslims but there are no specific Qur'anic rules on many religious and practical matters. Muslims believe that they can look at the way of life, or sunnah, of Muhammad and his companions to discover what to imitate and what to avoid.
Much of the sunnah is recorded in the Hadith. Initially, Muhammad had instructed his followers not to write down his acts, so they may not confuse it with the Qur'an. However, he did ask his followers to disseminate his sayings orally. As long as he was alive, any doubtful record could be confirmed as true or false by simply asking him. His death, however, gave rise to confusion over Muhammad's conduct. Thus the Hadith were established. Due to problems of authenticity, the science of Hadith (Arabic: `Ulum al-hadith) is established. It is a method of textual criticism developed by early Muslim scholars in determining the veracity of reports attributed to Muhammad. This is achieved by analyzing the text of the report, the scale of the report's transmission, the routes through which the report was transmitted, and the individual narrators involved in its transmission. On the basis of these criteria, various Hadith classifications developed.
To establish the authenticity of a particular Hadith or report, it had to be checked by following the chain of transmission (isnad). Thus the reporters had to cite their reference, and their reference's reference all the way back to Muhammad. All the references in the chain had to have a reputation for honesty and possessing a good retentive memory. Thus biographical analysis (`ilm al-rijāl, lit. "science of people"), which contains details about the transmitter are scrutinized. This includes analyzing their date and place of birth; familial connections; teachers and students; religiosity; moral behaviour; literary output; their travels; as well as their date of death. Based upon these criteria, the reliability (thiqāt) of the transmitter is assessed. Also determined is whether the individual was actually able to transmit the report, which is deduced from their contemporaneity and geographical proximity with the other transmitters in the chain. Examples of biographical dictionaries include Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's "Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb" or al-Dhahabi's "Tadhkirat al-huffāz."
Using this criterion, Hadith are classified into three categories:
1. Undubitable (mutawatir), which are very widely known, and backed up by numerous references.
2. Widespread (mashhur), which are widely known, but backed up with few original references.
3. Isolated or Single (wahid), which are backed up by too few and often discontinuous references.
Secondary sources
All medieval Muslim jurists rejected arbitrary opinion, and instead developed various secondary sources, also known as juristic principles or doctrines, to follow in case the primary sources (i.e. the Qur'an and Sunnah) are silent on the issue.
Consensus
also called anlogy
The ijma' , or consensus amongst Muslim jurists on a particular legal issue, constitutes the third source of Islamic law. Muslim jurists provide many verses of the Qur'an that legitimize ijma' as a source of legislation. Muhammad himself said:
· "My followers will never agree upon an error or what is wrong",
· "God's hand is with the entire community".
In history, it has been the most important factor in defining the meaning of the other sources and thus in formulating the doctrine and practice of the Muslim community. This is so because ijma' represents the unanimous agreement of Muslims on a regulation or law at any given time.
There are various views on ijma' among Muslims. Sunni jurists consider ijma' as a source, in matters of legislation, as important as the Qur'an and Sunnah. Shiite jurists, however, consider ijma' as source of secondary importance, and a source that is, unlike the Qur'an and Sunnah, not free from error. Ijma' was always used to refer to agreement reached in the past, either remote or near. Amongst the Sunni jurists there is diversity on who is eligible to participate in ijma' .
Analogical deduction
Qiyas or analogical deduction is the fourth source of Sharia for the Sunni jurisprudence. It aims to draw analogies to a previously accepted decision. Shiites do not accept qiyas, but replace it with reason (aql). Qiyas is the process of legal deduction according to which the jurist, confronted with an unprecedented case, bases his or her argument on the logic used in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Qiyas must not be based on arbitrary judgment, but rather be firmly rooted in the primary sources.
Supporters of qiyas will often point to passages in the Qur'an that describe an application of a similar process by past Islamic communities. According to Hadith, Muhammad said: "Where there is no revealed injunction, I will judge amongst you according to reason." Further, he extended the right to reason to others. Finally, qiyas is sanctioned by the ijma, or consensus, amongst Muhammad's companions.
The success and expansion of Islam brought it into contact with different cultures, societies and traditions, such as those of Byzantines and Persians. With such contact, new problems emerged for Islamic law to tackle. Moreover, there was a significant distance between Medina Medina
The general principle behind the process of qiyas is based on the understanding that every legal injunction guarantees a beneficial and welfare satisfying objective. Thus, if the cause of an injunction can be deduced from the primary sources, then analogical deduction can be applied to cases with similar causes. For example, wine is prohibited in Islam because of its intoxicating property. Thus qiyas leads to the conclusion that all intoxicants are forbidden.
The Hanafi school of thought very strongly supports qiyas. Imam Abu Hanifa, an important practitioner of qiyas, elevated qiyas to a position of great significance in Islamic law. Abu Hanifa extended the rigid principle of basing rulings on the Qur'an and Sunnah to incorporate opinion and exercise of free thought by jurists. In order to respond suitably to emerging problems, he based his judgments, like other jurists, on the explicit meanings of primary texts (the Qur'an and sunnah). But, he also considered the "spirit" of Islamic teachings, as well as the whether the ruling would be in the interest of the objectives of Islam. Such rulings were based on public interest and the welfare of the Muslim community.
The Shafi'i school of thought accepts qiyas as a valid source. Imam Shafi'i, however, considered it a weak source, and tried to limit the cases where jurists would need to resort to qiyas. He criticized and rejected analogical deductions that were not firmly rooted in the Qur'an and sunnah. According to Shafi'i, if analogical deductions were not strictly rooted in primary sources, they would have adverse effects. One such consequence could be variety of different rulings in the same subject. Such a situation, he argued, would undermine the predictability and uniformity of a sound legal system.
Imam Malik accepted qiyas as a valid source of legislation. For him, if a parallel could be established between the effective cause of a law in the primary sources and a new case, then analogical deduction could be viable tool. Malik, however, went beyond his adherence to "strict analogy" and proposed pronouncements on the basis of what jurists considered was "public good".
Preference
Abu Hanifa developed a new source called istihsan, or juristic preference, as a form of analogical deduction (qiyas). Istihsan is defined as:
· Means to seek ease and convenience,
· To adopt tolerance and moderation,
· To over-rule analogical deduction, if necessary.
The source, inspired by the principle of conscience, is a last resort if none of the widely accepted sources are applicable to a problem. It involves giving favor to rulings that dispel hardship and bring ease to people. This doctrine was justified directly by the Qur'an: "Allah desires you ease and good, not hardship". Though its main adherents were Abu Hanifa and his pupils (such as Abu Yusuf), Malik and his students made use of it to some degree. The source was subject to extensive discussion and argumentation, and its opponents claimed that it often departs from the primary sources.
This doctrine was useful in the Islamic world outside the Middle East where the Muslims encountered environments and challenges they had been unfamiliar with in Arabia . One example of isthisan is cited as follows: If a well is contaminated it may not be used for ritual purification. Istihsan suggests that withdrawing a certain number of buckets of water from the well will remove the impurities. Analogical deduction (qiyas), however, says that despite removing some of the water, a small concentration of contaminants will always remain in the well (or the well walls) rendering the well impure. The application of analogical deduction means the public may not use the well, and therefore causes hardship. Thus the principle of istihsan is applied, and the public may use the well for ritual purification.
Public good
Imam Malik developed a tertiary source called al-maslaha al-mursalah, which means social benefit. According to this source of Islamic law, rulings can be pronounced in accordance with the "underlying meaning of the revealed text in the light of public interest". In this case the jurists uses his wisdom to pursue public interest. This source is rejected by the Shafi'is.
Textual indication
Shafi'i accepted cases in which he had to be more flexible with the application of Qisas. Similar to Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik, he developed a tertiary source of legislation. The Shafi'i school adopted istidlal, a process of seeking guidance from the source. Istidlal allowed the jurists to avoid "strict analogy" in a case where no clear precedent could be found. In this case, public interest was distinguished as a basis for legislation.
Scholars divide istdilal into three types. The first is the expression of the connection existing between one proposition and another without any specific effective cause. Next, istidlal could mean presumption that a state of things, which is not proved to have ceased, still continues. The final type of istidlal is the authority as to the revealed laws previous to Islam.
Reason
Shi'ite jurists maintain that if a solution to a problem can not be found from the primary sources, then aql or reason should be given free rein to deduce a proper response from the primary sources. The process, whereby rational efforts are made by the jurist to arrive at an appropriate ruling, when applied is called ijtihad (literally meaning "exerting oneself"). Shi'ite jurists maintain that qiyas is a specific type of ijtihad. The Sunni Shafi' school of thought, however, holds that both qiyas and ijtihad are the same.
Sunni jurists accepted ijtihad as a mechanism for deducing rulings. They, however, announced an end to its practice during the thirteenth century. The reason for this was that centers of Islamic learning (such as Baghdad , Nishapur, and Bukhara
There are many justifications, found in the Qur'an and sunnah, for the use of ijtihad. For example, during a conversation with Mu'ādh ibn Jabal, Muhammad asked the former how he would give judgments. Mu'ādh replied that he would refer first to the Qur'an, then to the Sunnah and finally commit to ijtihad to make his own judgment. Muhammad approved of this.
A lawyer who is qualified to use this source is called a mujtahid. The founders of the Sunni madhabs (schools of law) were considered such lawyers. All mujtahid exercise at the same time the powers of a mufti and can give fatwa. Some mujtahid have claimed to be muj̲addid, or "renewer of religion." Such persons are thought to appear in every century. In Shi'ite Islam they are regarded as the spokespersons of the hidden Imam.
Common practice
The term urf, meaning "to know", refers to the customs and practices of a given society. Although this was not formally included in Islamic law, the Sharia recognizes customs that prevailed at the time of Muhammad but were not abrogated by the Qur'an or the tradition (called "Divine silence"). Practices later innovated are also justified, since Islamic tradition says what the people, in general, consider good is also considered as such by God. According to some sources, urf holds as much authority as ijma (consensus), and more than qiyas (analogical deduction). Urf is the Islamic equivalent of "common law".
Urf was first recognized by Abū Yūsuf (d. 182/798), an early leader of the Ḥanafī school. However, it was considered part of the sunnah, and not as formal source. Later al-Sarak̲h̲sī (d. 483/1090), opposed it, holding that custom cannot prevail over a written text.
According to Sunni jurisprudence, in the application of urf, custom that is accepted into law should be commonly prevalent in the region, not merely in an isolated locality. If it is in absolute opposition to Islamic texts, custom is disregarded. However, if it is in opposition to qiyas (analogical deduction), custom is given preference. Jurists also tend to, with caution, give precedence to custom over doctoral opinions of highly esteemed scholars. Shia does not consider custom as a source of jurisprudence.
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# Urf
Urf is an Arabic Islamic term referring to the custom, or 'knowledge', of a given society. To be recognized in an Islamic society, Urf must be compatible with the Sharia law. When applied, it can lead to the deprecation or inoperability of a certain aspect of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence).
`Urf is a source of rulings where there are not explicit primary texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah specifying the ruling. `Urf can also specify something generally established in the primary texts.
In some countries such as Egypt
Description
The term urf, meaning "to know", refers to the customs and practices of a given society. Although this was not formally included in Islamic law, the Sharia recognizes customs that prevailed at the time of Muhammad but were not abrogated by the Qur'an or the tradition (called "Divine silence"). Practices later innovated are also justified, since Islamic tradition says what the people, in general, consider good is also considered as such by Allah (see God in Islam). According to some sources, urf holds as much authority as 'ijma (consensus), and more than qiyas (legal reasoning by analogy). Urf is the Islamic equivalent of "common law".
Urf was first recognized by Abū Yūsuf (d. 182/798), an early leader of the Ḥanafī school. But it was considered part of the sunnah, and not as formal source. Later al-Sarak̲h̲sī (d. 483/1090), opposed it, holding that custom cannot prevail over a written text.
In the application of urf, custom that is accepted into law should be commonly prevalent in the region, not merely in an isolated locality. If it is in absolute opposition to Islamic texts, custom is disregarded. However, if it is in opposition to qiyas, custom is given preference. Jurists also tend to, with caution, give precedence to custom over doctoral opinions of highly esteemed scholars.
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# Qiyas
In Islamic jurisprudence, qiyās is the process of deductive analogy in which the teachings of the Hadith are compared and contrasted with those of the Qur'an, in order to apply a known injunction (nass) to a new circumstance and create a new injunction. Here the ruling of the Sunnah and the Qur'an may be used as a means to solve or provide a response to a new problem that may arise. This, however, is only the case providing that the set precedent or paradigm and the new problem that has come about will share operative causes (illah). The illah is the specific set of circumstances that trigger a certain law into action.
Both Sunni Islam and Shia Islam share Qur'anic interpretation (tafsīṛ), the pattern of Muhammad (sunnah), and scholarly consensus ijma as sources of Islamic law, although the two differ significantly with regards to the manner in which they use these sources.
Sunni interpretations
Individual opinion (ra’y) and deductive analogy (qiyāṣ) play an important role in many Sunni legal traditions, forming the basis of much of Sunni jurisprudence. In addition to tafsīr, the sunnah, and ijmā’, Sunni traditions generally regard qiyas as the fourth source of deducing the law. Other methods of deriving legal judgments such as mafhm al-nass (the clear implication of the text), tamthil (similarity or likeness), istihsan (juristic preference), or istislah (consideration of public interest), either explicitly rely on qiyas or use methods of analysis that are similar in their understanding of qiyas. However among Sunni traditions, there is a range of attitudes regarding the validity of these methods. Ahmad bin Hanbal and Dawud al-Zahiri for example, rejected qiyāṣ outright, arguing that to rely on personal opinion in law-making would mean that each individual would ultimately form their own subjective conclusions.
Opposition to qiyas came from a number of angles. Professor Walîd b. Ibrâhîm al-`Ujajî Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University explains the opposition to qiyas as coming from multiple angles:
Some of them argued that qiyâs is contrary to reason. One argument given in this light was that: “Delving into this method is intellectually repugnant in its own right”. Another argument was: “Islamic legal rulings are based on human well-being, and no one knows human well-being except the One who gave us the sacred law. Therefore, the only way we can know the sacred law is from the revelation.” Other scholars said that qiyâs is not contrary to reason, but prohibited by the sacred law itself.
The famed Imam Malik ibn Anas, founder of Maliki one of the four extant Sunni schools of law, is noted to have been asked about binding divorce (al-batta). When Malik responded that it was the third expression of divorce, a disciple of his quickly reached for his tablet to make note of this ruling. Upon realizing what his disciple was doing, Malik asked him to stop, remarking that his opinion could change by before nightfall.
Before the Middle Ages there was a logical debate among Islamic logicians, philosophers and theologians over whether the term qiyas refers to analogical reasoning, inductive reasoning or categorical syllogism. Some Islamic scholars argued that qiyas refers to inductive reasoning, which Ibn Hazm (994-1064) disagreed with, arguing that qiyas does not refer to inductive reasoning, but refers to categorical syllogism in a real sense and analogical reasoning in a metaphorical sense. On the other hand, al-Ghazali (1058–1111) (and in modern times, Abu Muhammad Asem al-Maqdisi) argued that qiyas refers to analogical reasoning in a real sense and categorical syllogism in a metaphorical sense. Other Islamic scholars at the time, however, argued that the term qiyas refers to both analogical reasoning and categorical syllogism in a real sense.
Shias
Not unlike the Sunni Hanbalis, the Shi’a rejected subjective opinion ra’y completely on account of the multitude of perspectives that would arise from it. There are various instances in which the Qur'an disapproves of a divergence of beliefs such as the following:
“And obey Allah and His Messenger; and fall into no disputes, lest ye lose heart and your power depart; and be patient and persevering: For Allah is with those who patiently persevere.”—Sura 8 (Al-Anfal), ayah 46
Twelver Shi’a
Within the Twelver Shi’i legal tradition, the fourth source for deriving legal principles is not qiyās but rather the intellect ’’'Aql’’. Twelver Shi’a regard the ulama (scholars) as authorities in legal and religious matters during the Occultation (ghayba) of the Imamah Mahdi. Until the return of the hidden Imam, it is the responsibility of the ulāma’ to be his deputies and provide guidance on worldly matters. In modern interpretations of Twelver Shi’ism, the most revered and learned scholars are styled as references for emulation (marja taqlīd). In cases where the Marja Taqlīd have differing opinions, the Mahdi who is considered the highest in knowledge, must either become manifest and provide a ruling or correct view "must lie with both parties". This system of deriving legal principles effectively replaces both the Sunni notion of consensus (ijmā’) and deductive analogy (qiyāṣ)
Accordingly, in the chapter on Knowledge of the Twelver collection of prophetic traditions, Kitab al-Kafi, one finds many traditions cited from the Imams that forbid the use of qiyās, for example:
The Imam (a.s.) said, "My father narrated from my great-great-great-great grandfather, the holy Prophet (s.a.) who said, ‘Those who act on the basis of analogy will face their destruction and lead others to their destruction. Those who give fatwas without the knowledge of the abrogating and the abrogated, the clear text and that which requires interpretation, they will face destruction and lead others to their destruction."
Ismaili Shi’a
Among the most notable Ismaili thinkers, Bu Ishaq Quhistani regarded the notion of subjective opinion (qiyās) as completely contradictory to the Islamic notion of tawhīd (unity) as it ultimately gave rise to a countless divergent conclusions, besides which those who exercised deductive analogy relied on little more than their imperfect individual intellects. According to Bu Ishaq, there must be a supreme intellect in every age, just as Muhammad was in his time. Without this, it would be impossible for any ordinary individual to attain knowledge of the Divine using mere speculation. The supreme intellect, he reasoned, could be none other than the Imam of the age.
Bu Ishaq Quhistani referred to the Qur'anic tale of Adam and Eve to support his argument for the necessity of a perfect teacher who could provide spiritual edification (ta’līm) in place of what he felt were subjective whims and wayward personal opinions (ra’y). Commenting on the Qur'anic foundational narrative, Bu Ishaq explains that when God taught Adam the names of all things, Adam was commanded to teach the angels, as in sura 2 (Al-Baqara), ayah 33. Spiritual instruction therefore had its root in the Qur'an itself, however Satan, in his arrogance, refused to bow down before Adam. Instead he protested, "I am better than him. You created me from fire and him from clay." Thus the first to use deductive analogy was none other than Satan himself, by reasoning and challenging the command of God to prostrate. It was for this reason that Satan was punished for eternity and fell from favor until the final day. In Ismaili thought, therefore, the truth lay not in subjective opinion (ra’y) and analogy (qiyās), but rather in the teaching of the bearer of truth (muhiqq), that is, the Imam of the time. The supreme teacher therefore exists at all times for the imperfect human intellects to submit (taslīm) to, as is proclaimed in the divine dictate:
“This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” [5:3]
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# Istihsan
Istihsan is an Arabic term for juristic "preference". In its literal sense it means "to consider something good". Muslim scholars may use it to express their preference for particular judgements in Islamic law over other possibilities. It is one of the principles of legal thought underlying personal interpretation or ijtihad.
A number of disputes existed amongst the classical jurists over this principle with the Hanafite jurists adopting this as a secondary source. Contemporary proponents of liberal movements within Islam have used istihsan and the similar idea of istislah (Arabic for "to deem proper") as ethical principles to favour feminist and reformist interpretations of the Qur'an and Sunnah, thus looking to reform Islamic law.
Istihsan is an Arabic word that means "to consider something good". It also applies to mean something towards which one is inclined or which one prefers, even if it is not approved by others. Technically it has been defined in several ways by Muslim jurists:
· Bazdawi defines it as moving away from the implications of an analogy to an analogy that is stronger than it
· Al-Halwani defines it as giving up an analogy for a stronger evidence from the Quran, Sunnah or ijma
· The Maliki jurist, Ibn al-Arabi defines it as sacrificing some of the implications of an evidence by way of exception
A number of categorisations have been employed by the jurists:
· Istihsan through the text (nass)
· Istihsan on the basis of consensus (ijma)
· Istihsan on the basis of what is good (maruf)
· Istihsan on the basis of necessity (darurah)
· Istihsan on the basis of benefit (Maslahah)
· Istihsan on the basis of analogy (qiyas khafi)
The following comprise classical examples for this principle:
· Abu Hanifah stated that the one who eats out of forgetfulness whilst fasting should repeat the fast - however he moves away from this by the evidence of a narration that allows the fast to stand.
· Analogy requires that the manufacturing contract with advance payment be prohibited on the basis of analogy - however this is made permissible according to ijma.
· Analogy requires that pure water be used for ablution so wells in which dirt or carcasses of animals have fallen would be prohiibted for use according to strict analogy. Necessity exceptionalises this and permits the use of this water subject to formal cleaning methods are applied first.
Criticism
Shafii said that following of one's personal whim amounts to unjustified legislation - this criticism revolves more around the linguistic meaning of the term rather than its technical meaning.
Sarakhsi points out that some jurists have criticised Istihsan on the grounds that the analogy us being given up for personal opinion, something prohibited in Islam. He refutes this understanding as incomprehensible, as no jurist would give up an authority for something that lacked evidence.
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# Ijma
Ijmā is an Arabic term referring to the consensus of the Muslim community. Various schools of thought within Islamic jurisprudence may define this consensus as that of the first generation of Muslims only; the consensus of the first three generations of Muslims; the consensus of the jurists and scholars of the Muslim world, or scholarly consensus; or the consensus of all the Muslim world, both scholars and laymen.
The hadith of Muhammad which states that "My ummah will never agree upon an error" is often cited as support for the validity of ijmā'. Sunni Muslims regard ijmā' as the third fundamental source of Sharia law, after the divine revelation of the Qur'an, the prophetic practice or Sunnah. While there is much differing over who is considered a part of this consensus, the majority view is split between two possibilities: that religiously binding consensus is the consensus of the entire Muslim community, or that religiously binding consensus is just the consensus of the religiously learned. The names of two kinds of consensus are:
· ijma al-ummah - a whole community consensus.
· ijma al-aimmah - a consensus by religious authorities.
Malik ibn Anas held the view that the religiously binding consensus was only the consensus of Muhammad's companions and the direct successors of those companions in the city of Medina
According to Iraqi academic Majid Khadduri, Al-Shafi'i held the view that religiously binding consensus had to include all of the Muslim community in every part of the world, both the religiously learned and the layman; thus, if even one individual out of millions held a differing view, then consensus had not been reached. In an attempt to define consensus in a form which was more likely to ever occur, Al-Ghazali expanding on al-Shafi'i's definition to define consensus as including all of the Muslim community in regard to religious principles and restricting the meaning to only the religiously learned in regard to finer details.
Abu Hanifa, Ahmad bin Hanbal and Dawud al-Zahiri, on the other hand, considered this consensus to only include the companions of the prophet Muhammad, excluding all generations which followed them, in Medina and elsewhere.
Views within Sunni Islam branched off even further in later generations, with Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari and Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi defining even a simple majority view as constituting consensus and Ibn Taymiyyah restricting consensus to the view of the religiously learned only.
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# Istislah
Istislah ("to deem proper") is a method employed by Muslim jurists to solve problems that find no clear answer in sacred religious texts. It is related to the term Maslaha, or "public interest" (both words being derived from the same triconsonantal root, "ṣ-l-ḥ"). Extra-textual pragmatic considerations are commonly accepted in Islamic jurisprudence concerning areas where the Qur'an and the practices of the earliest Muslim generations provide no specific guidance. However, appeals to Istislah or Maslaha are controversial when the goal is reforming what has been considered to be divinely-revealed law.
Istislah bears some similarities to the natural law tradition in the West, as exemplified by Thomas Aquinas. However, whereas natural law deems good that which is known self-evidently to be good, according as it tends towards the fulfilment of the person, istislah calls good whatever is connected to one of five "basic goods". Al-Ghazali abstracted these "basic goods" from the legal precepts in the Qu'ran and Sunnah: they are religion, life, reason, lineage and property. Some add also "honour".
Istislah, in this classical formulation, is not mere utilitarianism, which calls good whatever brings about "the greatest happiness for the greatest number." That is so because a measure bringing about the "greatest happiness" might infringe any one of the five basic values.
A more "liberal" strain of istislah has been important in the twentieth century and centres on the work of Rashid Rida. Rida considered that the "no harm no retribution" hadith is a supreme principle of legal liberalism, before which all other principles of the Shari'ah must give way. By this method, legislation promoting negative freedoms and human rights is to be considered "Islamic". In Egypt
Supreme Constitutional Court
, which has ratified equitable measures benefiting women even where these seemingly conflict with principles of classical Shari'ah.
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# Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhabs (schools of law) in jurisprudence (Fiqh) within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Khurasani Iranian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit (d.767), a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. This is the most prominent among all Sunni Schools and it has the most adherents in the Muslim world.
Among the four established Sunni schools of legal thought in Islam, the Hanafi school is one of the oldest and by far, the largest in parts of the world. It has a reputation for putting greater emphasis on the role of reason and being more liberal than the other three schools. The Hanafi school also has many followers among the four major Sunni schools. This is largely to its being adopted as the official madhab of The Abbasid Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire. As such, the influence of the Hanafi school is still widespread in the former lands of these empires. Today, the Hanafi school is predominant in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, China as well as in Mauritius, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Tatarstan, Bashkortostan, North Caucasus Republics, Russia, Crimea peninsula in Ukraine and Uyghuristan (Xinjiang) in China. It is also practiced in large numbers in other parts of Muslim world, particularly in parts of the Syria , Lebanon , Egypt , Iran and Iraq
Sources and methodology
The sources from which the law is derived, in order of importance and preference, are: the Qur'an, the authentic narrations of the Prophet (Hadith), Consensus (ijma), and analogical reasoning (qiyas), qiyas only being applied if direct material cannot be found in the Qur'an or Hadith. As the fourth Caliph, 'Ali, had transferred the Islamic capital to Kufa, and many of the companions of the Prophet had settled there, the Hanafi School had based many of its rulings on Prophetic narrations (Hadith) transmitted by companions residing in Iraq, thus it came to be known as the Kufan or Iraqi school in earlier times. Hence 'Ali ibn Abi Talib and 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud formed much of the base of the school, as well as other personalities from the household of the Prophet with whom Abu Hanifa had studied such as Muhammad al-Baqir, Ja'far al-Sadiq, and Zayd ibn 'Ali. Many jurists and Hadith transmitters had lived in Kufa including one of Abu Hanifa's main teachers, Hammad ibn Sulayman.
According to Abdalhaqq Bewley:
"Hanafi methodology involved the logical process of examining the Book and all available knowledge of the Sunna and then finding an example in them analogous to the particular case under review so that Allah's deen could be properly applied in the new situation. It thus entails the use of reason in the examination of the Book and Sunna so as to extrapolate the judgments necessary for the implementation of Islam in a new environment. It represents in essence, therefore, within the strict compass of rigorous legal and inductive precepts, the adaptation of the living and powerful deen to a new situation in order to enable it to take root and flourish in fresh soil. This made it an ideal legal tool for the central governance of widely varied populations which is why we find it in Turkey
Some distinctive opinions of the school
· It is prohibited or frowned upon to eat some forms of non-fish seafood based on the hadith of Muhammad : "Two types of dead meat and two types of blood have been made lawful for your consumption [without being slaughtered]: fish and locust, liver and spleen".
· Except for at Hajj, every salah (each of the five daily prayers) needs to be made in its regular time. (Some non-Hanafi scholars allow a person who is travelling to adjust certain prayer times for convenience).
· Women may serve as qadis, i.e. judges of Islamic law.
· The beginning of the time for asr prayer (and the end of the time for zuhr prayer) is later than in the other schools (roughly when shadows are twice the length of their objects).
· The hands are not raised while going to ruku and after it, whereas this is practised in the Shafi'i and Hanbali schools
· A sixth daily prayer called witr is wajib/required (but not at the same level of obligation as the five daily prayers).
· Abū Ḥanīfa, taking a literal view (harfiyyah), held that "wine" (خمر/Khamr in Quranic/classical Arabic), i.e. the fermented juice of dates or grapes, was absolutely prohibited but it was permissible to drink small non-intoxicating amounts of other alcoholic beverages (e.g. made from honey or grains). Later Hanafi scholars tend to rule that all alcoholic beverages are prohibited regardless of source.
· Bleeding can break one's wudu
· Merely touching a member of the opposite sex does not break one's wudu.
· A Muslim is allowed to work in Church construction and building thereof, whose wages considered lawful by Hanafis.
· It is possible to get married without the permission or consultation of a wali.
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# Maliki
The Mālikī madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is one of the four schools, followed by approximately 35% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates , Kuwait , in parts of Saudi Arabia , Oman Europe under Islamic rule, particularly Islamic Spain and the Emirate of Sicily.
The Mālikī school derives from the work of Mālik ibn Anas, primarily the Muwaṭṭah and the Mudawwanah. The Muwaṭṭah is a collection of hadiths which are regarded as sound and find their place in al-Bukhārī with some commentary from Mālik regarding the ‘amal "practices" of the people of Medina Medina
The second main source, al-Mudawwanah al-Kubrā, is the collaborator work of Mālik's longtime student, Ibn Qāsim and his mujtahid student, Saḥnūn. The Mudawwanah consists of the notes of Ibn Qāsim from his sessions of learning with Mālik and answers to legal questions raised by Saḥnūn in which Ibn Qāsim quotes from Mālik, and where no notes existed, his own legal reasoning based upon the principles he learned from Mālik. These two books, i.e. the Muwaṭṭah and Mudawwanah, along with other primary books taken from other prominent students of Mālik, would find their way into the Mukhtaṣar Khalīl, which would form the basis for the later Mālikī madhhab.
It differs from the three other schools of law most notably in the sources it uses for derivation of rulings. All four schools use the Qur'an as primary source, followed by the sunnah of Muhammad, transmitted as hadiths. In the Mālikī madhhab, sunnah includes not only what was recorded in hadiths, but the legal rulings of the four rightly guided caliphs (Rāshidūn), primarily ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, ijmā‘ (consensus of the scholars), qiyās (analogy) and ‘urf (local custom which is not in direct conflict with established Islamic principles). The Mālikī school, in addition, relies heavily upon the practice of the salaf people of Medina
When forced to rely upon conflicting authenticated hadiths to derive a ruling, Mālikīs would then choose the hadith that has a Medinan origin, meaning the transmitter(s) resided in Medina Medina
This source, according to Mālik, sometimes supersedes hadith, because the practice of the people of Medina
Mālik was particularly scrupulous about authenticating his sources when he did appeal to them, however, and his comparatively small collection of aḥādith, known as al-Muwaṭṭah "The Approved", is highly regarded. Mālik is said to have explained the title as follows: "I showed my book to seventy jurists of Medina
Notable differences in prayer from other madhabs
There are slight differences in the preferred methods of ṣalāt, or prayer, in the Māliki school.
· Qiyām (the standing position in prayer) - The dominant (mashhūr) position is to leave the hands to dangle at one's sides during prayer. It has erroneously been ascribe that the reason was Imam Mālik prayed this way because his arms were dislocated due to the public lashing he received as mentioned above. The actual reason for this practice, i.e. sadl, being the dominant position in the school was when Saḥnūn asked Ibn Qāsim about the hadith of placing the right hand over the left mentioned in the Muwaṭṭah, Ibn Qāsim quoted Imam Mālik as saying, 'I do not know of this practice (i.e. qabḍ) in the obligatory prayer (i.e., I did not see the people of Medina practicing this), however it is allowed in the supererogatory prayers if the standing has been prolonged'. The common Sunnī practice of joining the hands beneath the chest (or below the navel as is the case with the Hanafi madhhab) right hand over left, does not invalidate the prayer, since leaving the hands down is a recommended act (while placing them together is regarded as offensive in the obligatory prayer, except for those who regard doing so to be sunnah).
· Looking straight ahead at eye-level (i.e. literally "facing" the Ka‘bah) during the standing and sitting parts of the prayer, rather than looking down towards the place of prostration (there is disagreement on this point, with many famous Mālikī scholars holding that one should look at the place of prostration, however, these are minor points related to concentration and humility before Allah and in any case, one's posture should not be compromised).
· Not reciting any supplications before the Fātiḥah in obligatory prayers (the Bismillah, reciting "in the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful" before the Fātiḥah.).
· Tashahhud - Turning the right-handed fist onto its side (so that the smallest finger is touching the thigh) and the right index finger is moved from side to side.
· Taslīm - Saying the ending taslīm only once ("al-salāmu ‘alaykum" while turning the head to the right); In other madhhabs it is common to say the taslīm twice, once to your right shoulder and once to the left.
· Qunūt is to be recited only in the morning prayer.
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# Shafi'i
The Shafi'i madhhab is one of the schools of fiqh, or religious law, within the Sunni branch of Islam. Named after Imām ash-Shafi'i, it is followed by Muslims worldwide in Southeast Asia, Horn of Africa, Yemen , and parts of the Egypt
The Shafi'i school of thought stipulates authority to four sources of jurisprudence, also known as the Usul al-fiqh. In hierarchical order, the usul al-fiqh consist of: the Quran, the Sunnah of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, ijmā' ("consensus"), and qiyas ("analogy").
The Shafi'i school also refers to the opinions of Muhammad's companions (primarily Al-Khulafa ar-Rashidun). The school, based on Shafi'i's books ar-Risala fi Usul al-Fiqh and Kitab al-Umm, which emphasizes proper istinbaat (derivation of laws) through the rigorous application of legal principles as opposed to speculation or conjecture.
Shafi'i's treatise ar-Risala fi Usul al-Fiqh is not to be mistaken or confused with the al-Risala of Imam Malik.
Imam Shafi'i approached the imperatives of the Islamic Shariah (Canon Law) distinctly in his own systematic methodology. Imam Shafi'i, Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal almost entirely exclude the exercise of private judgement in the exposition of legal principles. They are wholly governed by the force of precedents, adhering to the Scripture and Traditions. They also do not admit the validity of a recourse to analogical deduction of such an interpretation of the Law, whereby its spirit is adapted to the circumstances of any special case.
Shafi'i is also known as the "First Among Equals" for his exhaustive knowledge and systematic methodology to religious science.
Shafi'i's full name is Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muhammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Abbās ibn ‘Uthmān ibn Shāfi‘ ibn as-Sa'ib ibn ‘Ubayd ibn ‘Abd al-Yazīd ibn al-Muttalib ibn ‘Abd Manaf. ‘Abd Manaf was the great great grandfather of Muhammad. Based on this lineage, he is from the Quraish tribe. He was born in 150 AH (760 CE) in Gaza
As a member of the school of Medina , ash-Shafi'i worked to combine the pragmatism of the Medina
Based on this claim, ash-Shafi'i devised a method for systematic reasoning without relying on personal deduction. He argued that the only authoritative sunnah were those that were both of Muhammad and passed down from Muhammad himself. He also argued that sunnah contradicting the Quran were unacceptable, claiming that sunnah should only be used to explain the Quran. Furthermore, ash-Shafi'i claimed that if a practice is widely accepted throughout the Muslim community, it cannot be in contradiction of sunnah.
The Shafi'i school is followed throughout the Ummah and is the official school of thought of many traditional scholars and leading Sunni authorities. It is also recognized as the official school of thought by the governments of Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia Indonesia
It is the dominant school of thought amongst Muslims in Yemen , Lower Egypt , Syria , the Palestinian Territories , Jordan , North Caucasus, Southeast Turkey, North west Iran , Iraqi Kurdistan, parts of Northern Syria, Djibouti , Ethiopia , Eritrea , Somalia , Sudan , Maldives , Malaysia , Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia
It is also practised by large communities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia (in the Hejaz and Asir), the United Arab Emirates, Israel, the Swahili Coast, Mauritius, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan (by Chechens) and Indian States of Kerala (most of the Mappilas), Karnataka (Bhatkal, Mangalore and Coorg districts), Maharashtra (by Konkani Muslims) and Tamil Nadu.
In terms of followers, Shafi'i is the second largest school of the Sunni branch of Islam after the Hanafi madhab. It is practiced by approximately a third (32%) of Sunni Muslims, or around 29% of all Muslims worldwide.
Historical
The Shafi'i madhab was adopted as the official madhab during periods of the Abbasid Caliphate, in the first century of the Great Seljuq Empire, Zengid dynasty, Ayyubid dynasty and later the Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo
Early European explorers speculated that T'ung-kan (Hui people, called "Chinese Mohammedan") in Xinjiang originated from Khorezmians who were transported to China
Ash-Shafi'i was also a significant poet. His poetry is noted for its beauty, wisdom, despite the fact that during his lifetime he stood off becoming a poet because of his rank as an Islamic scholar. He said once:
For scholars, if poetry did not degrade,
I would have been a finer poet than Labīd.
However, the beauty of his poetry made people collect it in one famous book under the name Diwān Imām al-Shafi'i. Many verses are popularly known and repeated in the Arab world as proverbs:
We blame our time though we are to blame.
No fault has time but only us.
We scold the time for all the shame.
Had it a tongue, it would scold us.
The Qur'an has brought a transformation to the Arabic language, especially in Arabic poetry and prose. It has thus shaped the form and essence of contemporary Arabic literature.
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# Hanbali
The Hanbali school (madhhab) is one the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. The jurisprudence school traces back to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d.855) but was institutionalized by his students. Hanbali jurisprudence is considered very strict and conservative, especially regarding questions of dogma and cult. It is mainly prevalent in Saudi Arabia Mecca and Medina
God's attributes
Hanbal refuted and rejected the Jahmites' and the Mu'tazilites' views of God. For Hanbal, both the Jahmites and the Mu'tazilites erred in conceiving of God without eternal attributes. Hanbal believed that God has many attributes and names as mentioned in the Quran and the Prophetic Traditions and that God is One. Hanbal asserted that God's Oneness was not understood by the Jahmites and the Mu'tazilites. Hanbal stated that the ahl al-sunnah wa-al-jama'ah, or Sunnis, believe that God is eternal with His power and light and that He speaks, knows, and creates eternally.
Annihilation of the eternals
Hanbal disagreed with the Jahmites' and the Mu'tazilites' view that no other eternals exist except God because the eternal is God and God is One. Hanbal believed that Hell and Paradise are eternal because God made them eternal.
The beatific vision
Hanbal believed that the people or the inhabitants of Paradise are able to see God and that God will make them see Him as their highest reward. He did not allow a beatific vision in this world - only in the Hereafter will this vision be bestowed upon the beloved of God. The Mu'tazilites and the Jahmites totally reject the beatific vision of God even in Paradise .
God's word
Hanbal believed that God's word is eternal, that God Himself spoke to Moses the prophet and Moses heard His words, and that God did not create His words when He communicated with Moses. Since the speech of God is an Attribute, and God is eternal, all of God's Attributes are eternal as well. The Jahmites and the Mu'tazilites believe that God created His words to make Moses able to understand His words.
The Qur'an
Hanbal believed that the Koran is uncreated because the Koran is the word of God and the word of God is not created, and thus the Koran is God's word or speech and His revelation. The Mu'taziltes and the Jahmites believe that the Koran, which is readable and touchable, is created like other created creatures and beings. Ibn Hanbal maintained that the Koran is indeed a thing, but that it is not created like other created things. Hanbal refused to include the Koran in the category of the created creatures of God like the earth and the heavens. There are other existing things not mentioned by God that they are created by God. Among those things are the Chair, the Throne and the Guarded Tablet (Lawh-i-Mahfuz). They are not among the created creatures like the earth and the heavens. Hence Hanbal asserted that the Koran is uncreated.
Notable rulings
· Wudu - One of the seven things which nullifies the minor purification includes, touching a woman for the purpose of carnal desire. This ruling is similar to the Maliki opinion, however the Shafi'i opinion is that merely touching a woman will break the wudu, while the Hanafi opinion is that merely touching a woman doesn't break the wudu.
· Al-Qayyam – The hands are positioned above the navel or on the chest while standing in prayer, not similar to the Hanafis, though others state a person has a choice i.e. either above the navel or near the chest
· Ruku – The hands are to be raised (Rafa al-Yadayn) before going to ruku, and standing up from ruku, similar to the Shafi'i school. While standing up after ruku, a person has a choice to place their hands back to the position as they were before. Other madh'habs state the hands should be left on their sides.
· Tashahhud – The finger should be pointed and not moved, upon mentioning the name of Allah.
· Tasleem – Is considered obligatory by the Madh'hab.
· Salat-ul-Witr – Hanbalis pray Two Rak'ats consecutively then perform Tasleem, and then One Rak'at is performed separately. Dua Qunoot is recited after the Ruku' during Witr, and Hands are raised during the Dua.
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