Hanbali
Hanbali is one of the four schools (Maddhabs) of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is considered to be the most conservative of the four schools. The school was started by the students of Imam Ahmad, whose name was Ahmad bin Hanbal (d. 855). Hanbali jurisprudence is predominant among Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula, although students of Islam throughout the world study and may choose to observe its conclusions about Islamic practise. The Hanbali school is followed by less than 5% of the world's Muslim population. It is presently the school of jurisprudence used in modern day Saudi Arabia.
Although the Hanbali school was small, it did manage to produce a number of noted scholars. These include:
- ibn al-Jawzi, a prolific writer who wrote commentories on the Qur'an and numerous works on history and jurisprudence;
- ibn Taymiyyah, a controversial figure due to his contentious theological views but nonetheless a prolific writer and a noted scholar in a number of fields such as jurisprudence;
- ibn al-Qayyim, the student of ibn Taymiyyah who wrote a number of valuable works on Islamic jurisprudence. Unlike his teacher he was less harsh towards Sufism and wrote a number of works on Sufism that remain well read amongst adherents to Sufi orders (Tarika).
- ibn Qudamah, a jurist of the Hanbali school;
- the Sufis Abdullah al-Ansari, Abdul Qadir Jilani and ibn Rajb al-Hanbali.
External links
- Hanbaliyyah at Overview of World Religions
- Hanbali Fiqh from the work of Shaykh Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani