Passion Islam I June 2009 SPECIAL FEATURE I 25
Shaafi’ee Madh-hab are now to be interpretation. He would then apply many instances of multiple rulings for
found in Egypt, Southern Arabia, the Hadeeths or rulings to various individual issues.
[Yemen, Hadramout], Sri Lanka, existing problems. If he could not find
Indonesia, Malaysia, East and a suitable Hadeeth or opinion to solve Hadeeth Da’eef (Weak Hadeeth)
South Africa and Surinam in South a problem, he would offer his own For a ruling on a case where none of
America. opinion while forbidding his students the previous four principles offered
to record any of his own solutions. As a ready solution, the Imaam used to
THE HAMBALEE MADH-HAB a result, his Madh-hab was recorded, prefer to use a weak Hadeeth rather
The Founder: Imaam Ahmad not by his students, but by their than applying his own deductive
[778-855 CE] students. reasoning (Qiyaas). However, this
The scholar to whom this Madh- was on condition that the weakness
hab is attributed is Ahmad Ibn Sources of Law Used by the of the Hadeeth was not due to the fact
Hambal ash-Shaybaanee, who Hambalee Madh-hab that one of its narrators was classified
was born in Baghdad in the year The Most Holy & Glorious Qur’aan as a Faasiq (degenerate), or a Kadh-
778 CE. He became one of the There was no difference between the dhaab (liar).
greatest memorizers and narrators of way Imaam Ahmad Ibn Hambal R.A.
Hadeedth. Ahmad studied Fiqh and approached the Holy Qur’aan and Qiyaas
Hadeeth science under Imaam Abu that of those who preceded him. In As a last resort, that is when no other
Yoosuf, the famous student of Imaam other words, the Holy Qur’aan was major principle could be directly
Abu Haneefah R.A. , as well as under given precedence over all else under applied, Imaam Ahmad R.A. would
Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee R.A. himself. all circumstances. reluctantly apply the principle of
Imaam Ahmad R.A. went through Qiyaas and deduce a solution based
a series of persecutions under the The Sunnah on one or more of the previous
Caliphs of his time due to their Likewise, the Sunnah of our Beloved principles.
adoption of Mu’tazalite philosophy. Nabee Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam
He was jailed and beaten for two occupied the number two position Main Students of
years by order of Caliph al-Ma’moon among the fundamental principles the Hambalee Madh-hab
(rule 813-842 CE), because of his used by the founder of this school Imaam Ahmad’s main students were
rejection of the philosophical concept in the deduction of laws. His only his own two sons, Saalih (died 873
that the Most Holy Qur’aan was stipulation was that it be ‘Marfoo’ CE) and Abdullah (died 903 CE).
created. Later set free, he continued i.e. attributed directly to the Prophet Imaam Bukhaaree and Muslim,
teaching in Baghdad until al-Waathiq Sallallahoo Alayhi Wasallam. compilers of the most outstanding
became Caliph (rule 842-846 CE) and collections of Hadeeth, were among
renewed the persecution. Thereupon Ijmaa of the Sahaabah the great scholars of Hadeeth who
Imaam Ahmad R.A. stopped teaching Imaam Ahmad R.A. recognized studied under Imaam Ahmad R.A.
and went into hiding for five years the consensus of opinion of the
until Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861 Sahaabah, and placed it in the third Followers of the
CE) took over. Caliph al-Mutawakkil position among the fundamental Hambalee Madh-hab
ended the inquisition permanently principles. However, he discredited The majority of the followers of
by expelling Mu’tazilite scholars and the claims of Ijmaa outside the era of this Madh-hab can now be found
officially rejecting their philosophy. the Sahaabah as being inaccurate, in Palestine and Saudi Arabia. Its
Imaam Ahmad R.A. continued to due to the vast number of scholars survival in Saudi Arabia, after almost
teach in Baghdad until his death in and their wide diffusion throughout completely dying out elsewhere in the
855 CE. the Muslim empire. In his opinion Muslim world, is due to the fact that the
Ijmaa after the era of the Sahaabah founder of the so called Wahhabbee
Formation of the was impossible. revivalist movement, Muhammad Ibn
Hambalee Madh-hab Abdul Wahhaab, had studied under
Imaam Admad’s greatest concern Individual Opinions the scholars of the Hambalee Madh-
was the collection, narration, and of the Sahaabah hab, and thus it unofficially became
interpretation of Hadeeth. If a problem arose in an area where the Fiqh Madh-hab of the movement.
His teaching method consisted the Sahaabah had expressed When Abdul Azeez Ibn Sa’oud
of dictating Hadeeth from his vast conflicting opinions, Imaam Ahmad captured most of the Arabian
collection known as al-Musnad, which R.A., like Imaam Maalik R.A. would peninsula and established the Saudi
contained over 30,000 Hadeeths, give credence to all the various dynasty, he made the Hambalee
as well as the various opinions of individual opinions. Because of that, Madh-hab the basis of the kingdom’s
the Sahaabah concerning their there developed within the Madh-hab legal system.
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