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Philosophy and Fundamentals of Sharī’ah for Islamic Finance
SHA0011

UNIT 3: SCHOOLS OF ISLAMIC LEGAL THOUGHT: SALIENT FEATURES
AND DIFFERENCES OF OPINION
While it is true that the Qur’ān and the Prophetic traditions (Sunnah) are the
main sources of Sharī’ah, the process of understanding them or adducing
the specific rulings are subjected to human involvement. That is to say,
the detail of Sharī’ah rulings are not something that are ready-made in the
sense that the Qur’ān and Sunnah provide detailed answers for each and
every issue. Instead, the texts mainly consist of general principles, rules
and numbers of precedent cases from which scholars and jurists adduce
new ruling in accordance to specific methodologies.

Given the nature of the Qur’ān and Sunnah, it gives an impression that
understanding of Sharī’ah is always open for interpretation and legal
reasoning by mujtahid. Having said that, it is in no way to suggest that
Sharī’ah rulings are developed by way of scholars’ intuition; instead, it
is developed by way of interpretative process with strict adherence to
well established methodologies. These methodologies were developed
overtime and eventually lead to the emergence of Schools of Islamic
Legal Thought (fiqh or madhāhib).

There are four main Schools of Islamic Legal Thought (madhāhib) :

The Ḥanafī Madhhab

a. The founder of the Ḥanafī madhhab is Imām Abu Ḥanīfah al-Nu’man ibn
Thabit ibn Zuta (80-150 A.H./700-768 A.D.).

b. He is considered as one of the greatest ḥadīth scholars (muḥaddith)
during his era. In other words, he was deemed to be the Greatest
Imām among the great ones.
c. Imām Abu Ḥanīfah was living in the lifetime of some of the Great
Companions like Anas ibn Mālik in Baṣrah, Sahl ibn Sa’ad in Madinah
and Abu al-Sufayl, Amir ibn Watilah in Mekkah.

d. However, according to the historians, he had never had the chance
to meet the companions, and had never narrated any Hadīth from
them. This means that Imām Abu Ḥanīfah was not a student of companions
(tābi‘in) but a follower of tābi‘in.

e. In spite of this, Imām Abu Ḥanīfah had the opportunity to meet some
other companions who granted him the title of a minor tābi‘in.