FACULTY OF LAW

JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA

TOPIC- SUNNI SCHOOL OF ISLAMIC

JURISPRUDENCE
(ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE)

SUBMITTED BY-

MASOOM RAZA

ROLL NO- 34

B.A.LL.B (H) 3rd SEMESTER

SUBMITTED TO-

DR. GHULAM YAZDANI

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR (FOL)

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT……………………………………………………………………

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………….

THE FOUNDATION OF ISLAM………………………………………………………….

SOURCES OF ISLAMIC DOCTRINE……………………………………………………

THE ORIGIN OF SHIA SUNNI SECTS…………………………………………………..

SUNNI SCHOOLS…………………………………………………………………………

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………….

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………….

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMNETS

I would like express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Dr. GHULAM YAZDANI as
well as my seniors who supported me while researching for this wonderful assignment on the
topic- SUNNI SCHOOL OF ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE, which also helped me in doing a lot
of Research and I came to know about so many new things as I am really thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this
project within the limited time frame.

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 INTRODUCTION
Primarily when we are going to talk about the Sunni Schools of Islamic Jurisprudence, we must
briefly understand the very concept of religion and particularly about Islam and its origin.

Now, the question arises that what we understand by the term religion? According MERRIAM-
WEBSTER Dictionary there are four meanings of the word religion: first, the state of a religious
second, a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
Third, archaic: scrupulous conformity: conscientiousness fourth, a cause, principle, or system of
beliefs held to with ardor and faith.

Religion is human beings relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual,
divine, or worthy of especial reverence. It is also commonly regarded as consisting of the way
people deal with ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death. In many traditions,
this relation and these concerns are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitude
toward gods or spirits; in more humanistic or naturalistic forms of religion, they are expressed in
terms of one’s relationship with or attitudes toward the broader human community or the natural
world.1

In many religions, texts are deemed to have scriptural status, and people are esteemed to be
invested with spiritual or moral authority. Believers and worshippers participate in and are often
enjoined to perform devotional or contemplative practices such as prayer, meditation, or
particular rituals. Worship, moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions
are among the constituent elements of the religious life.

Now what the term Islam means? Islam, major world religion promulgated by the
Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century CE. The Arabic term islām, literally
“surrender,” illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam—that the believer (called a
Muslim, from the active particle of islam) accepts surrender to the will of Allah (in Arabic,
Allāh: God). Allah is viewed as the sole God—creator, sustainer, and restorer of the world. The
will of Allah, to which human beings must submit, is made known through the sacred scriptures,
the Qurʾān (often spelled Koran in English), which Allah revealed to his messenger, Muhammad.

1
https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion

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In Islam Muhammad is considered the last of a series of prophets
(including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and Jesus), and his message
simultaneously consummates and completes the “revelations” attributed to earlier prophets.2

THE FOUNDATION OF ISLAM

From the very beginning of Islam, Muhammad had inculcated a sense of brotherhood and a bond
of faith among his followers, both of which helped to develop among them a feeling of close
relationship that was accentuated by their experiences of persecution as a nascent community
in Mecca. The strong attachment to the tenets of the Qurʾānic revelation and
the conspicuous socioeconomic content of Islamic religious practices cemented this bond of
faith. In 622 CE, when the Prophet migrated to Medina, his preaching was soon accepted, and
the community-state of Islam emerged. During this early period, Islam acquired its
characteristic ethos as a religion uniting in itself both the spiritual and temporal aspects of life
and seeking to regulate not only the individual’s relationship to God (through conscience) but
human relationships in a social setting as well.

SOURCES OF ISLAMIC DOCTRINE

Islamic doctrine is based upon four soucrs:

 The Qurʾān: The Qurʾān (literally, “reading” or “recitation”) is regarded as

the verbatim word, or speech, of God delivered to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel.
Divided into 114 suras (chapters) of unequal length, it is the fundamental source of
Islamic teaching.
 Sunnah (“a well-trodden path”) was used by pre-Islamic Arabs to denote their tribal
or common law. In Islam it came to mean the example of the Prophet—i.e., his words and
deeds as recorded in compilations known as Hadith (in Arabic, Ḥadīth: literally, “report”;
a collection of sayings attributed to the Prophet). Hadith provide the written
documentation of the Prophet’s words and deeds. Six of these collections, compiled in

2
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam/The-teachings-of-Avicenna

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 the 3rd century AH (9th century CE), came to be regarded as especially authoritative by
the largest group in Islam, the Sunnis. Another large group, the Shiʿah, has its own
Hadith contained in four canonical collections.
 The doctrine of ijmāʿ, or consensus, was introduced in the 2nd century AH (8th
century CE) in order to standardize legal theory and practice and to overcome individual
and regional differences of opinion. Though conceived as a “consensus of
scholars,” ijmāʿ was in actual practice a more fundamental operative factor. From the 3rd
century AH ijmāʿ has amounted to a principle of stability in thinking; points on which
consensus was reached in practice were considered closed and further substantial
questioning of them prohibited. Accepted interpretations of the Qurʾān and the actual
content of the Sunnah (i.e., Hadith and theology) all rest finally on the ijmāʿ in the sense
of the acceptance of the authority of their community.
 Ijtihād, meaning “to endeavour” or “to exert effort,” was required to find the legal or
doctrinal solution to a new problem. In the early period of Islam, because ijtihād took the
form of individual opinion (raʾy), there was a wealth of conflicting and chaotic opinions.
In the 2nd century AH ijtihād was replaced by qiyās (reasoning by strict analogy), a
formal procedure of deduction based on the texts of the Qurʾān and the Hadith. The
transformation of ijmāʿ into a conservative mechanism and the acceptance of a definitive
body of Hadith virtually closed the “gate of ijtihād” in Sunni Islam
while ijtihād continued in Shiʿism. Nevertheless, certain outstanding Muslim thinkers
(e.g., al-Ghazālī in the 11th–12th century) continued to claim the right of new ijtihād for
themselves, and reformers in the 18th–20th centuries, because of modern influences,
caused this principle once more to receive wider acceptance.

THE ORIGIN OF SHIA SUNNI SECTS

“The unhappy schism”, says Ameer Ali, “which at this moment divides the Islamic world into
two great sects of Shias and Sunnis, owed its origin to secular causes which led ultimately to a
wide divergence in their judicial conceptions”.3

3
Ameer Ali, Mohammedan Law, Vol. 1 (3rd. Edn., 1904) at p. 33.

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It was on the question if Imamat (leadership of Muslim Commonwealth) that the difference
between Shias and Sunnis arose. Shias do not accept the authority of the Jamat (or the
universality of the people) to elect a spiritual chief who could supersede the claims of the persons
indicated for this purpose by the Prophet himself. Sunnis contend that the Prophet never
indicated any person to act as the spiritual chief, and he should be elected. Difference on this
point assumed new dimension when immediately after the death of the Prophet it became
necessary to elect a Chaliph or successor to assume the leadership of Muslims. The Kinsmen of
Muhammad, who were called Hashimities, asserted that since Ali was the member of Prophet’s
family who had also been pointed out by the Prophet and his successor, he should become the
Chaliph. The other group of Muslims, known as Koreshites, insisted on election, and elected Abu
Bakr to the office of Caliphs. After three years Abu Bakr died and Omar succeeded him. On his
death the Chaliphate was offered to Ali “on condition that he should govern in accordance with
the precedents established by the two former Caliphs. Ali declined to accept the office on those
terms, declaring that in all cases respecting which he found no positive law or decision of the
Prophet, he would rely on his own judgment.” Another companion of the Prophet, Osman,
consented to the terms imposed by the electoral body and became the third Caliph. The political
events that took place during his Caliphate elucidate the history of the deplorable schism which
divided the Muslims world into two sects.

Up to this time the difference between the two sects was mainly political. Now it began to
assume legal and doctrinal form. Some of the important grounds of difference were as follows:

 Shias reject all the traditions not handed down by Ali or his immediate descendants-
those who had seen the Prophet and were well acquainted with him.
 According to the Shia doctrine, the oral percepts of the Prophet are in their nature
supplementary to the Koranic ordinances, and their binding effect depends on the degree
of harmony existing between them and the laws of the Koran.
 The Sunnis, on the other hand, base their doctrines on the entirety of the traditions. They
regard the harmonious decisions of the successive Caliphs and of the general assembly’s
of Muslims (Ijma-ul-ummat) as supplementing the Koranic rules and regulations, and as
almost equal in authority to them.

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  The Shias repudiate entirely the validity of all decisions not passed by their own spiritual
leaders and Imams. In the application of private or analytical judgment, and in drewing
conclusions from the ancient precedents, they also differ widely from the Sunnis.
 Among Sunnis, religious and state affairs are the same; the Caliph is the Imam-temporal
chief and also the spiritual head.
 According to Shias it is not so. Partly in consequence of the mysterious disappearance of
their last Imam, and the existing belief that he is still alive, and partly owing to the
“frequent repression from which they have suffered”, the Shias have entirely dissociated
the secular from the spiritual power. For them, religion and the state entirely distinct from
each other.

SUNNI SCHOOLS

THE HANAFI SCHOOL: This is the most important of the four schools of the Sunnis. The
oldest school of the orthodox school of law is that of the Hanafis. The Hanafi School was
founded by Iraqi scholar An-Nu’man ibn Thabit A bu Hanifa who died in 150 H. or 767 C.E. and
whose legal opinions had been made public mainly by his two famous students Abu Yusuf and
Ahmad ben Hasan as- Saibani. Abu Hanifa himself was a student of Hammād ibn Abī Suleymān
who was, at his time, regarded as the greatest legal scholar of Iraq but was also known for having
little knowledge about tradition. Therefore, one might not wonder that Abū Hanīfa in his
lectures, too, did not find it especially important to base decisions on tradition. Abū Hanīfa is,
furthermore, regarded as the founder of the speculative legal scholarship, which led his
opponents to say that he had invented the science of juridical tricks to circumvent the statutes.
For Abū Hanīfa made attempts to build up on scientific principles a set of rules which would
answer every question of the law. In his school legal problems were often discussed abstractly,
without having regard to a concrete case37. This also did not find the sympathy of his
conservative
contemporaries: “The following statement is handed down from Hafs b. Gijât (died 177 [H. or
804 C.E.]): ‘Abū Hanīfa is the best informed man with regard to things that never happened but
the most ignorant with regard to things that really took place’; this means that he is an astute
casuist but no scholarly expert of the law.
The main features of this school are:

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  Less reliance on traditions unless their authority is beyond any doubt.
 Great reliance on Qiyas.
 A little extension of the scope of Ijma.
 Evolving the doctrine of Istihan, i.e., applying the rule of law as the special circumstances
required.
Among the most famous disciples of Imam Abu Hanifa were: Abu Yousuf and Imam
Muhammad. Through them the Hanafi School is due to the Imam Muhammad. The disciples of
Abu Hanifa also had pupils who achieved renown; they included Hilal, Ahmad-ibn-Mubir and
Abu Jafar.
This School is followed in Sirya, Lebanon, Turky, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China,
etc. Its adherents constitute more than one-third of the Moslems of the world.
THE MALIKI SCHOOL- Imam Malik is the founder of this school. The Mālikī school of law
owes its name to the Medinan scholar Mālik ben Anas who died in 197 H. or 795 C.E. Unlike
many of his contemporaries who made long journeys searching for knowledge and attended the
lectures of prominent masters in several cities, Mālik never left his native town Medina, except
for his pilgrimages to Mecca. According to Mālik’s view, Medina was superior to all other
religious centres because only there “whole generations were able to transmit from a whole
generation who had been alive at the time of the Prophet, whereas in all other cities the lines of
transmission ended only with individual Companions”. The main distinctions of the school are as
follows:
 Acceptance of Tradition which were, in the opinion of Imam Malik, authentic, even if the
Tradition carried the authority of only one narrator.
 Acceptance of the practices of people of Medina and of the sayings of the Companions of
the Prophet.
 Recourse of analogy(Qiyas) only in the absence of an explicit text.
 Making use of a source unique to this school, known as al-masalih al-mursalah (public
interest).
The pupils of Imam Malik included Imam Muhammad and Imam Shafii.
Medina was the birthplace of Maliki School and from there it spread throughout the Hijaz, North
Africa, Tunisia, Tripalitania, the Sudan, Baharin and Kuwait.

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THE SHAFII SCHOOL- This School owed its origin to the efforts of Imam Shafii, who during
the early part of his academic career was a follower of Imam Malik. Aš-Šāfic was from the tribe
of the Quraiš and a close relativeof the Prophet. He grew up in Mecca. Encouraged by the
prospering science of traditions of which he met personally its outstanding representative at that
time, Sufyān ben cUğaina (died 197 H. or 813 C.E.), aš-Šāfic studied in several religious centres
of the Islamic world. He heard, for instance, the teachings of Mālik in Medina and visited the
lectures of some of the most important students of Abū Hanīfa, like aš-Šaibānī, in Iraq. Hence,
aš-Šāfic was well-versed both in the doctrine of the Hanafīi school and in that of the Mālikī
school. Aš-Šāfic started lecturing in Baghdad counting himself to the successors of Mālik. Later,
he went to Fustat (on the fortresses of which Cairo was built) in Egypt where he, more than
before, distanced himself from Mālikī doctrine. The move of the place for lessons is the reason
why aš-Šāfic direct successors were divided into a Baghdadian and a more strict Egyptian
school; but, in the course of time, the representatives of the Baghdadian school were gradually
driven out by those of the Egyptian school. However his journey and experiences changed his
views and led him to begin a school of his own. This School was a compromise between the
Hanafi and Maliki schools. Mahmassani beautifully sums uo the philosophy of this School in the
following words:
“He (Imam Malik) would accept the four sources of law: the Koran, the sunnah, consensus, and
analogy. He would also accept Istidlal. However, he rejected what the Hanafi school called
Istishan (presence) and what the Maliki School called Al-mursalah (public interest)”.
Imam-al-Shafii was the first to compile the sources of law. His most famous pupil was ahamd-
ibn-Hanbal.
This school is followed in many parts of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon (particularly in the city of
Beirut) and also in Iraq, Pakistan, India, Indo-China, Java and among the Sunni inhabitants of
Iran and Yemen. It is predominant in Palestine and Jordan.

THE HANBALI SCHOOL- The founder of the fourth Sunni School is Imam Hanbal. He was a
more strict follower of the traditions than others and restricted Qiyas and Ijma within narrow
limits. The foundation of this School rests on five main sources:
 The Koran
 The Sunnah

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  The Ijma of the Companions of the Prophet, if there was nothing to contradict them, and
the saying of certain of the Companions when these were consistent with the Koran and
the Sunnah
 Zaif and Mursal traditions i.e. traditions having a weak chain of transmission, and lacking
in the names of some of the transmitters
 Qiyas, whenever it was necessary.
This School is the least widespread of all the Sunni Schools. Today, it is the official school of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has followers numbering about fifty lakhs in the Arabian
Peninsula, Palestine, Syriya, Iraq, and other countries.

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 CONCLUSION
The explanations have revealed that the Sunnī schools’ concepts of the sharīca differ with regard
to the catalogue and the binding effect of, and the weight that is given to, the sources of the
Islamic law. This mainly goes for the role of traditions and the scope for deliberate
considerations. It might not be surprising that the differences with regard to the dogmatic
structures the Islamic law is based on frequently lead to different results when scholars or former
students of the various schools decide concrete legal cases. The variety of school doctrines and
legal opinions was even more extensive in the past. Next to the four mentioned schools, there
were some other Sunnī schools of law in Muslim history like those of Dāwūd ibn Khalaf (died
270 H. or 884 C.E.), Abū Thawr (died 240 H. or 854 C.E.) and Abū Ğafar Muhammad ibn Ğarir
at-Tabarī (died 310 H. or 923 C.E.)125. But since about the year 700 H. or 1300 C.E., only the
Hanafī, the Mālikī, the Shaficī and the Hanbalī school survived, and they remained, with their
doctrine not having changed essentially, until our day. Despite their different views, the four
schools are regarded as equally orthodox. In the first centuries after the foundation of the schools
and before the Ottomans gained their hegemony over the Islamic world, there had been
representatives of each school in any big city, who functioned, not least, as judges and discussed
difficult cases in common senates. Today, there is also an intensive scientific discourse and
competition between the schools of law, with none claiming the binding nature of individual
decisions in relation to the Muslim believers. Even legal expert opinions (fatāwā) which are
given by scholars, by order of believers or on the occasion of a concrete legal problem,
often explain the different positions of all schools of law. Futhermore, in prominent Islamic
institutions like the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, there all four schools of law are still
represented by both scholars and students. Thus, the Islamic law is in our day highly complex
and differentiated; its different characteristics have dogmatic reasons. Anyway, the believer can
turn to any school of law or legal scholar if he has a question concerning the sharīca; he is not
bound to a certain school because of his geographic origin or present residence. It is deprecated,
though, to request an opinion from one school after another so as to have the chance to choose
the most comfortable answer.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS:
 Aqil Ahmad, Mohammedan Law, 2016
 Sir Dinshaw Fardunji Mulla, Mulla’s Principles of Mahomedan Law, 2017

WEBSITES:
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islam/The-teachings-of-Avicenna
 https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion

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