Schools of Muslim Law: A Detailed Analysis

Introduction

Muslim Law is a personal law which applies only to Muslims. The Quran is the only holy book which is considered to be the ultimate words of Allah as conveyed to the Islamic Prophet and the messenger Mohammed.  As per this law, a person is considered to be Muslim, who is Muslim-

1. By birth, or origin

2. By conversion, or by religion,

3. If any one of the parents is Muslim.

4. Follows Islam

Unless the person renounces Islam, he is considered to be Muslim if at the time of his birth both or any one of the parents is Muslim, or follows Islam. A person after converting to a Muslim, no matter he was a Hindu or a Christian, who follows the same way of living, will be considered Muslim. As per Shariat, if at the time of the birth of the person, any one of the parents was Muslim, and the child is brought up as Muslim, he is to be considered as Muslim.

The Muslims are divided into two major sects i.e. Sunnis and Shias. The majority of Muslims are Sunnis. The problem of this division of sects finds its roots when it comes to figuring out the successor of Prophet Mohammed. The first wife of Prophet Mohammed was Ayesha Begum, she visualized the election for the successor, the same will ensure that the majority of people can choose someone to lead themselves. The people who believed in this ideology of Ayesha Begum were named Sunnis, and also called Ahle-Sunnat-Wal-Jammat. This sect based its doctrine on the decisions of the jurists as same and equal as to the rules in Quran.

The rest of the Muslims, who were in the minority, totally discarded this ideology and believed that the successor of the Prophet should be a person who is related to him through the bloodline. The reason behind the same is that the person from his bloodline can only hold such a holy and sacred position. Further, this minority sect was led by the daughter of the Prophet i.e. Fatima, and after her by her husband Ali, who was also her cousin. This group is known as Shias. This sect rejected the decisions by jurists and the traditions that are not handed down by Ali, or his descendants.

Schools of Muslim Law

The Muslim Law is based and governed by the words of the Quran and Prophet Mohammed. But there are several areas which are not included in these sources, hence different scholars have handed down their interpretations and teachings to tackle those situations.

Qiyas, the term means the interpretations of Islamic Law that are neither covered in the Quran nor in Sunna. These interpretations led to several opinions and resulted in the origination of different schools of Muslim Law. Each school differs from others on the basis of its interpretations, teachings, and followers.

As we have already discussed the two major sects of Islam, i.e. Sunnis, and Shias, the difference of their opinions. Hence, these two sects follow two different groups of schools, and they are broadly classified as follows-

Sunni Schools

1. Hanafi School

The School got its name from its founder Abu Hanafee. Before getting this name, the school was named as Koofa School, based on the name of a city in Iraq. Hanafi School is the most prominent and vital schools of Muslim Law. This school mainly focuses on traditions as the source of law.

The school used to rely on the traditions and customs of the Muslim community. The Prophet never allowed to codify his teachings, hence the school primarily depended on the traditions of the community. Some of his traditions were codified by this school, which were prevalent during that time amongst the Muslim community. The school was so much popular at that time and as a result, most of the Muslim population from different parts of the World used to follow this school. In countries like India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, and Turkey, the majority of Muslims belong to this school.

In India, the Courts use to decide the cases of Sunni Muslims as per Hanafi Schools, unless it is evident that they belong to some other schools.

Abu Hanafee had not codified any of his lessons for the purpose of the administration of the school, the school had been taken further through his two disciples- Imam Muhammed, and Imam Abu Yousuf, who had codified the Ijma’s of that period.

Ijma- Agreement between Muslim scholars on a particular question of law.

Sirajiyya is considered the most important and authentic book of this school on the Law of Inheritance, the book was written by Sheikh Sirajddin. Hedaya is another most important book of this school but it did not include the Law of Inheritance, it was completed over a period of 13 years.

2. Maliki School

The name of this school is based on the name of the Mufti of Madina, named Malik-bin-Anas. He had discovered more than 8,000 traditions of the Prophet out of which he compiled and codified around 2,000. This school does not have any followers in India, however, when the dispute regarding the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, comes into the picture, some of the provisions of this school are yet considered, the reason same is that this school gives more rights to the woman in comparison to other ones. As per the provisions of this school, if a woman does not get any news regarding her husband for about 2 years, she can move for the dissolution of her marriage.

This school mostly gives importance to the Sunnah and Hadith (Record of the traditions of the Prophet). The Maliki school hardly relies on Ijma, while the Hanafi School purely relies on it. Around 25% of the Muslim Population all over the world follows this school, mostly from North Africa and West Africa.^[1]

Mu-atha is the most authoritative book of this school, written by Imam Malik. The book is also crowned as the first written book on Hadis in Islam.

3. Shaffie School

This School got its name on the name of Muhammad Bin Idris Shaffie, one of the disciples of Imam Malik. He was considered as one of the most important jurists of Muslim Law. He evolved the Shaffie Islamic Jurisprudence. In a very cordial way, he had concluded the teachings and provisions of Hanafi School and Maliki School. This school mostly follows and relies on the methods of Hanafi School, that’s why this school considered Ijma as the pertinent source of law. The vital handout or the contribution by this school is the Qiyas (Principle of analogy, used for interpretation).

Mostly the followers of this school are from SouthEast Asia, Egypt, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Al-Risala is considered the most authentic book of this school, written by Imam Shaffie. The book deals with the discussion and interpretation of Ijma, Qiyas, Ijtihad (Personal Reasoning), Istihsan (Juristic Preferences), etc.

4. Hanbali School

The Hanbali School was founded by the Iraqi Scholar Ahmad bin Hanbal and got its name on its founder’s name. He is one of the students of Imam Shaffie. Ahmad bin Hanbal introduced the study of tracing the roots of Sunnah and Hadis. Most of the followers of this school come from Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine. This school is the smallest amongst the four.

Shia Schools

1. Isna Asharis

The followers of this school are found in different countries of the world such as Iran, Iraq, as well the majority of Shias from India also follow the principles of this school. This school used to believe in ‘Muta’ i.e. temporary marriage. The school has been further divided into two sects namely, Akhbaris Sect, and Usuli Sect.

Akhbaris Sect- The name of the sect as portrayed, has been derived from the word Akhbari, meaning newspaper or news.  Followers of this sect usually rely on the traditions of the Imams.

Usuli Sect- The term Usuli vitally means the theory of jurisprudence. The name itself makes it clear that the followers of this sect rely on the principles of jurisprudence. This section quite in dominance with the above sect of the school.

2. Ismaili

Ismailis are one of the most diverse communities under Shia Muslims, followed in around 25 countries of the world. The main countries or the portion of the world having Ismaili followers are Central & South Asia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, North America, and Australia.  This school of thought believed that the successor of the Prophet should be a person who is related to him through the bloodline. The reason behind the same is that the person from his bloodline can only hold such a holy and sacred position. The school had been led by Imam, the line of Imamat found its trace in hereditary succession from Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed.

3. Zayadi

The majority of the followers of this school are found in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. This school gets its name from the son of the fourth Imam, named Zayd Ibn Ali. The name of the fourth Imam was Ali Bin Husain. The followers of this school are mostly termed, Political Activists.

 Other Schools

1. Ibadi School

The history of this school traces back to the times of fourth Khaleefa Ali. This school neither belongs to Sunnis nor to Shias. The school mostly relies on the Quran. The followers of this school are from Oman. The principles on personal reasoning (Ijtihad) by this school were partially accepted by Sunnis but totally discarded by Shias.

2. Ahmadiyya School

This school is one of the youngest amongst several others. This school gets its origin in recent decades, the school used to follow the thoughts of Ahmed who was alive in the 19th century. The birthplace of Ahmed i.e. Khadiyan Village is situated in Punjab, India, and thus the place is the holy place for Ahmadiyas. The school was founded by Mirza Ghulam Khadiani, an employee of the British Government. This is the reason that the school is said to have British-Indian Origin. Because of the beliefs of this school, the Muslim Community to has not considered the followers of this school as Muslims yet.

The beliefs that differ Ahmadis from Muslims are-

1. As per Muslims, the Prophet was the messenger of God and had on exchanged words with God, whereas Ahmadiyas believe that God speaks to his true servants even after the death of the Prophet.

2. Ahmadiyya believes that as per Quran, the other prophets before Mohammed were Ramchandra, Krishna, Buddha, etc., but the Muslims totally discard these ideologies.

3. Muslims believe that they will spread Islam all over the world through swords and violence, but Ahmadis, discard violence and believes to spread Islam through words and arguments.

Conclusion

There have been several followers and communities with several schools of thought, with their own teachings, interpretations. Muslim law is one of them, which is governed by the Quran and the teachings and interpretations of Prophet Mohammed. On the basis of beliefs and the differences in ideologies, the Muslim community has been majorly divided into two sects i.e. Sunni and Shia. As per the division of these sects the schools under Muslim Law are further divided into these two sects i.e. Sunnis School of Thoughts and Shias School of Thoughts. Each sect has its own beliefs and practices and as there is not a single set of rules regarding the disputes on which the Quran is silent, any one school cannot be said to be better than the other schools. All the schools are different and similar to one another in one way or the other.

References

1. https://blog.ipleaders.in/schools-of-muslim-law/#:~:text=Hanafi%20School%20is%20the%20first,of%20its%20founder%20Abu%20Hanafee.

2. https://www.legalbites.in/schools-of-muslim-law/

3. https://the.ismaili/global/about-us/the-ismaili-community

4. https://lawctopus.com/clatalogue/introduction-to-the-schools-of-muslim-law/

This article has been written by Ayush Shukla, 2nd Year BBA.LL.B Student at Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University.

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