The jurisprudential sectarianism between rejection and acceptance

The four Islamic jurisprudential schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali) are the schools that the nation has accepted across generations, and they have been the basis for issuing fatwas in most Muslim countries. They have had the most significant impact in clarifying the reality of legislation and in finding solutions and addressing new issues, with an emphasis on the increasing role of jurisprudential schools and their educational, legal, and pedagogical aspects; especially in the early centuries. The jurisprudential school — and it still is — was a method for understanding religion, acting upon it, and spreading it among people. It is also a comprehensive interpretative approach that leads to expansion, ease, good education, and learning. However, now these jurisprudential schools and their scholarly heritage are subjected to clear injustice and severe attack from a group that advocates for a new interpretative approach. They criticize the existing schools, which the nation has accepted from the earliest Islamic eras, and they attack their imams or some of them, as well as those affiliated with them. This research is an attempt to clarify the true nature of the jurisprudential schools, the meaning of affiliation to them, and to respond to the criticisms made against them. It also aims to clarify the Islamic legal ruling on adopting a school of thought, its categories, regulations, and conditions, in fairness to the learned nation and their schools, and to reject blind fanaticism that contradicts evidence. It seeks to preserve our religion by defending this great jurisprudential and legislative heritage, correcting what has been affected by flaws, and reforming it in a way that is suitable for re-presenting it to Muslims in particular, and to the entire world, in a manner that reveals its true value and precious content. Author’s name - Ahmed Zainhom Ahmed Year of publication - 2020 First edition number - 1 Number of pages - 464