5. Imam Bukhari – Bukhara, Uzbekistan (194-256H)
6. Imam Abu Dawud – Sistan, Iran/Afghanistan (202-275H)
7. Imam Muslim – Neyshabur, Iran (204-261H)
8. Imam ibn Majah – Qazwin, Iran (209-273H)
9. Imam At-Tirmidhi – Termiz, Uzbekistan (209-279H)
10. Imam An Nasai – Nasa, Turkmenistan (215-303H)

40 Great Students of Imam Abu Hanifah

Imam Abu Hanifah had thousands of students. Imam Abu Yusuf, Imam Muhammad and Ibn Mubarak were the most famous students of Imam Abu Hanifa. Imam Abu Hanifah had a council of 40 students who lived and studied in his academy. He has reportedly spoken on 83,000 juristic issues.

Whenever an issue came to the attention of Imam Abu Hanifah’s council they used to discuss the matter for months and reach a conclusion based on the consensus. The council used to resolve the problems of the community, they were unlike some of the scholars today who are harsh and send people away.

They used to “speculate” and “assume” issues and then passed Fatwa’s on them. The Fiqh of Imam Abu Hanifah is compatible and applicable to modern times.

28 of Imam Abu Hanifah’s students became judges in different towns, cities and provinces and 8 became Imams, capable of passing legal rulings according to the Qur’an and Sunnah.

The 40 Students of Imam Abu Hanifah and the Ulama of the founding Hanafi School:
1. Imam Zufar (d.158H)
2. Imam Malik bin Mighwal (d.159H)
3. Imam Dawood Taa’ee (d.160H)
4. Imam Mandil bin Ali (d.168H)
5. Imam Nadhar bin Abdul Kareem (d.169H)
6. Imam Amr bin Maymoon (d.171H)
7. Imam Hiban bin Ali (d.173H)
8. Imam Abu Ismah (d.173H)
9. Imam Zuhayr bin Mu’aawiyah (d.173H)
10. Imam Qaasim bin Ma’n (d.175H)
11. Imam Hammad bin Abi Hanifah (d.176H)
12. Imam Hayyaaj bin Bistaam (d.177H)
13. Imam Shareek bin Abdullah (d.178H)
14. Imam Aafiyah bin Yazeed (d.180H)
15. Imam Abdullah ibn Mubarak (d.181H)
16. Imam Abu Yusuf (d.182H)
17. Imam Muhammad bin Nuh (d.182H)
18. Imam Hushaym bin Basheer Sulami (d.183H)
19. Imam Abu Sa’eed Yahya bin Zakariyyah (d.184H)
20. Imam Fudhayl bin Iyaadh (d.187H)
21. Imam Asad bin Amr (d.188H)
22. Imam Muhammad bin Hasan as Shaybani (d.189H)
23. Imam Ali bin Mis’ar (d.189H)
24. Imam Yusuf bin Khalid (d.189H)
25. Imam Abdullah bin Idrees (d.192H)
26. Imam Fadhl bin Moosa (d.192H)
27. Imam Ali bin Tibyaan (d.192H)
28. Imam Hafs bin Ghiyaath (d.194H)
29. Imam Wakee bin Jarrah (d.197H)
30. Imam Hisham bin Yusuf (d.197H)
31. Imam Yahya bin Sa’eed al Qattan (d.198H)
32. Imam Shu’ayb bin Ishaq (d.198H)
33. Imam Abu Mutee Balkhi (d.199H)
34. Imam Abu Hafs bin Abdur Rahmaan (d.199H)
35. Imam Khalid bin Sulayman (d.199H)
36. Imam Abdul Hameed (d.203H)
37. Imam Hasan bin Ziyaad (d.204H)
38. Imam Abu Aasim Nabeel (d.212H)
39. Imam Makki bin Ibraheem (d.215H)
40. Imam Hammad bin Daleel (d.215H)

The pillars of this committe were Imam Abu Yusuf, Imam Zufar, Imam Dawood Taa’ee, Imam Yusuf bin Khaalid, Imam Yahya bin Zakariyyah, Imam Muhammed, Imam Abdullah ibn Mubarak and Imam Abu Hanifah himself. With regard to this committee, Imam Wakee who was the teacher of Imam Shafi’i said:
“How could there have remained any errors in this work of Imam Abu Hanifah when he had with him experts of Hadith, experts of Tafseer, experts of Fiqh, experts in Arabic… A person who has such people as companions cannot be wrong because there would always be someone to correct him if he erred”
May Allah have mercy on them all

By Mufti Afzan Hossen

SUNNI SCHOOLS OF LAW (Madhab)

Approximate distribution of the four main Sunni legal schools. Islamic law is known as the Shari'ah. The Shari'ah is based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and those who ascribe to different interpretations of the law pray in the same mosques with no hostility between them.

The four major Sunni schools of law, and the scholars for whom they are named, known as the four Imams, are as follows (The four Imams are often described as "founders" of the schools. However, the schools were effectively founded by their disciples and followers and did not really exist until after their deaths.

Hanafi School (named after Abu Hanifa)
Hanafites Abu Hanifa (d. 767), was the founder of the Hanafi school. He was born in Iraq. His school is considered to have more reason and logic than the other schools. Muslims of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Turkey follow this school.

Maliki School (named after Malik ibn Anas)
Malikites Malik ibn Abbas(d. 795) developed his ideas in Medina, where he apparently knew one of the last surviving companions of the Prophet. His doctrine is recorded in the Muwatta which has been adopted by most Muslims of Africa except in Lower Egypt, Zanzibar and South Africa. The Maliki legal school is the branch of Sunni that dominates in nearly all of Africa, except Egypt, the 'Horn' area and the East Coast countries.

Shafi'i School (named after Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i)
Shafi'ites Al-Shafi'i (d. 820) was considered a moderate in most areas. He taught in Iraq and then in Egypt. Present Muslims in Indonesia, Lower Egypt, Malaysia, and Yemen follow this school. He placed great emphasis on the Sunna of the Prophet, as embodied in the Hadith, as a source of the sharia. Scholars have argued that it was Shafi'i who first attributed special significance to the Sunna of the Prophet as opposed to that of the early Muslim rulers and other prominent Muslims.[4]

Hanbali School (named after Ahmad bin Hanbal)
Hanbalites Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855) was born in Baghdad. He learned extensively from al-Shafi'i. Despite persecution during the period of Mutazalite domination, he held to the doctrine that the Qur'an was uncreated (which the Mutazalites rejected). This school of law is followed exclusively in Saudi Arabia.

These four schools are somewhat different from each other, but Sunni Muslims generally consider them all equally valid. There are other Sunni schools of law, although many are followed by only small numbers of people and are relatively unknown due to the popularity of the four major schools; also many have died out or were not sufficiently recorded by their followers to survive. Fear that constantly adding to the law could result in distortion or in misuse or in the intrusion of human content resulted in the work of the four Imams gaining recognition as comprehensive and definitive, closing the so-called "gate of ijtihad." Subsequently, the task of jurists was to interpret the existing corpus of law, taken to be a divinely revealed code that required no supplement.

The notion that lawmaking is a purely divine task leaves both rulers and jurists with the task of interpretation, not of legislation. Innovation (bida) in matters of law or religion is considered to be heresy, while taqlid (imitation) is a virtue. Some Sunnis—inspired among by, among others, Muhammad Iqbal regard all fiqh as interpretation, and argue that even the opinions of the four Imams and of the greatest scholars of the past should not be binding on succeeding generations, since even better interpretations might be possible. In this view, the sources of the law are divine and infallible but anything written about them are the product of fallible people.

Diversity in unity
Interpreting the Shari'ah to derive specific rulings (such as how to pray) is known as fiqh, which literally means understanding. A madhhab is a particular tradition of interpreting fiqh. These schools focus on specific evidence (Shafi'i and Hanbali) or general principles (Hanafi and Maliki) derived from specific evidences. The schools were initiated by eminent Muslim scholars in the first four centuries of Islam.

As these schools represent clearly spelled out methodologies for interpreting the Shari'ah, there has been little change in the methodology per se. However, as the social and economic environment changes, new fiqh rulings are being made. For example, when tobacco appeared it was declared as "disliked" because of its smell. When medical information showed that smoking was dangerous, that ruling was changed to "forbidden."

Current fiqh issues include things like downloading pirated software and cloning. The consensus is that the Shari'ah does not change but fiqh rulings change all the time. Differences in what can and can not be consumed as halal (for example, all seafood for Malikis but only fish for Hanafis) as well as some divergence of opinion in other areas exist. The prayer ritual differs slightly across the schools.
However, it is generally considered that the four schools agree on all major issues and that where they differ, they offer probable interpretations of God's will. Difference (Ikhtilaf) is widely held to be positive, based on the oft-cited hadith, "difference of opinion in the community is a token of divine mercy."[5]

There may be scholars representing all four madhhabs living in larger Muslim communities, and it is up to those who consult them to decide which school they prefer. Each of the four schools give priority to different tools, or usul, in interpreting the law.

For example, Hanbalis are reluctant to rely on anything other than an explicit reference in the Qur'an or hadith (sunnah) which in practice leave a lot of scope for local practice, while Hanafis are probably the most open to the use of maslaha—that is, what seems to be in the public interest based on the exercise of reason.

Local custom was recognized by Muhammad. It allows rulers and governments to regulate such matters as what side of the road people drive on, who qualifies for a license, for example. Hanafi himself allowed the use of any language during prayer (which includes recitation of the opening chapter of the Qur'an), although this was later restricted to those who did not know Arabic. His original ruling was based on the opinion that what mattered was the "meaning" of the Qur'an, which can be communicated in "translation" as well as in Arabic.

Many Sunnis advocate that a Muslim should choose a single madhhab and follow it in all matters. However, rulings from another madhhab are considered acceptable as dispensations (rukhsa) in exceptional circumstances.