Ijma' 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 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. It is the smallest and most strictly traditionalist of the four major Sunni schools, the others being the Hanafi, Maliki and Shafi'i schools.
Ahmad ibn Hanbal was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, traditionist, ascetic and eponym of the Hanbali school of Islamic 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 significant Sunni hadith collections, al-Musnad, which has continued to exercise considerable influence on the field of hadith studies up to the present time.
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.
Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī, also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī was an Athari theologian, Islamic historian and Hadith scholar.
Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī Muwaffaq ad-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad , better known as Ibn Qudāmah, was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, traditionist, and ascetic. 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, which was a nickname he inherited from his grandfather who was born in the month of Rajab, was a Muslim scholar.
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.
Al-Kaafi fi fiqh al-Imaam Ahmad bin Hanbal is a book of Hanbali Fiqh written by Imaam Ibn Qudamah.
ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā (1083–1149) (Arabic: القاضي عياض بن موسى, formally 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, was a Maghrebi Sunni polymath and considered the leading scholar in Maliki fiqh and hadith in his time. He was a prominent theologian, historian, poet, and genealogist.
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.
Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī ibn Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī was a Sunni 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."
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.
Abū Abd-Allah Najm al-Dīn Aḥmad bin Ḥamdān bin Shabīb bin Ḥamdān al-Ḥarrānī al-Ḥanbalī commonly known as Ibn Hamdan—was a Hanbalite Muslim scholar and judge (1206–1295). Ibn Hamdan was born and raised in Harran and later in his life went on trips to Damascus, Aleppo and Jerusalem, later settling in Cairo. Ibn Hamdan was appointed judge in Cairo and he lived there until his death in 1295.
Abd al-Rauf ibn Ali al-Fansuri al-Sinkili was a well-known Islamic scholar, spiritual leader of the Shattariyya tariqa and the mufti of Aceh Sultanate. He was the confidant of Sultana Safiyat al-Din. He was considered the first person to spread the Shattari Sufi order in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Many of his students also became disseminators of Islam. He is commonly known as Shaikh Abd al-Rauf al-Sinkili, and also known posthumously in Aceh as Teungku Syiah Kuala, which translates to "Sheikh in the Estuary".
Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi, was considered to be the most important Central Asian Hanafi theologian in the Maturidite school of Sunni Islam after Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, provided a fairly detailed account of al-Maturidi Central Asian predecessors.
Abu al-Barkat Majd ad-Din ibn Taymiyya was Muslim scholar muhaddith, traditionalist theologian, judge and Hanbali jurisconsult. He was the father of Shihab al-Din Abd al-Halim ibn Taymiyya and the grandfather of Taq al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya.
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.
