MedinaMedina, officially Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (المدينة المنورة, almadiːna almʊnawːara) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (المدينة, almadiːna), is the capital of Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia. One of the most sacred cities in Islam, the estimated population as of 2020 is 1,488,782, making it the fourth-most populous city in the country.
SunnahIn Islam, sunnah, also spelled sunna (سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed on to the next generations. According to classical Islamic theories, the sunnah are documented by hadith (the verbally transmitted record of the teachings, deeds and sayings, silent permissions or disapprovals of Muhammad), and alongside the Quran (the book of Islam) are the divine revelation (Wahy) delivered through Muhammad that make up the primary sources of Islamic law and belief/theology.
Shafi'i schoolThe Shafi'i school (شَافِعِي, also spelled Shafei), or Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by Muslim theologian Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī, "the father of Muslim jurisprudence", in the early 9th century. The other three schools of Sunnī jurisprudence are Ḥanafī, Mālikī and Ḥanbalī. Like the other schools of fiqh, Shafii recognize the First Four Caliphs as the Islamic prophet Muhammad's rightful successors and relies on the Qurʾān and the "sound" books of Ḥadīths as primary sources of law.
AliʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, the successor state to the Islamic prophet Muhammad's political dominions. He is considered by Shia Muslims to be the first Imam, the rightful religious and political successor to Muhammad. The issue of succession caused a major rift between Muslims and divided them into two major branches: Shia following an appointed hereditary leadership among Ali's descendants, and Sunni following political dynasties.
FatwaA fatwā (ˈfætwɑː USˈfɑːtwɑː; فتوى; plural fatāwā فتاوى) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Faqih (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a mufti, and the act of issuing fatwas is called iftāʾ. Fatwas have played an important role throughout Islamic history, taking on new forms in the modern era.
IjtihadIjtihad (ˌɪdʒtəˈhɑːd ; اجتهاد ijtihād, ʔidʒ.tihaːd; lit. physical or mental effort) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with taqlid (imitation, conformity to legal precedent).