The second school of jurisprudence is known as Maliki School of law. The school was founded by Malik ibn Abbas who was a famous lawyer in Medina. He was also one of the Tabi’i and a contemporary of Imam Hanbali. Imam Maliki was known for his generosity and faith and also for great knowledge in hadith and scared law. His knowledge for Hadith came through his love for the Prophet whom he held in great respect and admiration. His teachings are not very different from his contemporary Abu Hanifa and he placed a lot of importance in the Quran, Hadith, ijma and qiyas. However, the main aspect that differentiates this school from the others is through the sources that it uses as its foundations. All the schools use Quran as their foundation and then follow the Sunnah and also focus on ijma and Qiyas. But, the Maliki School further adds the practice and actions of the people of Medina (amal ahl-al Medina) as one of its sources. In fact, this source is so important that it sometimes surpasses the authority of the Sunnah as according to Imam Maliki the Medinan people represent a true living source of Medina. This is because the Prophet had migrated there (Hijra) and lived and died there and had preached his fundamental teachings in the city. Further the city is important because the Sahabas were present there adding more to its prestige and giving a lot of importance to the people as the people lived and breathed the Sunnah. Amal ahl-al Medina have a lot of importance and thus whenever there’s a question involving legal matters the public interest is highly recognized besides referring to the four methods of jurisprudence. Even though, Imam Maliki doesn’t has a large collection of sources he is the nonetheless credited for his famous collection of Hadith’s known as Al-Muwatta or “the trodden path” which is highly regarded and referred to by the followers. All the Al-Muwatta Hadiths are very credible and were used by Al-Bukhari in his sahih. Further Imam Shafi said that “After the book of Allah, no book has appeared on earth that is sounder than Malik's.” Finally, an important aspect of this school that distinguishes Malik from his counterparts is that he didn’t leave his followers with a “developed body of legal doctrines”. Instead it became important and obligatory for his followers and successors to express a clear legal system that explained the fundamentals of the school. There were many important law works but among the famous ones there is Al-Mudawana al-Kubra by Sahnum and al-Mukhtasar by Sidi Khalit to name a few. These works are very important and are still used by the followers in all matter of religious importance. Over the years this school of thought has spread through North Africa and Spain and serves as the dominant religious source for Muslims in African countries and also shares heavy influence in Egypt with Shafi’ism.
Another important school of Islamic fiqh (jurisprudence) is known as the Shafi School which was founded by Imam Abu Abdullah ash-Shafi’i who was a descendant of the Prophets uncle Abu Talib. Imam Shafi obtained a lot of knowledge from a young age and was a famous scholar of his time. He was very much experienced in legal matters and had a lot of knowledge in Islamic jurisprudence. He acquired his knowledge in Medina and was a student of both Imam Hanafi and Maliki. Imam Shafi’s school of thought assumes an intermediary position between the moderate Hanafi and the conventional school of Maliki. The intermediary position is due to his knowledge of both Hanafi and Maliki ideas and thus Imam Shafi’is ideas converge between the Sunnah and importance of the community when dealing with matters of legal importance. Nevertheless, the Imam placed the ultimate authority in the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and made it overrule the rest. The school places a lot of importance on customs, reasoning and consent of the community and is noted for its conciliatory position in judgment and consideration of views. Further, Imam Shafi is credited with writing the famous book Al-Risalah which is considered the groundwork of Islamic jurisprudence. The book gained a lot of importance as it was written in the time when Prophet’s Hadiths were being gathered and there was a lot of disagreement amongst the scholars, however with the emergence of this book a lot of matters were resolved. The main differentiating quality of this school is that it places a lot of importance on the Quran and the Sunnah and gives less authority to ijma and ijtihad (thought of scholars) when compared to the other schools. When compared to the four schools of fiqh, Shaf’i school is regarded as the easiest of the four and the Hanbali is considered to be the hardest mainly due to its strict rules regarding social and personal rule. Also, this school of thought is regarded as the rival of the earlier school Hanafi. The main characteristics of this school are tradition, consensus of the community and reasoning which serve as the building blocks for matters of great importance. Imam Shafi followed a moderate path and was known for his balance in religion and life and his thoughts were largely adopted and was noted for his flexible approach to interpretation of the Sunnah of the Prophet. The two main cities for this school were Baghdad and Cairo through which its teachings were spread to other parts of the Islamic world. Further, prior to the Ottoman Empire the Shafi’i attained dominance in the main lands of Islam but were eventually replaced by the Hanfi’s with the emergence of the Ottoman Empire. Nonetheless, its and important school and is followed by approximately 15% of the Muslims and it continues to influence areas like Southern Arabia, Indonesia, Bahrain and East Africa to name few.
Finally the last school in Sunni jurisprudence is known as the Hanbali School of law. This school is regarded as somewhat strict and austere in its teachings when compared to the other three orthodox schools. The Hanbali School was founded by Ahmad b. hanbal who studied under different teachers including Imam Shafi’i. This school of thought puts more emphasis on tradition and jurisprudence. Most of the knowledge that forms the foundation of this school are derived from Hadiths as Imam Hanbal had vast knowledge of Hadiths and had a large collection of them. His collection was very large and included approximately 80,000 sound hadith’s which were compiled together in a collection of Hadith called Al-Musnad. The school puts great importance in the Quran and the Sunnah and believes that their authority exalts consensus or outlook of the community. In matter of credibility of sources the school accepts the trustworthy judgment of the Sahabas which they believe overrules all and if there’s a conflict between an opinion from two Sahabas, it accepts the opinion of the companion nearest to the Prophet. Nonetheless, the school didn’t have as much popularity when compared to the three preceding schools mainly due to its strict rules. At the time, when the school emerged, the followers were given a negative image and were seen as troublesome due to their disinclination to give opinion in matters of religious importance. Also the followers further fuelled negative thoughts due to their opposing nature to any opinion different than their own. However, in due time the school did gain some importance especially through the works of such scholars like Ibn Taymiyyah who showed forbearance to different views. Nonetheless, the school most of its momentum under the Ottoman Turks but emerged again with the surfacing of the Wahabis in the nineteenth century. Today it’s recognized as an important part of the legal system in countries like South Africa, Persian Gulf and also has some importance in Africa, Egypt and some parts of India.
Ijma is an Arabic word that has its roots in ‘azm’ or determination but it’s commonly referred to as the “consensus of the community”. The word is interpreted to have two meanings: “unanimous agreement” and the other meaning is “to agree upon something”. An example of the second meaning is the expression ajma’a fulan ‘ala kadha which means that ‘so-and-so decided upon such-and-such’ which has some references in the Quran. Initially ijma was employed in legal matter and referred to the consensus of the scholars or ulema but over time its meaning changed. The main thing that validates ijma is the reference to the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad which states that “my community will never agree upon error. This Hadith serves as the foundation for ijma and everything springs from this. Ijma is given a lot of importance in the Sunni sect of Islam and is regarded as the third fundamental source of Shari’a law preceding the Quran and the Sunnah and followed by qiyas or analogical reasoning. Over the year has been used and referred to as the binding factor for uniting Islamic law with democracy. There have been a lot of arguments involving ijma among the scholars as the ulema see “it as the agreement over a rule for an incident that already existed that it is a Hukm Shari'ah.” Eventhough the ulema’s agreed upon this definition they had differeing ciews on the validity of the ijma and tus based on their opinions they defined the term. In spite, of the consent between all Muslims about ijma being Daleel Shari’ (legal evidence) there’s diasagreement on whose ijma is “binding” as some say that the ijma of the Sahabas is Daleel Shari’ while others argue it. This shows that ther are many different views regarding the meaning of ijma which has given many to re-interpret ideas. Even though, ijma is utilized by the Shari’a it still has less authority when compared to the Quran. In Islam one concept that is highly emphasized is that of Wahi (textual evidence) which serves as the basis of all affairs and overrules the rest and for ijma to be right it must agree with wahi. In the Quran its stated that:
“No, by your Lord, they will not become true believers until they put you [Muhammad] as a ruler in that which they dispute.”
When analyzing this ayah it can be inferrred that no matter what the ijma is it must be based on wahi and must be in accordance to the Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran as they form the foundations. It must be clearly understood that without wahi ijma has no authority and following it may be regarded as straying from the true path of Islam. This point is further proved by the ayah “Indeed, ruling belongs to none but Allah.” Further, for ijma to be established by any sect there should be no room for agreeing on mistake and all deas should be taken from the Quran and the Sunnah as they both serve as wahi. Moreover, ijma is an important technique that is employed y Muslims in the development of the Shari’a. Also, it was a technique that was used by the scholars to deal with legal matters when no direct or indirect help could be reached through the Quran or the Sunnah. Eventhough, the actual type and scope of ijma hasn’t been defines in medieval Islam it was usually “confined” in a city from which all legal matters for the general ummah were decided upon. Over the years the power of the ijma has increased and it has sometimes superseded the information of the Quran. An example is the idea of Prophet Muhammad being infallible and sinless which is very common amongst Muslims eventhough no hints of it are present in the Quran. In fact, Quran depicts the Prophet as a simple man without any of the above qualities. The concept of ijma is only central to Sunni Islam and is not common amongst the Shi’is. Ijma was also used in authentication of Hadiths at the time when Hadiths were being compiled. Finally, many scholars argue upon the matter of who should esstablish ijma and whose ijma is valid. Some scholars say that only the Sahabas can establish ijma due their close connection with the Prophet and that they were the ones that compiled the Quran and ensures its authenticity. Islamic ullemas say that eventhough individua Sahambas many not be “infallible” but they as a whole cant agree on error and will always make a sound decision that is in agreement with Islam.
In conclusion, religion and law go hand in hand as one compliments the other. Religion is very important for the sanity of mankind but in order to ensure that it remains there and is not disturbed there is a need for rules which are implemented through the law. In Islam these laws are implemented through the Shari’a which relies heavily on the Quran, Sunnah, ijma and qiyas. Different people have different views based on the school of thought that they follow which includes the School of Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali. All these schools of fiqh or jurisprudence are adopted by Sunni Muslims and are continuously used for assistance in matters of legal importance. These schools have different approaches to deal with legal matters and some are regarded to be more liberal such as Hanafi while others are thought to be conservative (Hanbali). Nonetheless, one thing which ties them all together is that all four schools have the unifying concepts of Quran, Sunnah, ijma and qiyas which they use to deal with all legal matters.
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