Adil Salahi - Pioneers of Islamic Scholarship

UNTIL RECENTLY, PEOPLE felt that following a school of Islamic jurisprudence, or Fiqh, was a basic Islamic requirement. Indeed, in many parts of the Muslim world, people still think that it is necessary for them to adhere to their own schools of Fiqh. When they put a question to a scholar, they do not forget to tell him to which school they belong, asking him to give them the answer in accordance with their school. While they respect the other schools, they may feel uneasy if they were to know that a certain practice they have been doing is approved by other schools, but not their own. Thus, a person who has been brought up as a anaf may feel uneasy about combining prayers when travelling, and would not do it unless he finds no alternative, such as having to take a flight that allows him no chance of attending to his prayers without combining two of them together, which is perfectly acceptable according to all other schools.

Other people are more relaxed about this, and they feel that the views of the four major schools are acceptable. Hence, they do not mind to receive a ruling based on a different school to their own, provided that it is one of the four. Yet hardly anyone, apart from people with Islamic studies background, knows anything about the differences that distinguish each school from the rest, let alone the reasons for such differences. Nor are the majority of people aware that beyond the four schools of Fiqh there are others which continue to be followed by millions of Muslims in different parts of the world, and are recognized by the great seats of learning.

Little do most Muslims realize that they do not actually follow any school of Fiqh. In everyday matters, such as prayers and fasting, people follow the practices they learnt in childhood. When they are facing a special situation, they put it to a scholar who will look into it and also into the circumstances of the individual putting the question. He will give the answer that is most suitable for that person in his special circumstances. Unless he does so, he is not a scholar worth his salt. Which school of Fiqh upholds this view is not an issue. The issue is what serves the interests of the questioner best, as long as it complies with Islamic directives and teachings and does not encroach on what God has forbidden.

Yet the fact that we have four, or indeed five Sunn schools of Fiqh, is an accident of history. We could have easily added two or six more. The fact is that the four schools were established within a short period of each other. Ab anfah and Mlik were born towards the end of the first century, and Amad, the youngest of the four Imms, was born in 164 H. In the same period there were many other scholars of similar standing, such as al-Awz