The four schools of law of Sunni Islam (madhhabs)

Sunni Islam recognises four great schools of law, or madhhabs: the Hanafi school of Abu Hanifa, the Maliki school of Malik ibn Anas, the Shafi'i school of al-Shafi'i and the Hanbali school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. They took shape between the 8th and 9th centuries in order to apply the Quran and the Sunnah to daily life.

The four schools share the same sources, the Quran and the Sunnah, but differ in how they read them where the texts are not explicit. Some give more weight to reasoning and custom, others to the practice of Medina or to the letter of the hadiths. These differences are traditionally seen as a richness: scholars of the different schools respect one another and acknowledge the validity of each other's rulings.

The Hanafi school makes wide use of analogical reasoning and juristic preference. The Maliki school rests on the practice of the people of Medina and on the common good. The Shafi'i school ranks the sources strictly and codified the foundations of law. The Hanbali school gives priority to the texts and to the rulings of the Companions, limiting personal opinion. The differences concern details of practice, not the foundations of faith.

All the schools allow prayer, fasting and the other obligations to be performed correctly. A Muslim generally follows the school of their region or of their training, which gives a coherent framework handed down by qualified scholars. Most scholars hold that following a madhhab is not in itself an obligation, but it is the safest course for someone without the tools to study the sources directly.

The Hanafi school is generally considered the most widely followed, in particular in Turkey, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The Maliki school prevails in the Maghreb and West Africa, the Shafi'i school in South-East Asia, Egypt and East Africa, while the Hanbali school is dominant in Saudi Arabia. This spread is the result of the history of the Muslim empires and trade routes.