The Four Main Schools of Muslim Law

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There are four main schools of law that we discussed over the course of the semester. The first one is called Hanafi. This school is the oldest one and most was most influenced by a man named Abu Hanifah, who believed in personal liberty and the right to equality. Unlike most other legal schools Hanafi’s believe in gender equality and support a woman’s right to make her own decisions. For instance, they believe a woman has a right to make her own financial decisions. As one of the most widely supported groups, Hanafi’s have greatly influenced the establishment of other legal schools. The Maliki School named after Malik Ibn Anas, took a more conservative view in regards to the rights of women, and was highly influenced by the Hadith. Similar to the Hanafi School, the Maliki School relies a lot of personal reasoning and rationality. What really distinguishes the Maliki School is the appraisal of religious practices by people of medina, largely due to the fact that Imam Malik lived there. Al Shafi’i established the Shafi’i School of law, which focused on solving issues with the Quran and Sunnah before resorting to Ijma or Qiyas. Similar to the Shafi’i School, the Hanbali School, founded by Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, gives greatest importance to the Quran and prophetic traditions. Oppositely, this school does not approve of Ijma or Qiyas at all, enforcing strict adherence to scriptures and information that is uncreated. Finally, the Zahiri School takes principles from the Shafi’I and Hanbali schools and affirms that rulings should be based on the Quran and not speculation. For this reason they do not accept analogical or human reasoning. Not all people agree on a single means for how to establish rules in society, so the creation of multiple s...

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...s movement blacks experienced extreme oppression from white, once they were accepted however, it strengthened the foundations of society. Similar to that, we are experiencing a growing acceptance of Muslims, they are becoming integrated into our society, winning beauty pageants and establishing fortune 500 companies. The progress that American society has made in regards to Muslims is mind-blowing, and I have no doubt that this will continue. Just as an example, it is highly possible that in a few years we could see a full acceptance of women led prayer, which would strengthen the bond between Muslim communities and long established American ones. In the near future, we will see the emergence of an American Muslim who is completely integrated into society, represented fairly in the media, and free to practice his/her faith comfortably, without the fear of judgment.

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