MAHOMEDAN SECTS AND SUB-SECTS

SCHOOL OF LAW

MANIPAL UNIVERSITY JAIPUR

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT PRESCRIBED

FOR B.A. LL.B (Hons.) 6TH SEMESTER

UNDER SUPERVISION OF- SUBMITTED BY-

Ms. Sushila Chaudhary Aarihanta Goyal

Assistant Professor Reg. No. 151301001
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Ms. Aarihnta Goyal of school of Law Manipal University Jaipur has
completed the project work entitled “Mahomaden Sects and Sub sects” under my supervision
and guidance.
It is further certifying that the candidate has made sincere efforts for the completion of the
project work.

Supervisor Name
Ms. Sushila Chaudhary
Assistant Professor
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is not just a customary acknowledgement of help that I received but a sincere expression of
gratitude to all those who have helped me complete this project and made it seem apparently
more readable than otherwise it would have been.

I am in debt to my faculty advisor Ms. Sushila Chaudhary for giving such an interesting and
amazing topic ‘Mahmaden Sects and Sub sects and making it seem easy by lucidly explaining its
various aspects. I would like to thank him for guiding me in doing all sorts of researches,
suggestions and having discussions regarding my project topic by devoting his precious time.

I thank department for providing Library, Computer and Internet facilities. And lastly I thank
my friends and all those persons who have given valuable suggestions pertaining to the topic and
have been a constant source of help and support.

Thanking everyone,

Aarihanta Goyal
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 5
SUNNIS AND SHIAS DIVISION ............................................................................................................... 6
SUNNI SCHOOL OF MUSLIM LAW ........................................................................................................ 7
HANAFI SCHOOL ...................................................................................................................................... 7
THE MALIKI SCHOOL ..................................................................................................................................... 8
THE SHAFEI SCHOOL ............................................................................................................................... 9
THE HANBALI SCHOOL ......................................................................................................................... 10
SHIAS SCHOOL OF MUSLIM LAW ....................................................................................................... 10
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 12
WEBLIOGRPAHY..................................................................................................................................... 12
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................................... 13
 INTRODUCTION

“Sect” in Urdu means split, section, divide, piece, difference, etc. In Islam, sect means the
differences of believes in basic believes of Islam. We can divide the basic believes of Islam as
follows:-

1. Tawhid: Means unity in the unit of God. Islam consists of ‘submission and obedience to
Allah’. He is the only all in one i.e., Creator, Sustainer, Sovereign.

2. Prophethood: Muhammad is the last prophet in Islam. Islam stands for the complete faith
in the teachings of the Prophet and obedience to his way of life. One who ignores the
medium of the prophet and claims to follow God directly is not a ‘Muslim’.

3. Akhirat means the last and final day of judgement i.e. also called as Qiyamats and Hashr
(Resurrection). That the entire record of every man and women, of all their doings and
mistakes, will be presented before god for final judgement, one who wrongs outweigh his
good deeds will be punished.

And also the major pillars of Islam or acts of worship like Namaz, Zakat and Haj should be
followed by a true muslim along with the other major believes in god’s angels, faith in the
revealed books of god and follow the Shariah (the Islamic Law) in the day life .

If any person or group rejects the above believes or the any section of believes, means that
group becomes a different sect of Islam i.e Non ahle sunnat.

If anybody fully believes in all the above mentioned beliefs of Islam, those were called as
Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamat i.e the true follower of Islam.
 SUNNIS AND SHIAS DIVISION

On the death of Prophet Mohammed a dispute arose in the Muslim community regarding the
appointment of a successor to the Prophet, because the Prophet has not nominated his successor.
A great majority of Muslims suggested that there should be elections to select the successor. So
an election was held in which Abu Bakr was elected and became the first Caliph. This group
with Abu as leader formed the Sunni sect and were popularly known as Sunnis.
The prophet’s suggestions or sayings are called his traditions (Sunnat).
The minority section of Muslim believed that successor should be the one who is a spiritual
leader like the Prophet was and it is possible only if successor belongs to the blood of the
Prophet. So this group rejected elections and made Ali who is the cousin of the Prophet as their
leader and was nominated as the first Imam by this group and constituted a separate sect called
Shia.

Later on, the Sunnis further splitted into several sub sects in themselves, each sect representing a
distinct school of Sunni Law. There was a similar split also among the Shias.
 SUNNI SCHOOL OF MUSLIM LAW

There are four ancient sources of Islamic law-the Quran, the Sannat, the Ijam and the Qiyas. The
main cause of the division among Sunnis is probably their different degrees of stress on one or
more sources of law, though the text of the Quran is accepted by all these. The sub-division
among Sunnis took place due to different interpretations put on law by the founders of the sub-
schools.
Sunnis school of Muslim law is further divided into following sub-sects:-

(i) Hanafi school or Kufa school

(ii) Maliki school or Medina school
(iii) Shafi school
(iv) Hanbali school

HANAFI SCHOOL

This school is regarded as the most prominent among the four schools of Sunni law. Hanafi
School is named after its founder Abu Hanifa the pupil of Imam. Abu Hanifa was as an eminent
scholar of his time and was widely known for his outstanding logical reasoning and technical
legal thought. During his life Kufa the city where he was born and lived, had become an
important centre of distinct thinking in Muslim law. This school is therefore, also called as the
Kufa School. Imam Abu. Hanifa was endowed with an analytical mind and powers of reasoning
which made him capable to establish separate school. He earned the titles of 'upholder of private
judgment' and Great Imam..
Abu Hanifa's main contribution was that instead of accepting each and every tradition as Law he
tried to find out the law in the texts of Quran itself through analogical deductions. In this manner
he preferred scientifically concluded private judgments based on Quran over a blind reliance on
the traditions. According to him the law be formulated in accordance with the changing needs.
He further suggested that if justice could not be done under the law then the principle of juristic
equity may be applied in interpreting that law. He is therefore, rightly called the "upholder of
private judgments” and the founder of Muslim jurisprudence.
It is one of the salient feature of this school that out of a large number of traditions, the Hanafi
School recognizes only those traditions which have passed through the severe test regarding their
originality. Those traditions which are not authentic are not to be accepted as law. On the other
hand Qiyas and Ijma as sources of law have been given prominence under this school. The
doctrines of this school being practical and most suitable to the changing conditions of the
society have always been favoured by Caliphs and the emperors.
Iraq was the home of this school. The doctrines of this school spread not only in Iraq but also to
Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey, Coastal Arabia, South Arabia East Africa, Lower Egypt, Central
Asia and South East Asia.

THE MALIKI SCHOOL

This school was established by Imam Malik who was born at Medina. At the age of seventeen,
he began his career as a lecturer and his life in expounding the traditions. That is why he is
regarded as the greatest exponent of traditions and one of the most brilliant and greatest
authorities on the Sunna. He was not only a traditionalist but also a jurist. Imam Mohammad who
was the Hanafi jurists, was Malik's favourite student. Unlike Hanafis this school emphasises the
importance of traditions as a 'source of law’. According to the Maliki School, as far as possible,
the new rules should be obtained exclusively from the traditions. If it is not possible then only
Qiyas and Ijan may be taken into consideration. But this school recognises Ijma of only such
jurists who lived in Medina. Malik and the subsequent jurists of this school had the privilege of
being judges and as such they had solve to day problems of the public. This made their approach
of law more practical than that of the Hanafis. Because of this fact , in interpreting a rule of law,
a new element called Istidlal, was introduced by the Maliki jurists.

Some of the points which make this school distinguished from other are as under:
1. Imam Malik placed importance to traditions of the Prophet in interpreting the text and law but
was not a very rigid traditionalist. Apart from traditions he also allowed other sources of
profound g his doctrine. He followed the traditions and usages of the Prophet only.
2. When there was a conflict of traditions,then, he relied on the Ijma of Mujtahids.
3. He recognized the principle of Muslahat(public welfare) which was corresponding to Abu
Hanifa's Istihasan.
The principles of this school spread not only in Medina, but also in North Africa, Central and
West Africa, Egypt, Spain, Moracco and the Eastern Arabian Coast.
Though there are no followers of Maliki School in India, when Dissolution of Muslim Marriages
Act 1939 was enacted, some provisions for it were taken from Maliki law because it was giving
more rights and freedom for women in the law marriage and divorce. In Hanafi law, a woman
has to wait seven years to dissolve her marriage if whereabouts of husband is not known. But the
period is only two years in Maliki law thus in Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, this Maliki
Provision accepted as the law.

THE SHAFEI SCHOOL

This school was established by Imam Mohammad Ibn-Idris-Ash-Shafei who was an eminent
scholar of Islamic jurisprudence. Ash Shafei also relied upon the traditions of the Prophet. He
examined the traditions in the light of legal reasoning and logic in order to get a very balanced
and systematic rule of law. Some important features of this schools are as follows:
1. Imam Shafi relied on the traditions more than Hanafis but also studied them more critically
than Malik. He devised ways to compromise between contradictory traditions.
2. He based his analogy on the Quran, the Sunna, the Ijma and the Qiyas
3. He gave wide scope to Ijma than Imam Malik.
4. He was the creator of Classical theory of Islamic Jurisprudence
The doctrine of this school spread to Lower Egypt, East Africa, South Arabia,Persia, Indonesia,
Malasia.
 THE HANBALI SCHOOL

This school was established by Imam Abu Abdullah.

His peculiar feature was that he rigidly adhered to the traditions of the Prophet. He relied so
much upon the traditions than other sources of law namely Ijma and Qiyas. At present very few
Muslims are the followers of this school.
Some of the distinguished features of this school are:
1. Imam was more of a traditionalist than a jurist, but his interpretation of traditions was very
liberal which did not satisfy the orthodox and fanatics.
2. He did not give importance to the Ijma and Qiyas, but relied solely on the traditions of the
Prophet
The followers of these schools are in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

SHIAS SCHOOL OF MUSLIM LAW

The Shia faith states:

There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, Ali is the Friend of Allah.
The term Shia derived from a shortening of Shiat Ali or partisans of Ali.

The important features of the Shia Schools are as follows:

1. The Shias accept only those traditions which emanate from the household of the Prophet,
particularly of Ali.
2. They do not accept Qiyas(analogical deductions).
3. They affirm that Imam is the final interpreter of law.
4. They do not recognise the priniciple of equity or Istihaan , public welfare and public policy.

Shia school is further divided into following sub-sects:

1. Ithna Asharia or Twelvers
2. Ismaili School
3. Zaidiyas School or Seveners

1. The Zyadis School

It is the first school of Shia Law and was founded by Zyad, one of the sons of fourth Imam. It’s
doctrines incorporates some of the Sunni principles as well. The followers of this school are not
found in India, they are mostly found in Yemen and South Arabia.

2. The Ismailia School

Followers of Ismail were called Ismailias or the seveners because according to them there had
been only seven Imams the seventh being Ismail. In India, they consist of two main groups:
a) Khojas
b) Bohras
The Khojas are eastern Ismailis and Bohras are western Ismailis.

3. The Ithna Asharia School

It is the most prominent among other schools of Shia Law. This school is followed by majority
of the Shia Muslims in the world. The followers of this school believe that starting from Ali there
had been twelve Imams who possessed spiritual powers. Everything that comes from the Imam is
taken to be a law. This school is further divided into two sub sects:
a) Akhbari
b) Usuli
The Akhbaris are orthodox and rigid traditionalists. The Usulis are guided by traditions and
private judgements. They allow human reason in interpreting the Quran.

CONCLUSION

After foregoing discussion we may be conclude by saying that of the three schools of Shia law
have the same philosophy of Islamic Law. All of them accept the authority of the Quran and the
Sunna of the Prophet. They accept tradition unless it is related to an Imam descended from the
prophet.Imam is the only – giver and in his absence, Mujtahids who are the agents of Imam, are
the interpreters of law. They do not accept the doctrine of Ijam and Qiyas. The sub-division
among the Shias took place only when they differed in regarding different successors of
Imamate.
The Shia School and the Sunni School differ in various matters, yet the main cause of such
difference was mainly secular and political. In most of the Muslim countries, the Sunnis were in
power and so they were on good terms with the western nations which influenced their social and
legal thoughts. Probably, it is the reason which made them not as the Shias.

WEBLIOGRPAHY

 shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/105032/9/09_chapter%204.pdf
 http://www.islamlaws.com/muslim-sectssub-sects-of-islam-types-of-sunni-and-shia/

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Dr. Tahir Mahmood, Introduction To Muslim Law, 5th Edition, Universal Law Publications
 Dr. Rakesh Kumar Singh, Muslim Law Textbook, 7th Edition, Universal Law Publication