Fiqh 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. 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. Thus, whereas sharia is considered immutable and infallible by Muslims, fiqh is considered fallible and changeable. Fiqh deals with the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation in Islam as well as economic and political system. In the modern era, there are four prominent schools (madh'hab) of fiqh within Sunni practice, plus two within Shi'a practice. A person trained in fiqh is known as a faqīh.
Ijmāʿ is an Arabic term referring to the consensus or agreement of the Islamic community on a point of Islamic law. Sunni Muslims regard ijmā' as one of the secondary sources of Sharia law, after the Qur'an, and the Sunnah. Exactly what group should represent the Muslim community in reaching the consensus is not agreed on by the various schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Some believe it should be the Sahaba only; others the consensus of the Salaf ; or the consensus of Islamic lawyers, the jurists and scholars of the Muslim world, i.e. scholarly consensus; or the consensus of all the Muslim world, both scholars and lay people. The opposite of ijma is called ikhtilaf.
The Hanbali school is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (madhahib) of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal, 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.
Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, commonly referred to as Imām al-Bukhāri or Imām Bukhāri, was a 9th-century Muslim muhaddith who is widely regarded as the most important hadith scholar in the history of Sunni Islam. Al-Bukhari's extant works include the hadith collection Sahih al-Bukhari, Al-Tarikh al-Kabir, and Al-Adab al-Mufrad.
Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ash-Shāfiʿī was a Muslim theologian, writer, and scholar, who was one of the first contributors of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Often referred to as 'Shaykh al-Islām', al-Shāfi‘ī was one of the four great Sunni Imams, whose legacy on juridical matters and teaching eventually led to the formation of Shafi'i school of fiqh. He was the most prominent student of Imam Malik ibn Anas, and he also served as the Governor of Najar. Born in Palestine, he also lived in Mecca and Medina in the Hejaz, Yemen, Egypt, and Baghdad in Iraq.
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān, commonly known by his kunyaAbū Ḥanīfa, or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Muslims, was a Sunni Muslim theologian and jurist who became the eponymous founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence, which has remained the most widely practised law school in the Sunni tradition, predominating in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, the Balkans, Russia, Circassia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Muslims in India, and some parts of the Arab world. He is also widely called al-Imām al-Aʿẓam and Sirāj al-Aʾimma by Sunni muslims.
Saahibul Hadith Imam Ul Adham Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli, was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and founder of the Hanbali school of Sunni jurisprudence — one of the four major orthodox legal schools of Sunni Islam. The most highly influential and active scholar during his lifetime, Ibn Hanbal went on to become "one of the most venerated" intellectual figures in Islamic history, who has had a "profound influence affecting almost every area of" the traditionalist perspective within Sunni Islam. One of the foremost classical proponents of relying on scriptural sources as the basis for Sunni Islamic law and way of life, Ibn Hanbal compiled one of the most important Sunni hadith collections, the Musnad, which has continued to exercise considerable influence in the field of hadith studies up to the present time.
Abū Dāwūd (Dā’ūd) Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath ibn Isḥāq al-Azdī al-Sijistānī, commonly known as Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, was a scholar of prophetic hadith who compiled the third of the six "canonical" hadith collections recognized by Sunni Muslims, the Sunan Abu Dāwūd. He was a Persian speaker of Arab descent.
Abu Abd-Allah Muhammad ibn Abd-Allah al-Hakim al-Nishapuri, also known as Ibn al-Bayyiʿ, was a Persian Sunni scholar and the leading traditionist of his age, frequently referred to as the "Imam of the Muhaddithin" or the "Muhaddith of Khorasan." He is widely renowned for his expertise in Hadith criticism, and regarded as the Sheikh of Hadith masters at his time. Al-Daraqutni, considered Al-Hakim to be superior in the science of Hadith than Ibn Manda.
Dhia' ul-Dīn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Yūsuf al-Juwaynī al-Shafi'ī was a Persian Sunni scholar famous for being the foremost leading jurisconsult, legal theoretician and Islamic theologian of his time. His name is commonly abbreviated as al-Juwayni; he is also commonly referred to as Imam al Haramayn meaning "leading master of the two holy cities", that is, Mecca and Medina. He acquired the status of a mujtahid in the field of fiqh and usul al-fiqh. Highly celebrated as one of the most important and influential thinkers in the Shafi'i school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence, he was considered as the virtual second founder of the Shafi'i school, after its first founder Imam al-Shafi'i. He was also considered a major figurehead within the Ash'ari school of theology where he was ranked equal to the founder, Imam al-Ash'ari. He was given the honorific titles of Shaykh of Islam, The Glory of Islam, The Absolute Imam of all Imams.
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Thābit ibn Aḥmad ibn Māhdī al-Shāfiʿī, commonly known as al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī or "the lecturer from Baghdad", was a Sunni Muslim scholar known for being one of the foremost leading hadith scholars and historians at his time. He is widely considered an important authority in hadith, fiqh and history.
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Khusrawjirdī al-Bayhaqī, also known as Imām al-Bayhaqī, was a Sunni polymath widely known for being the foremost leading hadith master in his age, leading fuquha of the Shafi'i school, leading authority on the foundation of doctrine, meticulous, a devoted ascetic and known as one of the proponent defenders of the Ash'ari school. Al-Dhahabi said: "Unequalled in his age, unrivalled amongst his peers, and the Ḥāfiẓ of his time."
Dāwūd bin ʿAlī bin Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī was a Persian Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian during the Islamic Golden Age, specialized in the study of Islamic law (sharīʿa) and the fields of hermeneutics, biographical evaluation, and historiography of early Islam. He is widely regarded as the founder of the Ẓāhirī school of thought (madhhab), the fifth school of thought in Sunnī Islam, characterized by its strict adherence to literalism and reliance on the outward (ẓāhir) meaning of expressions in the Quran and ḥadīth literature; the consensus (ijmāʿ) of the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba), for sources of Islamic law (sharīʿa); and rejection of analogical deduction (qiyās) and societal custom or knowledge (urf), used by other schools of Islamic jurisprudence. He was a celebrated, if not controversial, figure during his time, being referred to in Islamic historiographical texts as "the scholar of the era."
Abu Hasan Ali ibn Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Daraqutni was a 10th-century muhaddith best known for compiling the hadith collection Sunan al-Daraqutni. He was celebrated later by Sunni hadith scholars such as the "imam of his time" and the "amir al-mu'minin in hadith".
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding ʿaqīdah (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the extant Ashʿarī, Māturīdī, and Aṯharī; the extinct ones include Qadariyah, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Batiniyya,.
Ibn Furak or Ibn Faurak ; c. 941–c. 1015 CE / 330–406 AH) was a Sunni Imam, foremost leading Ash'ari theologian and legal theoretician, a specialist of Arabic language, grammar and poetry, an orator, a jurist, and a traditionist from the Shafi'i Madhhab in 10th century.
Ibn Kullab was an early Sunni theologian (mutakallim) in Basra and Baghdad in the first half of the 9th century during the time of the Mihna and belonged, according to Ibn al-Nadim, to the traditionalist group of the Nawabit. He is often regarded as the true founder of the Ash'ari madhab. His movement, also called Kullabiyya, merged and developed into Ash'arism, which, along with Maturidism and Atharism, forms the theological basis of Sunni Islam.
Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī al-Shīrāzī was a prominent Persian Shafi'i-Ash'ari scholar, debater and the second teacher،after Ibn Sabbagh al-Shafei, at the Nizamiyya school in Baghdad, which was built in his honour by the vizier (minister) of the Seljuk Empire Nizam al-Mulk.
Al-Sabuni, Ismail bin Abdal-Rahman bin Ahmad bin Ismail bin Ibrahim bin Amir, Abu Uthman al-Sabuni al-Shafi'i also known as Abu Uthman al-Sabuni, was a Sunni polymath known for being the leading hadith expert in Khorasan, a jurist of great authority particularly in the Shafi'i school, a Qur'anic exegete, theologian, preacher, and orator. The Sunnis of his time called him the Shaykh al-Islām, and when they used this word they did not mean anyone else. He was eloquent in dialect, broad in knowledge, and was fluent in both Persian and Arabic. Al-Bayhaqi said: "He was the true Imam of the Muslims and the real Shaykh of Islam."
al-Kiyā al-Harrāsī, S̲h̲ams al-Islām ʿImād ad-Dīn Abû ’l-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī aṭ-Ṭabarī Arabic: إلكيا الهراسي), commonly known as al-Kiya al-Harrasi was a prominent Shafi'i jurisconsult, legal theoretician, traditionist, scriptural exegete, orator, and Ash'ari theologian, a dialectician who was once regarded as among the foremost practitioners of disputation. He was the famous pupil of Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni and the class-mate of Al-Ghazali.
