The Four Well Known Imams

Abu Haneefah an-Nu‘mân ibn Thâbit was born in Kufa in 80 AH (d. 150). He made his living as a cloth merchant but devoted his entire life to studying and teaching Islam. Imam Abu Haneefah met the Sahabî (companion of the Prophet), Anas, and studied under the great Hadîth scholar, Hammâd ibn Zaid, for 18 years.

He persistently refused to accept the office of Qâdî (judge) which the Umayyad governor of Kufah, Yazeed ibn ‘Umar and later the Caliph, al-Mansoor wanted him to accept. By his refusal, he incurred corporal punishment and imprisonment, leading to his death in prison. His rulings and reasonings became enshrined in the Hanafee school of Islamic law.

Mâlik ibn Anas was born in 93 AH (d. 179) in Madeenah, where he grew up studying Hadîth from the scholars there. Imâm Mâlik eventually became the leading scholar of the region and was jailed and flogged by the ‘Abbasid governor of Madeenah, Jafar ibn Sulaiman, when he (Imâm Mâlik) gave a fatwâ (legal ruling) against the policy of the Caliph al-Mansoor.

Imâm Mâlik compiled the earliest work of Hadîth to reach us called al-Muwatta and taught it for approximately forty years. Students came to learn it from all corners of the Muslim world and as a result there exist about sixteen different versions of it today. The most authoritative of them being that of Mâlik’s Spanish pupil, Yahyâ ibn Yahyâ. The Mâlikee school of Islamic law which developed in Madeenah took its name after Imâm Mâlik.

Muhammad Ibn Idrîs ash-Shâfi‘î was born in Ghazzah in 150 AH (d. 204) and was raised in Makkah, where he studied Hadith and Fiqh. At an early age, he went to Madeenah and studied under Imâm Mâlik and learned the Muwatta (Hadîth book of Imam Mâlik) by heart. He later studied under the students of Imâm Abu Haneefah in Iraq, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ash-Shaybânî and Abu Yûsuf, as well as Imâm al-Layth ibn Sa‘d in Egypt.

He is credited with initiating the science of Usool al-fiqh, which he investigated in his book, ar-Risâlah . However his major work in Islamic Law is called Kitâb al-Umm. He died in Fustat, Egypt in 820 CE, and the Shâfi‘ee school of Islamic law was named after him.

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal was born in Baghdad in 164 AH (d. 241) and traveled extensively in Iraq, Syria, Hijâz (Western Arabia) and Yemen collecting Hadîths. After returning home, he studied fiqh (Islamic law) under Imâm ash-Shâfi‘i. During the reign of the ‘Abbâsid caliphs, al-Ma’mûn (813-833 CE), al-Mu‘tasim (833-842 CE) and al-Wâthiq (842-847 CE), the Mu‘tazilite dogma became the official doctrine of the state and inquisition courts were set up to enforce it.

Imam Ahmad openly denounced the pagan Greek philosophical concepts on which Mu‘tazilite thought was based and, as a result, he was subsequently subjected to imprisonment and corporal punishment. Under Caliph al-Mutawakkil (847-861 CE), his trials ceased and the fame of Ibn Hanbal’s learning, piety and unswerving faithfulness to tradition gathered a host of students and admirers around him.

He died in Baghdad in 855 CE and the Hanbalee school of Islamic law was named after him. His major work, al-Musnad, contained approximately 40,000 Hadîth narrations.

Abdoos Ibn Maalik al-‘Attaar narrated (to me):

I heard Abu Abdullah Ahmad ibn Hanbal, may Allah be pleased with him, saying:

The Fundamental Principles of the Sunnah with us are:

1. Holding fast to what the Sahaabah (Companions) of the Messenger of Allah were upon. Taking them [and their way] as a model to be followed.

2. The abandonment of al-Bid’ah (innovations), and every Bid’ah is misguidance.