Maliki School of thought/ Islamic jurisprudence
Introduction
Abu Abdullah Malik Ibn anas famously known as Imam Malik was
born at Medina in the year 93 hijri. He was not only a great traditionsist, but
a jurist who founded a school of Jurisprudence known as Maliki School or Medina
School. He gave discourses on Hadith in the Masjid Nabvi for near about 40
years of his life. He was considered to be the highest authority in Hadith of
his time. He devoted his life to the study of jurisprudence and hadith in
Madina. He learnt Hadith from Abdul Rehman, ibn hurmuz, Nafi Ibn Zakwan and Yahya
ibn Saeed. He studied fiqh from the celebrated jurist of Medina Rabis Ibn Farukh.
His chief book, the Muwataa, is the oldest corpus of Sunni law extent and is of
interest because it forms a link between the fiqh literature of earlier days.
The Imam said that he had presented his book in the 70 scholars of Medina who
agreed upon its contents. He, therefore, gave it the name of Al Muwataa, which
means ‘Agreed upon’ Or a ‘most frequent path’. He also became the victim of the
Abbasid rule as he never bowed before political authorities and gave decisions
without any bias. Imam Malik died in 179 hijri in Medina and was buried in Al
Baki. Imam Shaafi was his celebrated disciple.
Features of Maliki School:
- The Holy Quran as the first source for formulating the principles of law.
- Inclined more to the traditions of the Prophet [saw], He preferred the traditions which were collected and narrated by the traditionists of Medina. He would also accept traditions which were authentic, even if the traditions carried the authority of only one narrator.
- Ijma of the companions and Ijma of the people of Madinaas, the most preferable ijma.
- Customs and practices of the people of Medina.
- Less reliance on qiyas and more reliance on the customs of the people of Medina.
- Profound the doctrine of Istislah, Sources unique to this school.
Maliki School originated from Medina, and then separate to Cairo
and from there to North African coast, Egypt, sudan, Libya, Central Arabian
Gulf and western Africa.
Shafi School Of Thought
Introduction
Abu Abdullah Mohammed Idris Al shafi, commonly known as Imam Shaafi, was born in 150 hijri In Gaza Palestine where his father was working as a soldier Throughout his life, he also resided in Mecca, Medina, Yemen, Egypt, and Baghdad. His father, who was originally from Mecca, died when Shaafi was only two years old and then he was brought up in very humble circumstances by his mother in the Sacred city of Mecca. He was a member of the well-known Banu Muttalib Quraish tribe, and the family gave themselves the name Shaafi after an elder who lived in this tribe. He memorized Quran at the age of seven and Muvatta of Imam Malik at the age of 10. He studied Hadis in Mecca under Muslim bin Khalid Al Zanji and Sufian bin Uyainah. Imam Shafi also learnt high standard Arabic and archery in Hazeel tribe of Mecca. During this period he also gained for miliarity with astronomy, and medicine. He went to Medina at the age of 20 years and studies fiqh under Imam Malik and remained their till the death of his teacher. After the death of Imam Malik, Imam Shafi went to Bhagdad and studied Hanafi fiqh from Imam Mohammed Shaybani, The celebrated pupil of Imam Abu Hanifa. In this way he got mastery over both fiqh. As a result, he created his own school of law that incorporated and impacted both Hanafi and Maliki fiqh. He acted as an intermediary between independent legal investigation and traditionalisms of his time. Not only did he work through the legal material available, but in the Risala he also investigated the principles and methods of Jurisprudence. Shaafi is regarded as the founder of the science of usul-ul fiqh, who systematically defined and compiled the sources of law. At the age of 54, he passed away in Egypt in 204 Hijri. his famous disciple was Ahmad Ibn humble.
Silent features of Shafi School.
The Quran as the basis of legal knowledge. According to Imam Shafi, the Quran serves the purpose of supplying raw materials for legislation either is specific rules of law or as example for formulating principles of law.
Greater emphasis on Sunnah of the Prophet, but distinguished it from Sunnah of living Medina Generation, and Sunnah of the successors of the prophet. Imam Shafi said that Sunnah is established only by tradition going back to the Prophet and not by practice or consensus.
Nothing can override the authority of the Prophet even it be attested only by an isolated tradition and that every well authenticated tradition going back to the Prophet has Precedence over the opinions of the companions, their successors and letter authorities.
This school examined traditions is more critically, and adopted a moderate approach in following the traditions. Unlike Maliki School who leaned more on traditions usages and practice of Medina and Hanafi School who had set a very tough tests for accepting the Hadith and leaned more on passages of the Quran and their own deductive opinion.
This school made extensive use of Hadith collected from different centers, whereas Imam Malik generally confined what he found in Madina.
Imam Shafi perfected the doctrine of Ijma and allowed its use and scope in wider manner. By Ijima he does not merely mean the agreement of few scholars of a certain town or locality, but their consensus of the majority of leading jurists in Muslim lands.
The law laid down by Ijma is authoritative and binding and is accepted not only In religion, but also in temporal matters like as organization of army, preparation of war and other questions of administration of the state according to Shafi School.
Accepted Qiyas as the 4th source, However established regular rulers for it, adopted a balanced approach between those who used the analogy extensively as a source of law and those who rejected it altogether.
Limited the use of Qiyas to matters of details; it cannot supersede an authoritative text.
Rejected hanafi’s Istihsan and Maliki’s Istislah. However accepted istidlal and propounded principles of Istishab.
This school was the combination of the principles and Methods of Hanafi and Maliki thought. Imam Shafi has to his credit to synthesis the two fielders of knowledge, i.e. fiqh and Hadith which were generally seen as two competing sciences.
This school is followed in many parts of Egypt, Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Java, Sri Lanka etcetera.
Hanabali School Of Thought
Introduction:-
Abu Abdullah Ahmad Ibn Mohammad Hanbal Ash-shabani, commonly known as Imam Hanbal, was the founder of the Hanabli school of Islamic Jurisprudence. He was born in Baghdad in 164 hijri in the Abbasid rule. He studied under different masters and made extensive travel to learn Hadith and fiqh. In his early age, he studied fiqh under Imam abu Yusuf and Hadith from Hisham and Sufian Ibni Ayna and other traditionists. He was one of the prominent disciples of the Imam Shafi from whom he took lessons on fiqh and hadith. However, his inclination was more towards the study of Hadith. He was more on traditionist than a jurist. His famous work masnad Ahmad, a collection of approximately 30,000 traditions in one of the major works in the Sunni Hadith collections which has continued to exercise considerable influence in the field of Hadith Studies up to present times. He died in Baghdad in 241 hijri. Among his famous disciples includes his two sons, Salah bin Ahmed and Abdullah bin Ahmed.
Features of Hanabli School:
The Quran is the first guide to seek answers of legal questions.
Extensive use of Hadith as a source of law. Even weak Hadith is preferred over reasoning.
Literal and unbending interpretation of Hadith.
This school focused more on the traditions of restricted the scope of qiyas and ijma in narrow limits.
Very less use of Ijma due to dependence on Hadith. However, restricted the scope of Ijma up to Companions only.
Use of qiyas only in extreme necessity.
Strict adherents of Hadith literature and discouraged use of innovative sources.
This school remained largely at traditional traditionalist and literal approach oriented as compared to other three Sunni school.
The followers of the school are in majority in Saudi Arabia, where it is the official school of Kingdom and have followers also in the Arabian Peninsula, Palestine Syria and Iraq. Masnad Ahmed is one of the major works of this school.
Hanafi School Of Thought
Introduction of Hanafi School
Noman Ibn thabit, Popularly known as Imam abu hanifa was born in Kufa in 80 century during the reign of Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan, and Umayyad King. He studied Islamic Jurisprudence in the city of Kufa, Makah and Madina under wide range of eminent teachers who were Jurists, and traditionists Of the time. The prominent teacher of Imam Abu Hanifa was Hamad Ibn Abi Sulaiman, who was himself of the disciple of Ibrahim Nakhei. Imam spends 18 years under the guidance of Hamad where from he learnt the fiqh of Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Abdullah Ibn Masood and also received the Futwas of Ibrahim Nakhei. He also met Imma Mohammad Bakir, the 5th Imam of Shias and his son Imam Jaffer Al Sadik, a great Muslim jurist and the 6th Imam of Itna Asharia Shias. He had interactions and dialogues with both of them and acknowledged them as being great jurist of the time. Imam abu Hanifa regarded both of them in high esteem. He heard that traditions of prophet [saw] from Abu Abdullah ibn-ul Mubarak, As-shabi, Kathadah, Al A’mash and other men of eminence in the branch of learning. After the death of Imam Hamad in 120 he succeeded him as and started giving discourses in fiqh to the student and other persons. His public lecturers in Kufah soon gave him fame as a great jurist. He gained immediate notoriety as the Master of Jurisprudence thanks to his exceptional reasoning and deduction skills, as well as the advantages of a sharp recall and lucid comprehension.He witnessed both rise and fall of Umayyad dynasty. He spent 52 years of his life under Umayyad rule and 18 years under Abhashed rule.
Imam abu Hanifa made his living As a cloth merchant and would bear all the expenses of his full time pupils. He trained a class of jurists who were not only expert in law but also were expert in various disciplines. Abu Hanifa preferred discussion method over dictation and lecture method. Everyone was given an equal chance of debating and discussing the legality of any issue which was put forth. Everyone was free to give his opinion and counter opinion with arguments from the Quran and Hadith. In this way the participatory approach was adopted by Imam Abu Hanifa which allowed him to be listener, listener and teacher simultaneously. After listening to all the discussions and opinions of disciples on every aspect of the issue, the Imam would finally give his opinion or judgements regarding the issues concerned.
Most of the Times disciples would agree with the opinion of Imam. However, it also happened that the disciples and Imam would differ with each other’s opinion. In such a scenario all the opinions would be reduced in writing, which resulted in preparing a vast literature on Hanafi jurisprudence. In 132 hijri he constituted a committee of 40 men, among his main disciples for the codification of laws. Of this committee yahya ibn zaid, hafs ibn ghiyath, abu yousf, daud-at-tati, habban and mandal were men of great reputation and traditionists, Zufar was noted for his power of deducing rules of law and qasim ibn muim and Imam Mohammed were great Arabic scholars. The committee used to discuss any practical and theoretical question that arose or suggested itself, and to conclusions which they are agreed upon after a full and free debate were duly recorded. It took 30 years for the code to be completed, Abu Hanifa never accepted any post in the government of the time, therefore, became victim of Umayyad and Abbasid rullers. Finally, the great jurist was put into prison by Al Mansour, where he was poisoned to death in 150 hijri at the age of Seventy. Imam Abu Yusuf and Imam Mohammed were his two main disciples and main promoters of Hanafi School. So Hanafi school emerged on the works of Imam Abu Hanifa and his disciples.
It is to be noted that Imam Abu Hanifa’s personality and works have also been made controversial at different times. Some people have gone so far in praising him that they have raised him to the status of Prophet and companions and are not ready to differ with his opinion in any case whatsoever. On the other hand, there are people who allege him of deviating from Suratulmustaqeem, trampling with the Sunnat of the Prophet [saw] and more importantly allege him of giving Futwas without taking recourse to texts of Sharia. It is submitted that both the views are unrealistic and unsound.
Silent features of Hanafi School:
Quran is the first and foremost Source of deducting the form of rituals, bearing on civil and criminal laws, or for deducting the moral principles which should govern the case.
Hadis as the second source. However, the scrutiny and reliability of Hadith were held in high esteem by Imam Abu Hanifa because of his piety. He had laid down very strict tests for checking the authenticity of traditions. He would not accepted hadith unless he was satisfied that the authority is beyond doubt. This is the reason many critics of Imam Abu Hanifa alleged him of using Qiyas more than hadith. However, it is to be noted that Imam in his life time rebutted this allegation. It is pertinent to mention that Iraqi jurists would check credibility Of Hadith not merely on the touchstone of authenticity of narrators but also other allied evidences like time, place, person, event, etc.
He would rely more on the fatwas and narration of hadith transmitted through Hazrat Ali and Hazrat Abdullah ibn Masood as both had lived in Kufa. Hazrat Ali has transferred his capital from Medina to Kufa during his reign.
The Reliance on the principle of Qiyas is the special character of Kufa school of Abu Hanifa. He elevated the status of Qiyas and used it frequently in the absence of authentic Hadith, or any sayings of the companions.
This school affirmed the validity of Ijma in every age.
The doctrine of Istihsan was evolved by this school, I.e. using the rule of law as needed in certain situations.
Recognize the authority of local customs and usages as a source of law for the purpose to infer.
The followers of this school are majority in number as compared to all other schools of Islamic jurisprudence and are separate across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, China and parts of Russia,many parts of Central Asia, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and palastine.
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