Hanbali school

For other uses, see Hanbali (nisba).
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The Hanbali school or Hanbalism (Arabic: ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنْبَلِيّ, romanized: al-madhhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam.[1] It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and traditionist, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (c. 780–855 CE), and later institutionalized by his students. One who ascribes to the Hanbali school is called a Hanbali, Hanbalite or Hanbalist (Arabic: ٱلْحَنْبَلِيّ, romanized: al-ḥanbalī, pl. ٱلْحَنْبَلِيَّة, al-ḥanbaliyya or ٱلْحَنَابِلَة, al-ḥanābila). It is the smallest and adheres the most strictly to the traditionalist school of theology out of the four major Sunni schools, the others being the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools.[2][3][4]

Like the other Sunni schools, it primarily derives sharia from the Quran, hadith and views of Muhammad's companions.[1] In cases where there is no clear answer in the sacred texts of Islam, the Hanbali school does not accept juristic discretion or customs of a community as sound bases to derive Islamic law on their own—methods that the Hanafi and Maliki schools accept.[4] It is found primarily in the countries of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where it is the official jurisprudence.[5][6] Hanbali followers are the demographic majority in four emirates of the UAE: Sharjah, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Ajman.[7] Large minorities of Hanbali followers are also found in Bahrain, Syria, Oman, and Yemen, and among Iraqi and Jordanian bedouins.[5][8]

With the rise of the 18th-century conservative Wahhabi movement, the Hanbali school experienced a great reformation.[9] The Wahabbi movement's founder, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, collaborated with the House of Saud to spread Hanbali teachings with a Wahabbist interpretation around the world.[9] However, British orientalist Michael Cook argues Ahmad's own beliefs actually played "no real part in the establishment of the central doctrines of Wahhabism",[10] and in spite of their shared tradition, "the older Hanbalite authorities had doctrinal concerns very different from those of the Wahhabis".[10] Other scholars maintain Ahmad was "the distant progenitor of Wahhabism" and also inspired the similar Salafi movement.[11]

  1. ^ a b Ramadan, Hisham M. (2006). Understanding Islamic Law: From Classical to Contemporary. Rowman Altamira. pp. 24–29. ISBN 978-0-7591-0991-9.
  2. ^ Gregory Mack, Jurisprudence, in Gerhard Böwering et al (2012), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13484-0, p. 289
  3. ^ "Sunnite". Encyclopædia Britannica. 2014.
  4. ^ a b Ziauddin Sardar (2014), Mecca: The Sacred City, Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-1-62040-266-5, p. 100
  5. ^ a b Daryl Champion (2002), The Paradoxical Kingdom: Saudi Arabia and the Momentum of Reform, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0-231-12814-8, p. 23 footnote 7
  6. ^ State of Qatar School of Law, Emory University
  7. ^ Barry Rubin (2009), Guide to Islamist Movements, Volume 2, ME Sharpe, ISBN 978-0-7656-1747-7, p. 310
  8. ^ Mohammad Hashim Kamali (2008), Shari'ah Law: An Introduction, ISBN 978-1-85168-565-3, Chapter 4
  9. ^ a b Zaman, Muhammad (2012). Modern Islamic thought in a radical age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–17, 62–95. ISBN 978-1-107-09645-5.
  10. ^ a b Michael Cook, “On the Origins of Wahhābism,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Jul., 1992), p. 198
  11. ^ Bearman, Bianquis, Bosworth, van Donzel, Heinrichs, P. , Th. , C.E. , E. , W.P. (1960). "Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal". In Laoust, Henri (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Brill. ISBN 9789004161214. Archived from the original on 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2021-11-05. Founder of one of the four major Sunnī schools, the Ḥanbalī, he was, through his disciple Ibn Taymiyya [q.v.], the distant progenitor of Wahhābism, and has inspired also in a certain degree the conservative reform movement of the Salafiyya.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)