Understanding the Four Schools of Islamic Thought: A Beginner's Guide

[Music] what are the schools of thought there are four major schools of thought in Sunni Islam hanafi Maliki shaferi and hambali the Arabic word for schools of thought is madhub the schools of thought are not sex they are different methods of deriving interpreting and implementing Islamic law the schools of thought May differ in the day-to-day implementation of Islamic law but not in fundamental Islamic beliefs and practices let's take the Salah or Islamic prayer for example the overall performance of the prayer is almost identical among all the schools of thought however there are minor differences such as the placement of the hands or moving the finger during a Tasha Hood where did the schools of thought come from of course there were no schools of thought during the early days of Islam neither Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam nor his companions or sahaba followed any specific math hub everyone who followed the mod Hub of prophet Muhammad after the prophet died Islam began to spread rapidly as Islam came into contact with more civilizations circumstances a rose that required unique legal decisions when most of these sahaba were still alive they used consensus or ijima to decide on legal matters furthermore the first four colleagues were also sahaba the caliph could overrule the consensus of the companions because he was the head of state and the head of religion however the death of Ali IBN ABI Talib radhe ended this era the umayyad dynasty that followed him was a hereditary monarchy opposition to the Umayyads led to various factions and rebellions these different factions often used Islam to legitimize their agendas since many of the umayyad caliphs were corrupt the leading Islamic scholars of this era maintained their distance this was to avoid political manipulation and coercion many scholars moved away from the large cities and settled in rural areas away from political control since these Scholars were more isolated they had to rely on their own deduction called ichtihad this Egypt he had that is deducing laws from the original sources is what led to the formation of the schools of thought as certain Scholars attracted more students they increased in popularity this popularity invited more legal questions about more complex issues these complex issues led the scholars to do even more HT had there were two broad approaches to Islamic law reasoning and literalism the reasoning approach assumes there must be a reason behind every Hadith and every verse of Quran the literalist approach discourages trying to find the reason behind hadiths and Quran and just accept them as they are the history of the four schools of thought the hanafi madhub founded by Imam Abu hanifa this is the largest mud Hub in the world Abu hanifa was born in Persia and his father accepted Islam during the era of the righteous colleagues Imam Abu hanifa met some of the sahaba but he did not study under them Abu hanifa preferred the reasoning approach to Islamic law he also lived in Persia during a time when there was a lot of rebellious activity against the umayyad government these rebellious factions often invented hadiths to justify their actions this scourge of fabricated hadith's LED Imam Abu hanifa to rely more on each tihad or deduction he just couldn't trust many of the hadiths where he lived Imam Abu hanifah himself was very skilled in the study of hadiths he studied under Hamad IBN Zaid the leading Hadith scholar of his day for 19 years often taught using hypothetical thick he encouraged his students to come up with hypothetical situations and work out the correct ruling he believed this prepared his students for situations before they happened Imam Abu hanifa was imprisoned and tortured by rulers from both the umayyad and abbasa dynasties when the umayyas were in power they wanted him to become a judge but like many scholars of his day Abu hanifah wanted to avoid politics for refusing them he was imprisoned and beaten by the governor of kufa in Iraq years later when the abbasids had come to power Khalif al-mansor again asked him to become a judge and again Imam Abu hanifa refused and again he was imprisoned and beaten the legal system of the Ottoman Empire was based on hanafi fik helping to establish it as the world's largest madhub today the hanafi school of thought is mostly found in India Pakistan Bangladesh and turkey the Maliki madhub Imam Malik was the grandson of one of the sahaba he was born in Medina and spent his entire life there he only left the city to make Hajj he studied under nafia the freed slave of IBN Omar there are over 80 hadiths that include in his chain of narration from Malik from nafia from IBN Omar this chain of narration is highly authentic and is called the Golden Chain by Hadith Scholars unlike Imam Abu hanifa Imam Malik discouraged hypothetical fig he encouraged his students to ask questions but he would only deal with practical real life situations he also supported a literalist approach to Islamic law he taught his students by narrating a Hadith then discussing its meanings in contemporary issues Imam Malik was unique in that he considered the practices of the people of Medina to be a source of Islamic law the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam established an Islamic government in Medina 90 of the laws in the Quran were revealed in Medina and college Abu Bakr almad and Earthman radhi Allah all ruled from Medina therefore Imam Malik believed the people of Medina of his time had the most authentic practice of Assam Imam Malik became so popular and respected that the Abbasid Khalif wanted to make his ruling state law however Imam Malik refused to allow that later he would rule against an Abbasid law that forced a man to divorce his wife if he broke an oath when his ruling became known Imam Malik was arrested imprisoned and beaten severely Imam Malik's major work is al-muwata which is widely available in English today Alma Wata is a Hadith collection but one that focuses on Islamic law one of his most famous students was Imam founder of the madhub today the Maliki school of thought is found in parts of Egypt Sudan North Africa West Africa and some Gulf States Imam shafri was born in Gaza in modern day Palestine he studied under Imam Malik and memorized almawata he remained a student of Imam Malik until Imam Malik died nonetheless rejected Imam Malik's preference for the practices of the people of Medina Imam shafri like many other Scholars of his era traveled extensively in search of knowledge hence he studied under many different Scholars while teaching in Yemen Imam was accused of being a Shiite he was arrested taken to Baghdad and put on trial however he successfully defended himself and was set free while he was in Baghdad he began studying under Muhammad ashabani ashebani was a student of both Imam Malik and Imam Abu hanifa as a result school of thought combines the teachings of the hijaz that is Imam Malik with the teachings of Iraq that is Imam Abu hanifa one of imam's most famous books is ororisala meaning the letter this was the first book to present a systematic and organized study of fic or Islamic jurisprudence Imam students included Imam Ahmed IBN hambal and al-musani al-musani would later be imprisoned and tortured to death for not accepting matazalia philosophy the shy fairy madhub is perhaps the second most popular school of thought after the hanafis this is due to the chief judge of Damascus adopting it and offering prizes to anyone who memorized Imam Shah from his books Imam eventually settled in Egypt and was able to teach in relative peace and security this allowed his school of thought to become dominant in Egypt the shaferi school of thought can be found in Egypt parts of Yemen Sri Lanka Southern India Malaysia East Africa the Philippines Indonesia and surround was born in Baghdad and was a student of Imam shafiri later in life he was arrested and tortured for not accepting more autism philosophy this period was known as the mehna or Inquisition the Abbasid Khalif al-mahamun had become immortalite the more attention relied heavily on logic and reasoning this led many of them to assert that the Quran was created to force this ideology on the leading Scholars of his day those Scholars who disagreed with him were imprisoned and tortured until they capitulated meaning like al-mozani mentioned earlier died during this period Imam Ahmed stuck to the traditional belief that the Quran was the uncreated speech of Allah because of this he suffered nearly a year of imprisonment and torture like Imam Malik Imam Ahmed preferred the literalist approach to Islamic law Imam Ahmed IBN hambal was a prolific collector of hadiths having collected nearly 30 000 hadiths in his lifetime his Hadith collection is called musnad in fact the two most prominent Hadith collectors Imam bukhari and Iman Muslim both studied under Imam Ahmed at some point of time Imam Ahmed did not like to record his teachings and forbade his students from writing them down it was the students of his students who finally wrote his rulings down due to his conflicts with the government and his refusal to record his rulings the hambali madham remained very small for centuries in the mid-1700s Muhammad IBN Saud the ruler of a small Arabian State teamed up with a religious scholar named Muhammad IBN Abdul wahab Muhammad IBN Abdul wahab came from a long line of hambali Scholars expanded the boundaries of the Emirates until the Ottoman Empire crushed them and sent most of the Saudi family into Exile in the 1930s Abdul Aziz IBN Saud became the first king of Saudi Arabia and he gave all religious authority to the descendants of Muhammad IBN Abdul wahab hence hambalife became the basis of the Saudi legal system today the hambali school of thought is primarily found in Saudi Arabia and Palestine conclusion these four schools of thought survived because they had outstanding students State support and they each brought something unique to the table Imam Abu hanifa and his preference for chaos and hypothetical law Imam Malik and his exclusive usage of the customs of the people of Medina and his blending of many different teachings and Imam Ahmed IBN hambal and his preference for hadith's and literal interpretation this essay is not intended to cause division the purpose of this essay is to help you appreciate the beauty and complexity of Islamic law and to acknowledge the sacrifices of those dedicated Islamic scholars who came before us may Allah have mercy on them and may we meet them in Jannah amen

Channel: Islamic History Podcast

Views: 37,492

Keywords: islam, islamic history, history of islam, prophet muhammad, seerah

Id: ernTStUC8Dg

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 09 2022