Q.
What's your take on the four major schools of thought? Specifically, what are
your thoughts on the Hanafi school?
Given that Imam Abu Hanifa didn't rely very heavily
on hadith but rather relied more on
reason (and the Qur'an of course), I would assume an inclination towards that
school of thought without following blindly. Imam Abu Hanifa
was the first in the line of the four Imams, followed by Imam Malik, so many
feel that the Hanafi school of thought is the weakest
due to the fact that it does not rely on hadith
nearly as much as the other schools, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in
some circles.
A.
Actually there were several other schools of thought but roughly eight madhabs that we
have today survived. Abu Hanifa was the strongest
because it was said of him that he could not be defeated in argument, however,
he was accused of Shi'ite leanings. He
exercised reason BEFORE the proliferation of hadith and so this idea of him not buying into hadith is an argument NOT against him, but against those who say
that the hadith came about early. Abu
Hanifa's view was that the companions were men like
anyone else and that if a tab'i or follower of a tab'i manifests wise judgment,
then he would rather take from the latter based on his intellect rather than
from a companion since suhba
(companionship with the Prophet) did not by its nature imbue one with superior
reasoning powers.
As you alluded to, we should
take the best from ijtihad
(reasoning) regardless of its origin, and not subscribe blindly to any one
school. In fact, a couple of erroneous beliefs among many Muslims is that one
must adhere to only one school, and that whatever was passed down to us many
centuries ago is sacrosanct and must not be questioned. This is undoubtedly
responsible in part for the atrophy and backwardness in much of the Muslim
world today. Our view is that even modern day scholars may exhibit better ijtihad than
those who followed the Prophet, and we say this solely on the basis of what is
available to them in terms of material. To reject this notion would render
meaningless the Prophet's statement during his last sermon when he supposedly
wished that those who receive the message understand it better than those who
delivered it.
Posted
September 12, 2011