From Wisdom to Law
The Origin, Development, and Formation of Legal Schools in
Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh)
This study examines the historical and scholarly development of fiqh
from its emergence to the formation and institutionalization of the Sunni
schools of law within an integrated framework. Its point of departure
is that fiqh is not merely a technical discipline consisting of practical
legal rulings, but is directly connected with the human purpose
of existence, the guidance of revelation, and the responsibility to live
in accordance with God’s will. Accordingly, the book first discusses the
purpose of human creation, prophethood, revelation, and the guidance
of the Prophet Muhammad, and then explores the earliest manifestations
of juristic reasoning during the Prophet’s lifetime. It analyzes,
through selected cases, the Companions’ different ways of understanding
revealed texts, their tendencies toward wording and meaning, variations
in their knowledge of the Sunnah, and their ijtihad in changing
circumstances. The study then traces the development of transmissionand
reasoning-oriented tendencies in major centers of learning such
as Medina, Mecca, Kufa, Basra, and Damascus, and explains how this
accumulated legacy became more systematic during the period of the
mujtahid imams. The emergence, legal methodology, evidentiary approaches,
student networks, textual transmission, and geographical
spread of the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‘i, and Hanbali schools are examined
comparatively. The study argues that madhhab formation was not the
product of the personal opinions of founding imams alone, but of a long
scholarly process involving ijtihad, takhrij, preference, fatwa, transmission,
legal disagreement, debate, abridgement, and commentary.
It concludes that differences among the schools should be understood
primarily as scholarly outcomes of differing methods of interpreting
texts, evaluating evidence, and addressing new cases, while sectarian
rigidity, arbitrary talfiq, and the pursuit of dispensations are rejected.
Keywords: Fiqh; history of Islamic law; ijtihad; juristic disagreement;
ra’y; transmission; madhhab; madhhab formation; madhhab affiliation;
Hanafi school; Maliki school; Shafi‘i school; Hanbali school