Four Madhabs In Sunni Islam

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

ARIC 246 Midterm 2

Dr. Camilo Gomez

There are four madhabs in Sunni Islam, the first is the Hanafi School which began in (d. 767), and it originated in Kufa, Iraq by the imam Abu Hanifa. The Hanafi School had many followers, this was due to its adoption as the official madhab during the Abbasid, Ottoman and Mugal empires. The law from which the Hanafi School is based on was derived from (according to importance) the Quran, Hadith, Ijma and Qiyas.

The Malaki School named after Malik Ibn Annas began (d. 796) and originated in Madina. The aforementioned two schools, particularly the Hanafi, were countered by the development of the Traditionists (ahl al-hadith), who contradicted themselves to the examples of ra'y (ahl/ashab al-ra'y). The traditionists depended just on the Hadith they were gathering around then (Adil).

Imam Ash-Shafi'i (d. 820 in Egypt) began his studies in Iraq and Medina, after being taught by Imam Malik in Medina and Al-Shaybani in Baghdad, he later disagreed with the methodology of the older schools and started to favor the traditionists (people who passed down elements of their culture from generation to generation)(Adil). Imam Ash-Shafi’i was also the first among the other two schools to systematize the Islamic Law. Furthermore, Imam Ash-Shafi’i stated the sources of Islamic Law to be (according to priority): Quran, Sunna of the Prophet (including ahadith from the companions of the Prophet), Ijma (agreement of the Muslim community), Ra’y (reasoning). Imam Al-Shafi’i developed the science of fiqh, using human reasoning as the basis in law. This systematization of shari’a created the essence of unity for all Muslims and sparked the development of independent, regionally based legal systems. The name of his school was the Shafi’i.

Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855), also began his studies in Iraq under the guidance of Abu Yusuf a Hanafi judge, but then moved on to Syria and Arabia to collect hadiths. After completing his journey he returned to Baghdad where he was educated by Imam Ash-Shafi’i. However Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal was most famous for his Hanbali School of Law. This school followed Al Shafi’i’s method however "with greater emphasis on the ahadith, avoiding reasoning as far as possible, but not completely denying it" (Sophia).

Authority and political legitimacy were the main issues that had caused the split between Sunni and Shi’a leadership, thus leading to the rise of sectarianism in early Islam. Further into the second century, this split started to have an effect on how the earlier texts were understood by each faction, including the hadith.

As mentioned before there are four Sunni schools of law that have continued to last, they only differ in how they interpret their methodologies. The term shariah is often mistaken and used as the substitute word for Islamic law, however this is not true, the word shariah actually "means a way of life through a legal system within a belief system". (Moreen) A more precise description of Islamic Law in Arabic would be the term fiqh.

Interpreters in the early Islamic empire were never reluctant in exploring the legal definitions and applications in a variety of ways, this in term led to the creation of rules and interpretation systems. This meant that legal scholars had to interpret the shariah for an adapting and growing empire (Moreen), which is the answer to the heart of this question, that Islam is an ever-changing religion and that new interpretations have to be created in order to suit this ever changing society of believers.

As no modern or complex thought spawns out of nothing, Sunni law must have its own roots of preexisting norms. The two main origins which formed early Islamic thought were the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Empire. A good example of this is the law of retaliation which was incorporated In Islam having already exited previously in the Arab peninsula, the two laws were very similar, yet there had to be some modification on the preexisting Arab peninsula version. While the Quran does contain a framework for many of the laws implemented it lacks detail to produce an actual code people can abide by, or a set of what we contemporary regard as a set of laws. Which is where the hadith came in, hadith were more specific and were a study of their own and were integral to the interpretation of the Holy Scripture. So there had to be some sort of structures that would combine both of these sources while also accommodating the ever changing Islamic empire (Sophia).

The bulk of this change came from the fast expansion of the empire. In the small span of 100 years the empire expanded to India, North Africa and Spain, which meant that there needed to be certain rules that would legislate everyday life in such diverse areas. In the following century kadis continued to preside over civil law, while the Abbasids pushed for a more centralized system which included a centralized government and was greatly impacted by Persian court culture, this was said to be the "Golden Age" of Islamic thought (Sophia).

Inevitably different versions of Islamic or shariah law spawned as the interpretations of what was given varied. This lead to a decentralization of the bodies that governed these laws so there was no soul authority that upheld this code as it had multiple versions. Currently four version of Islamic law of exit that belong to the Sunni school (Adil). These were a result of multiple generations of scholars and their respective students each of which is named after their original scholars, each of these schools of thought have their own interpretations of the Quran, hadith and religious practices. Although these seem to be spate schools of thought they do share a common core while the difference only lies in certain rituals and the way certain practices are executed in the practical sense, this is why each of them regards the other three as valid interpretations. The four main schools are:

1. The Hanafi School, named after Abu Hanifa (d. 767)

2. The Maliki School, named after Malik ibn Anas (d. 796)

3. The Shafi‘i School, named after Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi‘i (d. 820)

4. The Hanbali School, named after Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 855)

The Al-shafi’I school has played significant role in the formalization of Sunni Islamic law, they have implemented some sort of hierarchy. First the Quran is referenced as the most important and most reliable resource closely followed the hadith, next a judge or a "qadi" would have to take the opinion of other legal scholars. If all of these fail only then would the judge take matters into his own hands and weigh the case using his own judgment, although this did spur some controversy because some judges saw it more fitting if they were to go with their own judgment rather than others. This led to a small split in the school into two "camps":

1. ahl al-hadith ("proponents of tradition")

2. ahl al-ra'y ("proponents of reason")

Both of which argued over the correctness and validity of the other approach. This small split did not stop the Al-shafi’i school from having a lasting impact of the implementation of Sunni Islamic law (Moreen).

Question 4

The Abbasids became the first Muslim rulers who encouraged learning and religious obedience. Arab aristocracy and imposition of an Arab civilization on conquered lands would soon be over, during the Abbasid dynasty they were considered the first real Muslim rulers of an Islamic civilization and true protectors of the religion. Once the Abbasid Empire emerged the new capital of the Islamic empire was moved to Baghdad instead of Medina. This change in capitals had a great positive impact on the industry, commerce and especially intellectual accomplishment. (Sherif)

During the Abbasid era there were two very famous caliphs known for their support of intellectual explorations and for the impressiveness of their courts, these two caliphs were Harun ar-Rashid and his son Abdullah al-Mamun. During their time scholars from around the Islamic empire were invited to the court to participate in debates and translations of Greek, Persian and Syriac knowledge (Sherif).

Throughout the end of the ninth century the Abbasid caliphs started to focus on becoming the protectors of the faith instead of being politically in power i.e. they started to delegate power to their governors around the Islamic empire to decentralize the source of power. There were many problems that resulted because of this shift of power, the main one would be the increased maltreatment of heretics and non-Muslims (Sherif). However these were considered small problems compared to the revolts that occurred in the eastern provinces, which was the beginning of the end for the Abbasid Empire because in an effort to control the empire, independent caliphates had to be established in North Africa and Spain which meant that their remained no power for the caliphs in Baghdad and that they were only considered as figureheads with no power. Later on after the Abbasid Empire was divided, the Mongol Empire moved in and invaded most of the eastern Islamic Empire, stopping at Egypt where they were defeated by the Mamluks.

The Abbasid Al-Mamun founded the House of Wisdom (Dar al-Hikma) in Baghdad, which encouraged the translation of foreign knowledge into Arabic. Among the many fields of knowledge translated into Arabic was the science and philosophy of the Hellenistic Near East. The other fields of knowledge were, medicine, mathematics which mainly came from the Persian works (Smith). There were also individuals who their works were translated into Arabic, the main individuals were, Aristotle, Plato, Euclid, and Galen. Furthermore during this time the Arabic numeral system was taken from India and implemented as the main numerical system for the Islamic empire, while the original Arabic numerical system that preexisted before the Indian version was taken and implemented in Europe (Smith).

The encouragement and development of science, philosophy, poetry, art and architecture was due to the political fragmentation of the caliphate which in turn had led to the increase of local courts which meant new centers of power. Depending on the location of the courts the fields of knowledge that came out of them was highly influenced by the surrounding environment i.e. courts in the eastern regions of the caliphate tended to be more associated with Persian literature (Sherif).

Bonus Question

The Arab slave trade focused on slave markets in the following areas, Middle East, Horn of Africa and North Africa. Race, religion or ethnicity was not a barrier for the people who traded in slaves, in some cases when slavery first began Arabs and Berbers were taken as slaves (Roy). Slaves were captured and brought in from many different places around the world, many of them were Slavic Eastern Europeans however there were also slaves who came from Persia, the Mediterranean, Caucasus Mountains, Scandinavia, Dutch, Irish, Berbers and even Central Asia.

During the years 650-1900 there were almost 10-18 million Africans enslaved by the Arab slave traders. These slaves were then moved to buyers across the Sahara Desert, Red Sea and even the Indian Ocean. Approximately 11 to 15 million African slaves were taken to the Americas. However many of them died due to two reasons; firstly some of them died when being captured, secondly some died due to poor conditions in the dungeons in Africa (Roy). In addition to the previous it was estimated that more than 2 million Africans perished on the ships before arriving to their destinations in the Arab world.

Between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth Century, many of the European coastline towns were abandoned because of Barbary Corsairs whose task was to capture and enslave Europeans. It is estimated that about 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by the Barbary corsairs who captured Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and even English civilians (Alton).

Christian slaves were brought over in large number from Europe during the Ottoman wars as well as the Tartar raids. The slave trade, which lasted a millennium, had occurred years before introduction of Islam. Africans were brought over by Arab traders, across the Indian Ocean from present day Kenya Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and elsewhere in East Africa to present-day Iraq, Kuwait, Somalia, Iran, Turkey and other parts of the Middle East and some places in South Asia (mainly from Pakistan and India)( Alton). As opposed to the trans-Atlantic trading of slaves, these slaves were brought in for the Muslim world, at the time this region crossed three continents and went all the way from morocco and Spain in the Atlantic to India and parts of Western China.

The expansions of the Arab army and their numerous conquests resulted in the capture of many war prisoners; these were either set free or turned to slaves or Raqeeq. Turning them into servants instead of prisoners was a matter of tradition. As slaves they were dealt with according to Islamic law, especially during the Abbasid and Umayyad periods. Based on the laws the slaves were permitted to earn a living for themselves, if they wished, if not then it was the owner’s (master) obligation to do so (Alton). They were not allowed to earn money for their masters, unless in cases where agreements were made beforehand based on (mukataba) in Islamic law. Again it depends on the slaves want to pursue that, if so; the money made could go towards their emancipation, but a contract must dictate these actions. This contract is called (mukataba). There was a higher ratio of female to male slaves as opposed to the Atlantic slave trade (more than the 2:1 or 3:1 male:female ratio of the Atlantic). There was a clear preference towards having female slaves instead of male ones. While most were imported to perform household tasks, Concubinage and reproduction were incentives to have female slaves, who were often Caucasian (Palton).