Madh'hab: Difference between revisions

A '''Madh'hab''' (مذهب) is a school of [[Islamic law]] or [[fiqh]] (Islamic jurisprudence). Within [[Sunni]] Islam there are four mainstream schools of thought, which are accepted by one another, and the [[Shiite|Shi'ite]] school of fiqh which (according to a [[fatwa]] by Al-Azhar, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam)<ref>[http://www.al-islam.org/encyclopedia/chapter1b/14.html al-Azhar Verdict on the Shia] - Shi'ite Encyclopedia v2.0, Al-islam</ref> is also now accepted by some Sunnis as a legitimate fifth school of Islamic Law. The five major schools of Islamic law agree on many things, including the death sentence for [[Islam and Apostasy|apostates]].<ref>[{{Reference archive|1=http://formermuslimsunited.org/?page_id=2169|2=2011-10-04}} A Shiite Opinion on Apostasy] - Originally from Kayhan International, March 1986</ref>

The various schools of Islamic law all developed as theologians and jurists debated among themselves more than a hundred years after [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]] on how to identify and interpret what Muhammad had left behind by way of oral traditions. Additionally, adherence to a school of Islamic law appears to be more a matter of geography than conscience, as followers of each school exist, for the most part, in certain geographical regions, often divided by country lines.

The Hanafi madh'hab is descended from the ''Ahl al-Rai''' (the so-called "partisans of reason") of Iraq from the early Muslim community, of which Abu Hanifah was a part. As such, the interpretive methodology of the Hanafis can be broadly described as favoring reasoning over an uncritical regurgitation of scripture. In more concrete terms, this means allowing reasoning by analogy (''qiyas'') on legal/moral matters where scriptures are absent (the other madh'habs would come to adopt this concept to some degree, but the Hanafis adopted it first and arguably employ it most liberally). Another manifestation of this general preference for reasoning over, say, resorting to relying on [[Hadith (definition)|weakly authenticated scripture]] (as the Hanbalis generally do), is the legal principle of ''Istihsan'', or juristic preference. ''Istihsan'' is the practice of favoring an epistemologically and methodologically weaker opinion simply for the sake of "public interest" or ''maslaha''.