What is a Madhhab? Why is it necessary to follow one?

What is a Madhhab? Why is it necessary to follow one?

© Nuh Ha Mim Keller 2000 THE WORD MADHHAB IS DERIVED
from an Arabic word meaning "to go" or "to take as a way", and refers to a mujtahid's choice in
regard to a number of interpretive possibilities in deriving the rule of Allah from the primary texts of the Qur'an and hadith on a particular question. In a larger sense, a
madhhab represents the entire school of thought of a particular mujtahid Imam, such as Abu
Hanifa, Malik, Shafi'i, or Ahmad-- together with many first-rank
scholars that came after each of these in their respective schools, who checked their evidences and
refined and upgraded their work.

The mujtahid Imams were thus explainers, who operationalized the Qur'an and sunna in the specific shari'a
rulings in our lives that are collectively known as fiqh or
"jurisprudence". In relation to our din or "religion", this fiqh is
only part of it, for the religious knowledge each of us possesses
is of three types. The first type is the general knowledge of tenets of Islamic belief in the oneness of Allah, in His angels, Books, messengers, the prophethood of
Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), and so on. All of us may derive this knowledge directly from the Qur'an and
hadith, as is also the case with a second type of knowledge, that of general Islamic ethical principles to do good, avoid evil, cooperate with others in good
works, and so forth.

Every Muslim can take these general principles, which form the largest and most important part of his religion, from the Qur'an and hadith.

The third type of knowledge is that of the specific understanding of particular divine commands and
prohibitions that make up the shari'a. Here, because of both the nature and the sheer number of
the Qur'an and hadith texts involved, people differ in the scholarly capacity to understand and deduce rulings from them.

But all of us have been commanded to live them in our
lives, in obedience to Allah, and so Muslims are of two types,
those who can do this by themselves, and they are the
mujtahid Imams; and those who must do so by means of another, that is, by following a mujtahid
Imam, in accordance with Allah's word in Surat al-Nahl, " Ask those who recall, if you know not " (Qur'an 16:43),

and in Surat al-Nisa,
" If they had referred it to the Messenger and to those of
authority among them, then those of them whose task it is
to find it out would have known the matter " (Qur'an 4:83), in which the phrase those of
them whose task it is to find it out, expresses the words
" alladhina yastanbitunahu
minhum", referring to those possessing the capacity to draw
inferences directly from the evidence, which is called in
Arabic istinbat.

These and other verses and hadiths oblige the believer who is not at the level of istinbat or
directly deriving rulings from the
Qur'an and hadith to ask and follow someone in such rulings who is at this level. It is not difficult to see why Allah has
obliged us to ask experts, for if each of us were personally
responsible for evaluating all the
primary texts relating to each question, a lifetime of study
would hardly be enough for it, and one would either have to give up earning a living or give up ones din, which is why Allah
says in surat al- awba, in the context of jihad:
" Not all of the believers should go to fight. Of every section of them, why does not one part
alone go forth, that the rest may gain knowledge of the
religion and admonish their people when they return, that perhaps they may take warning
" (Qur'an 9:122).