The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and traditionist, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and later institutionalized by his students. One who ascribes to the Hanbali school is called a Hanbali, Hanbalite or Hanbalist. 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.
Abu al-Fida Isma'il ibn Umar ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi, known simply as Ibn Kathir, was an Arab Islamic exegete, historian and scholar. An expert on tafsir, tarikh (history) and fiqh (jurisprudence), he is considered a leading authority on Sunni Islam.
Muhammad bin Ahmed bin Juzayy Al Gharnati, better known as Ibn Juzayy was an Andalusian Sunni Muslim scholar of Arab origin. He was a distinguished Maliki jurist, legal theoretician, Quran commentator, Quran reciter, hadith scholar, historian, scholar in Arabic, poet, preacher, orator, and a literary figure. He achieved notoriety at a young age, known as a major scholar of his day. He is famed for authoring classical works and for achieving martyrdom during his jihad against the Spanish Christian crusade.
Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī Muwaffaq ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad , better known as Ibn Qudāmah, was an Arab Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, traditionist, and ascetic from the Palestine region. Having authored many important treatises on Islamic jurisprudence and religious doctrine, including one of the standard works of Hanbali law, the revered al-Mughni, Ibn Qudamah is highly regarded in Sunni Islam for being one of the most notable and influential thinkers of the Hanbali school of orthodox Sunni jurisprudence. Within that school, he is one of the few thinkers to be given the honorific epithet of Shaykh of Islam, which is a prestigious title bestowed by Sunnis on some of the most important thinkers of their tradition. A proponent of the classical Sunni position of the "differences between the scholars being a mercy," Ibn Qudamah is famous for saying, "The consensus of the leaders of jurisprudence is an overwhelming proof, and their disagreement is a vast mercy."
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.
Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Rajab, commonly known as Ibn Rajab,, was a muhaddith, scholar, and jurist. Notable for his commentary on the forty hadith of Imam Al-Nawawi, he was also the initial author of Fath al-Bari.
Muhammad Abu Zahra was an Egyptian public intellectual and an influential Hanafi jurist. He occupied a number of positions; he was a lecturer of Islamic law at Al-Azhar University and a professor at Cairo University. He was also a member of the Islamic Research Academy. His works include Abu Hanifa, Malik and al-Shafi'i.
Sadr ad-Dīn Abu'l Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn Abī al-ʻIzz was a 14th-century Arab Muslim scholar. He was a jurist of the Hanafi school and was nicknamed Qāḍī al-Quḍāh. He served as a qadi in Damascus and Egypt. Many who have written on his biography mentioned that he had vast knowledge, he had a high status and position, and that he was a Faqeeh. He taught at schools and he assumed the office of judge in Damascus and then in Egypt. He is best known for authoring his magnum opus on al-Tahawi's creedal treatise Al-Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah.
Al-Kaafi fi fiqh al-Imaam Ahmad bin Hanbal is a book of Hanbali Fiqh written by Imaam Ibn Qudamah.
Abū al-Faḍl ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn ʿAmr ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī al-Sabtī, better known as Qāḍī Iyāḍ (1083–1149), was a Sunni polymath and considered the leading scholar in Maliki fiqh and hadith in his time. In addition, he specialized in theology, legal theory, scriptural exegesis, Arabic language, history, genealogy, and poetry.
Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari was an Islamic scholar from India. He was the Amir (president) of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) from 2003 to 2007. He was the member of Central Advisory Council of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. He was also the Chancellor of Al Jamia Al Islamia, Shantapuram, Kerala. His book Sufism and Shariah is a synthesis of Sufi and Shariah thought, especially a Tatbiq of Shaikh Ahmed Sir Hindi and Shah Waliullah's thought. It grew out of his in-depth engagement with kalam, tasawwuf and fiqh in Islamic history. His other major contributions are a book on Mishkawah's philosophy and an English translation of Ibn Taymiyyah's fatwas with an introduction. He also wrote 'Learning the Language of Quran' it is one of the best English guides for the beginners learning to read the Qur'an. In New Delhi he established the Islami Academy, aimed at training graduates from secular educational background in Islamic Sciences based on the madrasa curriculum.
Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi (1833–1884) was an Indian Islamic scholar, and one of the earliest teachers of Islamic Madrassa in Deoband, famously called Darul Uloom Deoband in India. He was the first principal of Darul Uloom Deoband.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, or simply ibn Ḥajar, was a classic Islamic scholar "whose life work constitutes the final summation of the science of hadith." He authored some 150 works on hadith, history, biography, exegesis, poetry, and the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, the most valued of which being his commentary of Sahih al-Bukhari, titled Fath al-Bari. He is known by the honorific epithets Hafiz al-Asr "Hafiz of the Time", Shaykh al-Islam "Shaykh of Islam", and Amir al-Mu'minin fi al-Hadith "Leader of the Believers in Hadith".
Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī was a Sunnī 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 was the eponymous 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."
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, or al-Suyuti, was an Egyptian Sunni Muslim polymath of Persian descent. Considered the mujtahid and mujaddid of the Islamic 10th century, he was a leading muhaddith, mufassir, faqīh (jurist), usuli, sufi (mystic), theologian, grammarian, linguist, rhetorician, philologist, lexicographer and historian, who authored works in virtually every Islamic science. For this reason, he was honoured one of the most prestigious and rarest titles: Shaykh al-Islām.
Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah was a Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader and Sunni Hanafi Muslim scholar. He was born in 1917 in Aleppo. He was the third Supreme Guide of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, taking over from Issam al-Attar in 1973.
Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi was a Central Asian Hanafi scholar who is considered to be the most important theologian in the Maturidi school of Sunni Islam after Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, provided a fairly detailed account of al-Maturidi Central Asian predecessors.
Marʻī ibn Yūsuf ibn Abī Bakr Aḥmad al-Karmī, often referred as Marʻī ibn Yūsuf al-Karmī, was a Muslim scholar and one of the most famous Hanbali scholars in the Arab world. He was born in Tulkarm, and died in Cairo. He authored several books and most of them are related to Islam.
Nematullah Azami, also written as Nematullah Azmi and Ni'matullah Azami, is an Indian Islamic hadith scholar, a commentator on the Quran (mufassir), and a faqīh. He is the president of India's Islamic Fiqh Academy. He has also been serving as a senior lecturer at Darul Uloom Deoband for forty years.
Abdul Haqq Al Hashemi (1884–1972) was a Islamic scholar, orator and author in the Indian Subcontinent in the 20th Century. Al-Hashemi was a Muhaddith, a scholar of Hadith who was influential in Saudi Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent, in particular the southern region of Punjab, his region of birth. He was a teacher of many modern-day scholars.
