Madhab: the four Sunni schools and why they differ

What does madhab mean?

Madhab, also spelt madhhab, comes from the Arabic root dh-h-b, to go. Ibn Manzur's dictionary Lisan al-Arab gives al-madhhab as a verbal noun of going, like al-dhahab, and as the view a person holds and goes by 4.

In the jurists' books the word names a scholar's position. Ibn Rushd, in Bidayat al-Mujtahid, writes that holding the intention to be a condition of wudu is the madhhab of al-Shafi'i, Malik and Ahmad, as well as Abu Thawr and Dawud 3. Here the word names the view a jurist or school holds.

Who are the four imams of the Sunni schools?

Ibn Juzayy, a Maliki scholar, writes in al-Qawanin al-Fiqhiyyah that by "the four" he means Malik, al-Shafi'i, Abu Hanifah and Ibn Hanbal, and calls them leaders of the Muslims across the lands, each with followers 2. His own book follows Malik's school, which he says the people of al-Andalus and the rest of the Maghrib (the western Islamic lands) chose, and notes where the other three agree and differ 2.

The books cited for each school are by scholars of that school, not by the four imams themselves. So a school's position here is its teaching as those scholars wrote it down.

Why do scholars reach different rulings?

In the introduction to Bidayat al-Mujtahid, Ibn Rushd says his aim is to record the rulings that are agreed on and those that are disputed, with their evidence, and to point out where each disagreement turns 5. He then gives six kinds of cause for the jurists' disagreement 5.

Every cause on his list is about how the same texts, acts and analogies are read.

Is the intention part of wudu? A worked example

Start with what is shared. 'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said from the pulpit that he heard the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, say that actions are only by intentions, and each person has what he intended. The report is Sahih al-Bukhari 1, sahih by inclusion in Sahih al-Bukhari

1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 1

إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى

Ibn Rushd reports that the jurists agree intention is a condition in acts of worship, for this hadith and for Al-Bayyinah 98:5 (surah 98, verse 5), and then differ on whether it is a condition of valid wudu 3.

اخْتَلَفَ عُلَمَاءُ الْأَمْصَارِ هَلِ النِّيَّةُ شَرْطٌ فِي صِحَّةِ الْوُضُوءِ أَمْ لَا

In English: the scholars of the cities differ on whether intention is a condition of the validity of wudu or not.

The cause, in Ibn Rushd's account, is this. Pure worship, done only to draw near to Allah, like prayer, needs intention by agreement; worship whose purpose is plain, like washing off dirt, does not. Wudu has something of both, worship and cleanliness, so the jurists differ over which it resembles more 3.

Each school's book argues its own side. Al-Marghinani's al-Hidayah answers that wudu becomes an act of drawing near to Allah only with intention; even so, it is still the key to prayer, because it is purification by using something that purifies 6. Ibn Qudamah's al-Mughni answers with the hadith of 'Umar, and with the point that wudu is worship, and worship is only done with intention 9.

We do not decide between them. The steps themselves, with each school's status at the intention step, are in the guide to how to perform wudu.

Which madhab is closest to the Sunnah?

Ilmwell does not rank the four schools. A more useful question is which evidence supports a particular ruling, and the books cited here answer that for their own view. In the wudu example, al-Marghinani's al-Hidayah and Ibn Qudamah's al-Mughni each set out the evidence for their school, and Ibn Rushd's Bidayat al-Mujtahid puts the positions side by side with the cause of the difference 693.

On whom to ask, al-Ghazali, in al-Mustasfa, says a layperson asks only someone known for knowledge and uprightness, not someone known for ignorance or wrongdoing 10. For a question about your own case, see what a fatwa is, and for how fiqh relates to Sharia, see Sharia law explained.