The Umma | June 25, 2004

In the eighth and ninth century it was a critical issue for the Islamic world to define the Islamic community (umma) and its solidarity. Scholars of that time had realized, that the community could only be based on directives of the Qur’an supplemented by sayings of the Prophet and then applied to the lives of believers. The system they evolved set forth a tacit as well as an explicit code of behavior; comprehensive yet elastic, it became the law (Sharia - literally: a way or path to water, could also mean to ordain or to make clear). There are four schools of law in Islam. They are overlapping but also distinct. The strictest one, which leaves little room for personal judgement is the Hanbalite school. The Malikite school is similar to the Hanbalite school, but it allows personal judgement as a last resort, when the Qur’an and the Sunna do not give any clear judgement. The Hanafite school on the other hand, although the most formal and literalist, is most flexible to reasoning and to creating new norms as well as using personal judgement. The Shafite school tries to combine the more traditionalist schools with the more rationalist school. The Shafite school is the youngest of the four schools of law.