The Four Madhhabs of Islam

by Abdalhaqq Bewley, Aisha Bewley, Yasin Dutton

This collection tackles the four madhhabs of Islam in a thought-provoking way. Together, the four contributions show that recovery of transmitted practice backed by scholarship is a dynamic and liberating way that can lead to a new flowering of the deen in every age.

Genres: Islam, Religion, Nonfiction

98 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2012

Reviews

[Wayfarer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an over-simplified and generalised account of the development of the four jurisprudential schools of thought of Sunni Islam with a particular emphasis (read: bias) towards the Maliki School - this should not come as a surprise as the authors are coverts to Islam who adhere to the Maliki school and are also part of the Murabitun movement. As this is an over-simplifed account lacking in essential details, it thus runs the very real risk of being a skewed representation of reality. The bulk of the book is an attempt at eulogising the merits of the Maliki madhab in particular reference to and repeated emphasis on the "Amal of Madinah" - were they not able to find anyone better than Ibn Taymiyyah to demonstrate this? The indirect negative aspersions cast on the Iraqi school (read: Hanafi School) is an exercise in how not to write; this contravenes the high etiquettes of the scholarly tradition. Towards the end of the book, there is an attempt to demonstrate the living organic tradition of "Amal of Madinah" via the existent Murabitun movement under the auspicious of Sh. Abdul Qadir al-Sufi - highly controversial to say the least.

[James Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heavy reading but extremely enlightening, thought provoking.

[Michael Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very biased towards the Maliki madhhab in Madina. It's not hateful of the other schools of law in Islam, but it is really against Salafism and Islamic Modernism. It doesn't really explain the difference with Hanbali and Shafi'i madhhab that much, and he was quite ambiguous in explaining how Hanbalism differed.

- Hanafi fiqh is school of analogy, Iraqi.
- Maliki school of direct transmission from Madina.
- Shafi'i, school of rigorous methodical textual analysis.
- Hanbal, hadith and qur'an focused and similar to Shafi'i.
- Islamic modernism he describes as deviant Hanafis who have made compromises to the deen.
- Salafis he describes as arrogant neo-Shafi'is who "use a debased form form of the methodology devised by Imam ash-Shafi'i to derive practices from their literalist and deficient understanding of the texts involved".

Quite polemical overall, and biased towards the Maliki Madhhab despite claiming to not be sectarian.

[Tahir Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a brief introduction to how and why the four madhhabs came in to being and why they should be followed then this book or at least the first chapter is a good introduction for that purpose. It does have a strong emphasis on the School of Medinah as all three authors are Mālikī so do not expect an even number of pages on each madhhab, the Mālikī School is given the main treatment as stated in the sub-heading of the title, “with special reference to the practice of the People of Medinah”. It has three distinct chapters by each author which are as follows:

Preface by Abdassamad Clarke
Chapter 1: The Four Madhhabs of Islam and their Relationship with the Present Time by Shaykh Abdalhaqq Bewley
Chapter 2: The ‘Amal of Medinah by Aisha Bewley
Chapter 3: The Importance of Mālik and the Mālikī Madhhab Today by Dr. Yasin Dutton
Postface by Abdalhaqq Bewley

The first chapter presents an historical perspective of the time which is helpful in introducing the background of the environment to appreciate the origin of the schools. It is a concise explanation of how Islam has been transmitted over the centuries to the present day. Though it doesn’t present a complete picture of any of the schools as the author concedes, it is still a refreshing read. It highlights the salient features of each school and most importantly contends that each and every one of them comprises in itself an authentic transmission of the religion down to our time. The author rightly so, in my opinion, states that each of them must be taken as a whole and applied as they have come down in their accepted form. He warns against the haphazard mix and match approach of some unqualified Muslims which we find in our day and age, whereby they choose rulings from each madhhab to suit their situation. He does also argue that since we have fallen into disrepair and decadence and we are in need of renewal, the madhhab of the ‘amal ahl al-Madinah i.e. the Mālikī School represents a position which is pure Book and Sunnah with no controversy in it whatsoever and is the madhhab on which all Muslims could come together. This logically leads on to the second chapter about the practice of the people of Madinah and an excellent explanation of the terms ‘amal and ḥadīth which should not be freely interchangeable with the term Sunnah as we find today. The final chapter is a further emphasis on the non-textual lens of the ‘amal of Madinah beginning with Imam Mālik (d.179/795) and his Muwatta and then the ‘amal of Madinah to the sources the madhhab is based upon. Dr. Yasin Dutton concludes his chapter by giving examples from the Muwatta of the explanation of the Sunnah from the ‘amal. The ultimate argument is that the ‘amal of the people of Madinah is stronger than ḥadīth. The works are well written and make strong arguments, well worth reading.