Hanbali schoolThe Hanbali school (al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (madhahib) of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), and was institutionalized by his students. The Hanbali madhhab is the smallest of four major Sunni schools, the others being the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi`i. The Hanbali school derives sharia primarily from the Qur'an, the Hadiths (sayings and customs of Muhammad), and the views of Sahabah (Muhammad's companions).
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).
Hanafi schoolThe Hanafi school (حَنَفِية; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools (Fiqh) of Islamic Law (madhhab). It is named after the 8th century Kufan scholar, Abu Hanifa, a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Imam Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani. It is considered one of the most widely accepted maddhab amongst Sunni Muslim community and is called the Madhhab of Jurists (maddhab ahl al-ray).
Isma'ilismIsma'ilism (al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili (ˌɪsmeɪˈɪli) get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept Musa al-Kadhim, the younger brother of Isma'il, as the true Imām. After the death of Muhammad ibn Isma'il in the 8th century CE, the teachings of Ismailism further transformed into the belief system as it is known today, with an explicit concentration on the deeper, esoteric meaning (batin) of the Islamic religion.
MadhhabA ALA (مذهب DIN, ˈmaðhab, "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب DIN, ˈmaðaːhib) is a school of thought within fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). The major Sunni Madhhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali. They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all jurists aligned themselves with a particular madhhab. These four schools recognize each other's validity and they have interacted in legal debate over the centuries.
FiqhFiqh (fiːk; فقه fɪqh) is Islamic jurisprudence. Fiqh is often described as the human understanding and practices of the sharia, that is human understanding of the divine Islamic law as revealed in the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his companions). Fiqh expands and develops Shariah through interpretation (ijtihad) of the Quran and Sunnah by Islamic jurists (ulama) and is implemented by the rulings (fatwa) of jurists on questions presented to them.