There are two major sects in Islam, Sunni and Shia. Sunni are the largest group, roughly 85% of the Muslim world

The Sunni Muslim world is dominated by four major Madhaahib, or Schools of Thought.

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The Madhhab are not sects; the basic beliefs between them are essentially the same. What differs is their approach to Fiqh, or Islamic Law.

Shias are a different sect because some of their fundamental beliefs differ vastly from Sunnis. Also, the word “Shia” means sect.

Sunnis and Shia both share the same beliefs about Islamic monotheism, and the Prophethood of Muhammad. Both also accept the Quran as the word of Allah, and practice the same five pillars of Islam.

The Shia accept most of the beliefs that Sunnis have. But there are some very fundamental Shia beliefs that Sunnis do not accept.

Shi’ites believe that most of the companions betrayed Prophet Muhammad after he died. They also hold a very high opinion of Ali and some members of his family that is near the level of Prophethood.

In some extreme cases, Ali is raised to the level of divinity.

Shi’ites also believe that all laws must come from certain members of Ali’s descendants called Imams.

These beliefs are not accepted by Sunnis which leads to the Shia being a different sect.

The Sunni Schools of Thought differ in the various day to day implementation of Islamic laws. But not in any fundamental beliefs.

That’s why a person who follows the Hanafi School of Thought would not have a problem making prayer behind an Imam from the Maliki School of Thought. But both a Maliki and a Hanafi would have problems praying behind someone from the Shia sect.

The Schools of Thought would differ on the rules of Islamic practices, but not on Islamic beliefs. Perhaps the most visible example is the prayer.

Each School of Thought has slight variations in the prayer, although the overall performance of the prayer is almost the same.

The prayers of a Shafii would have the same movements, sequence of movements, and words, as the prayer of a Hanbali.

But there may be differences in minor things such as the placement of the hands.

Where Did the Islamic Schools of Thought Come From?

The Schools of Thought developed over time. And even though there are four major schools now, there have been many more over the years.

But the Schools that remain are those that had the most dynamic students to propagate it, or were adopted by the right politcal dynasty at the right time.

Of course, there were no Schools of Thought during the early days of Islam. Neither Prophet Muhammad nor his companions followed any specific Madhhab.

Everyone followed the Madhhab of Prophet Muhammad.

After the Prophet died, Islam began to spread rapidly in various conquests of the Persian and Byzantine Empires. As Islam came into contact with more civilizations, more circumstances came around that required Islamic legal answers.

At this time, with most of the companions still alive, they used consensus, or ijma’, to decide on legal matters. And since most of the companions lived in the major centers of the Islamic world, it was relatively easy to come to a consensus.

But despite all of this, very few companions actually made legal decisions. If a companion was asked about the legality of something, they would usually refer the questioner to another companion.

At this time, when the Caliph was a companion also, the ruler could overrule the suggestions or consensus of the companions. If so, the Caliph’s ruling would be put into practice immediately.

Essentially, the head of state (Caliph) was also the head of the religion.

But all of this changed when Ali was assassinated.

The death of Ali marked the end of the era of the Righteous Caliphs. The Umayyad dynasty that followed Ali was a hereditary monarchy.

The Caliphs during this were often corrupt. There were also more fractions, civil unrest, and rebellions. This led to various groups attempting to use Islam to legitimize their agendas.

The leading Islamic scholars of this era refused to associate with the Caliphs and other political leaders. The politicians wanted to manipulate the scholars to suite themselves.

To resist this, more and more scholars moved away from the larger cities and into more rural areas away from political control.

However, these scholars now had less contact with each other meaning it would be much more difficult to have a consensus on legal matters.

Hence, many of these scholars had to rely on their own independent deduction, called ijtihad.

Ijtihad means to make laws using deduction from the original sources.

There are basically three sources of Islamic law: Shariah, Sunnah, and Ijmah, or consensus.

Most of the issues faced by Muslims then and now, do not have a direct answer in the Quran or Sunnah, nor is there a consensus.

If a scholar was approached with a unique legal question, his only recourse was to use evidence from these sources to deduce an answer.

This ijtihad, deducing laws from the original legal sources, is what ultimately led to the Schools of Thought.

As certain scholars attracted more students, they would increase in popularity.

As they became more popular, they would also attract more questions from more people about the legality of different issues.

And these questions led the scholars to do more deducting, ijtihad, in order to come up with answers.

Some scholars became very popular and attracted a large following. When they died, depending on the politics of the time, and the dedication of their students, their teachings could either flourish or die out.

Those scholars whose methodology and teachings were adopted by a local governor or ruler, tended to flourish. But those that did not, have mostly died out.

Initially, the founders of these Schools of Thought were very flexible. If they learned that another scholar had a different opinion, and their evidence was valid, they would quickly change their position.

But during the Abbasid Caliphate, they dynasty that overthrew and followed the Umayyads, these Schools of Thought became more rigid.

The government began to keep scholars on retainer. This shifted the dynamic away from the rural scholar.

The major city centers became the best places to obtain an Islamic education. This also made it easier for students to travel between cities and learn under different scholars.

But this also led to more religious debates.

One of the most popular forms of entertainment during this era was religious debates between Islamic scholars. Two scholars would debate an issue before the ruler, and the winner would get a prize.

These debates had two negative effects.

1. It forced participants to become more rigid and inflexible in defending their positions.
2. It led to a lot of hypothetical fiqh where scholars would debate issues that had no bearing in life.

While these debates were inadvertently encouraging rigidity, the students of the major scholars were also compiling their teachers’ works.

This compilation led to a proliferation of Islamic literature, but also contributed to rigidity within a School of Thought.

There were also two approaches to Fiqh: reasoning and literalism.

The reasoning approach believes that there must be a reason behind every hadith and verse of Quran.

But the literalist approach discouraged trying to find the reason behind hadiths and Quran and just accept them.

In this, we can see the origin of the Sufi-Salafi divide today.

By now, there were also more sources of Islamic law.

During the time of Righteous Caliphs, it was just Quran, Sunnah, and the consensus of the companions.

But now there was also Qiyas, legal preferences, and local customs.

Qiyas is similar to ijtimah because it also requires deducing from the sources. But Qiyas compares similarities and comes to a conclusion accordingly.

An example of Qiyas is the legality of recreational drugs. Most of these drugs did not exist in the Prophet’s time and there is nothing in the Quran or Sunnah referring to them.

The Quran does forbid drinking wine which intoxicates. We can use Qiyas to extend that ruling to similar items that also intoxicate, including recreational drugs.

The Four Schools of Thought

There are currently four major schools of thought in the Sunni Islamic world.

There is also one school of thought that straddles Sunni and Shi’ite (Zaydi), and another that is exclusively Shi’ite (Jafari).

Hanafi Madhab

The Hanafi Madhab was founded by Imam Abu Haneefah. It is the largest School of Thought in the world.

Abu Haneefah was born in Persia and his father accepted Islam during the era of the Righteous Caliphs.

He is considered a minor Tabi’un, which is the title of the generation after the Prophet and his companions. This is because he did meet some of the companions, but he did not study under any of them.

Abu Haneefah preferred the reasoning approach to Islamic law; he believed there had to be a reason behind certain Islamic rulings.

He lived in Persia during a time when there was a lot of rebellion against the Umayyad government. These rebellious factions would often invent hadiths to justify their rebellions.

The fabricated hadiths became so prevalent in Iraq, that Abu Haneefah developed much more stringent rules for accepting hadiths as evidence.

This scourge of fabricated hadiths also led him to rely more on deduction than later scholars. He just couldn’t trust the majority of hadiths in his area.

But Abu Haneefah was very skilled in the study of Hadiths himself. He studied under Hammad Ibn Zayd, the leading hadith scholar of his day, for 19 years.

He was imprisoned and tortured by both the Umayyad and Abbasid rulers.

When the Umayyads were in power, they wanted him to become a judge, but like many scholars of his day, Abu Haneefah didn’t want to get too close to politics.

For refusing them, he was imprisoned and beaten by the governor of Kufah in Iraq.

Years later, when the Abbasids had taken over, the second Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur again asked him to become a judge. And again, Abu Haneefah refused, and again he was imprisoned and beaten.

He usually taught by having group discussions with his students. And as someone who favored using reasoning, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that he also supported hypothetical fiqh.

He felt this was a method of preparing for things before they happened.

Today, the Hanafi School of Thought is mostly found in India, Pakistan, Turkey, Guyana, and Trinidad.

Maliki Madhab

Imam Malik was the grandson of one of the companions. He was born in Medina and spent his entire life there. He left the city only to make Hajj.

He studied under Nafi, the freed slave of Ibn Umar. There are over eighty hadiths that include in its chain of narration: Malik, from Nafi’, from Ibn Umar.

This chain is considered highly authentic and is called the Golden Chain by hadith scholars.

Unlike Abu Haneefah, Imam Malik discouraged hypothetical Fiqh. He did encourage his students to ask questions so he could answer them. But he would only deal with practical, real-life issues.

Likewise, he supported a literalist approach to Islamic law.

He would teach his students by narrating a hadith, then discussing its meaning in contemporary issues.

He is unique among other scholars in that he considers the practices of the people of Medina to be a source of Islamic law.

The Prophet established an Islamic government in Medina, and 90% of the laws in the Quran were revealed in Medina, and Caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman all ruled from there.

Therefore, Imam Malik believed the people of Medina, of his time, should have the most authentic practice of Islam.

He became so popular and respected that the Abbasid Caliph of his time wanted to make his rulings state law. However, Imam Malik refused to allow that.

Imam Malik knew he was not perfect and could make mistakes. He did not want the burden of people being punished based on a law that he may have formulated incorrectly.

Later, he would rule against an Abbasid law that forced a man to divorce his wife if he broke an oath. When his ruling became known, Imam Malik was arrested, imprisoned, and beaten severely.

His major work is Al-Muwatta which is widely available in English today. Al-Muwatta is a hadith collection, but one that focuses heavily on Islamic law.

One of his most famous students was Imam Shafi’ who founded the Shafi School of Thought.

The Maliki School of Thought is found in parts of Egypt, Sudan, North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria), West Africa (Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Chad), and some Gulf states (Qatar, Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi).

Shafi’ Madhab

Imam Shafi was born in Gaza in modern day Palestine. He studied under Imam Malik and memorized Al-Muwatta. He remained a student of Malik until Imam Malik died.

Nonetheless, Imam Shafi’ rejected Imam Malik’s acceptance of the practices of the people of Medina.

Imam Shafi’, like many other scholars of his era, traveled a lot in search of knowledge. Hence, he would study under many different scholars.

After Imam Malik died, Shafi’ moved to Yemen and began teaching. However, while in Yemen he was accused of being a Shi’ite.

Imam Shafi’ was arrested, taken to Baghdad, and put on trial for being a Shi’ite. However, he was successfully defended himself and was eventually set free.

While he was in Baghdad, he began studying under Muhammad Ash-Shaybani. Ash-Shaybani was a student of both Imam Malik and Imam Abu Haneefah.

So, Imam Shafi’s School of Thought combines the teachings of the Hijaz (Imam Malik) with the teachings of Irah (Imam Abu Haneefah).

He compiled these teachings into a book called Al-Hujja. But he would later learn many things which would force him to go back and revise much of that book.

This led to a new compilation called Al-Umm, or The Essence. Al-Umm also included teachings from a lesser known scholar named Imam Layth.

Al-Umm was known as Madhab Al-Jadeed, or The New School of Thought.

One of his most famous books is Ar—Risaala, meaning The Letter. This was the first book to present a systematic and organized study of Fiqh, or Islamic Jurisprudence.

Imam Shafi’s students included Ahmed Ibn Hanbal, Abu Thawr, and Al-Muzani.

Ahmed Ibn Hanbal and Abu Thawr were both founders of their own Schools of Thought. However, Abu Thawr’s did school died out over time.

Al-Muzani wrote the most widely read book of the Shafi Madhab, called Al-Mikhtasar Al-Muzani. Al-Muzani would later be imprisoned and tortured to death for not accepting the Mu’tazilite philosophy.

The Shafi Madhab is perhaps the second-most popular School of Thought after the Hanafis. This is due to the chief judge of Damascus adopting it and offering prizes to anyone who memorized Imam Shafi’s books.

Imam Shafi eventually settled in Egypt and was able to teach in relative peace and security. This allowed his School of Thought to become dominant in Egypt.

The Shafi’i School of Thought can be found in Egypt, parts of Yemen, Sri Lanka, southern India, Malaysia, East Africa, Philippines, Indonesia, and Suriname.

Hanbali Madhhab

The founder, Ahmed Ibn Hanbal was born in Baghdad and was a student of Imam Shafi’.

Later in life, he would be arrested and tortured for not accepting the Mutazilite philosophy.

This period was known as the Mihna, or Inquisition. The Abbasid Caliph Al-Ma’mun, who was a scholar in his own right, had become a Mu’tazilite.

Mu’tazili thought relies heavily on logic and reasoning as a source of Islamic law. This ultimately led to them asserting that the Quran was created.

This defies the traditional idea that the Quran is the uncreated Speech of Allah.

Caliph Al-Ma’mun tried to force this philosophy on the leading scholars of his day through this inquisition.

Those scholars who did not accept that the Quran was created were imprisoned and tortured until they capitulated. Many, like Al-Muzani, died during this period.

Imam Ahmed refused to accept this philosophy and suffered almost a year of imprisonment and torture, but he refused to accept the Mutazili teachings.

Ahmed Ibn Hanbal was a prominent collector of Hadiths, having collected over 30000 hadiths.

Like Imam Malik, he liked to teach hadith from a Fiqh perspective. And also like Imam Malik, he preferred the literal meanings over looking for reasons behind the hadiths.

As such, he did not involve himself much in Qiyas, or deduction. However, he did not abandon it completely.

The two most prominent hadith collectors of all time, Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim, were both from among his students.

His hadith collection is called Musnad. Unlike his students Bukhari and Muslim, he did not organize it by topic. Instead his collection is arranged according to the Sahabah who’s narrating. B

He did not like to record his teachings and forbade his students from recording them also. It was actually the students of his students who finally put his rulings to paper.

As the latest of the four major scholars, he had more access to hadiths than the others. Also, the science of hadith had matured greatly by his time.

Hence, he often includes two different sets of evidences and opinions with his rulings.

For many years, his School of Thought was not very popular. This was mostly because of his conflicts with the government and his refusal to allow his rulings to be recorded.

Even though it had some very famous adherents, like Ibn Taymiyyah, by the late 1800’s it was close to dying out.

In the mid 1700’s, Muhammad Ibn Saud the ruler of a small state in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula, teamed up with a religious scholar named Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab.

Together, Ibn Saud and Abdul Wahhab would push the boundaries of their small emirate. Ibn Saud was the political and military muscle, while Abdul Wahhab was the religious and philosophical guide.

Eventually this expansion was checked by the ruling Ottoman Empire which crushed the small Saudi state in 1824, and sent most of the family into exile in Kuwait.

One hundred years later, the Ottomans are at in World War I and their enemies, the British, are looking for help from anywhere they can.

The British encourage the descendants of Ibn Saud to begin a rebellion against the Ottomans. This ultimately leads to the establishment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Through all of these years, the Saudi and Abdul Wahhab families remained closely allied. When Abdul Aziz ibn Saud becomes the first king of Saudi Arabia, he gives all religious authority to the descendants of Abdul Wahhab.

Muhammad Abdul Wahhab came from a long line of Hanbali scholars. Hence, Hanbali fiqh becomes the basis of the Saudi legal system. And this School of Thought that had almost disappeared has new life.

Today, the Hanbali School of Thought is primarily found only in Saudi Arabia and Palestine.

Overview of the Four Major Schools of Thought

These four Madhaahib (plural of Madhhab = School of Thought) survived because they had outstanding students and state support.

However, there were other scholars and schools that were just as qualified, yet they did not flourish.

Another thing that helped these schools survive was that they each brought something unique to the table.

Hanafi and its heavy reliance on Qiyas and hypothetical law.

Maliki and its exclusive usage of the customs of the people of Medina.

Shafi’i and its blending of many different teachings.

Hanbali and its strict reliance on hadith and literal interpretation.

Minor or Extinct Schools of Thought

Al-Zaw’i Madhhab

For many years, this School of Thought dominated Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and even Spain. But a local governor began giving prizes to anyone who memorized one of Imam Shafi’s books. This caused the Al-Zaw’i School of Thought to dwindle and disappear.

Zaydi Madhhab

Imam Zayd was the great-grandson of Ali ibn Abi Talib, through his son Husayn. His father was Zaynul Abideen.

Imam Zayd was a master of the Quran and Hadith and used to discuss religion with Imam Abu Haneefah. This shows the divisions we see today were most likely not as prominent back then.

Unfortunately, Imam Zayd got involved in a revolt against the Umayyad Dynasty who sent an army to crush them.

At the same time, Imam Zayd refused to curse Abu Bakr and Umar which alienated most of his forces. Most of his army deserted him and the remainder were easily defeated by the Umayyads.

Imam Zayd was also killed in this battle.

Even though he was a decedent of Ali, Imam Zayd was not as extreme as other Ali supporters.

He did believe Ali was better suited as Caliph than Abu Bakr and Umar. However, he accepted their Caliphate and did not believe they cheated Ali out of his rights like many among the Shia do.

The Zaydi Madhhab still exists today, but is primarily found only in Yemen. It is in between Sunni and Shiite.

In fact, many Sunni scholars today consider a fifth Sunni Madhhab.

Laythi Madhhab

Imam Layth was from Persia. He lived during the same time period as Imam Malik, Imam Abu Hanifah, and Imam Shafi’.

In fact, he once debated Imam Malik about accepting the customs of the people of Medina as a source of Islamic law.

Though Imam Layth and Imam Malik disagreed on some things, they were very similar in other respects.

Their teaching styles were similar and they both disliked hypothetical Fiqh or utilizing too much Qiyas (deduction).

Similar to Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, Imam Layth did not record his rulings and did not instruct his students to do so either. Hence, his School of Thought did not survive long.

The Laythi Madhhab was eventually eclipsed by Imam Shafi’.

However, he did have a strong influence on Imam Shafi’ who absorbed many of the Laythi teachings into his own.

Imam Ath-Thawri

Imam Ath-Thawri was the main scholar of the Hadith school of Kufah in modern day Iraq. He was a contemporary of Imam Abu Hanifah, who also resided in Iraq.

Even though he and Imam Abu Hanifah agreed on many things, there were other things they did not.

For instance, Imam Ath-Thawri did not like to use much Qiyas (deduction), which Abu Hanifah relied on. Also, Ath-Thawri was much more accepting of Hadiths than Abu Haneefah.

Imam Ath-Thawri was very outspoken and that often got him into trouble. He wanted nothing to do with the government and refused all positions offered to him.

When the Abbasid Caliph sent him a job offer, Imam Ath-Thawri tore it up in disgust. After that, Ath-Thawri had to go into hiding.

He would spend much of the rest of his life in hiding which did not allow him to build a solid foundation or attract any long-term students.

Furthermore, in his will, he requested all recordings of his writings to be erased and destroyed.

Imam Adh-Dhaahiri

Imam Dawud Adh-Dhaahiri studied under both Imam Shafi’ and Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal. However, Imam Ahmed expelled Adh-Dhaahiri when he claimed the Quran was created.

Adh-Dhaahiri was a literalist and preferred to use the obvious meanings of the text to make his rulings. He shied away from using interpretations and metaphorical meanings.

In fact, his name Dawud Adh-Dhaahiri, is really a nickname meaning “Dawud the Literalist.”

He rejected Qiyas of those who came after the time of Prophet Muhammad. However, over time he came up with another method of handling issues not found in the Quran and Sunnah.

He called this method Mafhum, but in reality, it was very similar to Qiyas.

His approach was gradually marginalized and he did not attract many students. His School of Thought was close to dying out when a famous Spanish Islamic scholar named Ibn Hazm adopted it.

Adh-Dhaahir’s School of Thought eventually became the dominant School in Spain and parts of North Africa.

However, when Spain fell to the Christians, the Dhaahiri Madhhab disappeared.

Imam Jareer

This School of Thought was founded by Imam Jareer At-Tabari.

He was a traveling jurist and would study under whatever School was dominant in the area he happened to be in.

His most famous work is the famous book of history called Tarikh At-Tabari. His focus on history helped usher in a generation of Quran scholars and Muslim historians.

However, he did not have any major students and he did not introduce anything new in the way legal jurisprudence.

Hence, his school did not flourish and eventually died out.