Why are there only four madh-habs?

[ummtaalib]

Q. Why are there only four madh-habs?

 

A. Mufti Muhammad Shafi states:

 

“Restricting taqleed to the four imams happened incidentally and was not a legal or rational choice. By the will of Allah (azza wa jal), every madhhab besides the four madhhabs disappeared over time and became as if they never existed. Even if ten, thirty, fifty, or hundred rulings from their madhhab are saved, one cannot establish a complete madhhab based on such a small number of rulings. If one decides to follow them in these rulings, then what is to be done in the thousands of other issues where there is no known opinion by them? As every madhhab besides the madhhabs of the four imams disappeared it became clear that following our Deen would be subject to following one of the four madhhabs. Therefore, Ibn Khaldun writes in his Muqaddimat al-Tarikh regarding the madhhab of the Literalists [Ahl al-Zahir]:

 

“Then the madhhab of the Literalists vanished because their imams died out and because the majority [Jamhur] rejected their followers and nothing remained of them except their names in the new books.”

 

Ibn Khaldun adds:

“All the different regions, only following of the four imams is observed while the followers of all other imams have died. When terminologies overwhelmed the sciences, reaching the level of ijtihad became difficult [because of the inability to fulfill its conditions]. When ijtihad was about to come in the hands of inept and untrustworthy people and those who did not possess the good character of Deen, the scholars declared the door of ijtihad closed.

 

They exhorted people to follow one of the four imams and prohibited them from conjoining madhhabs. The rulings and opinions of other imams, therefore, only survived in the books. Their madhhabs never developed and neither were there any books that preserved all their rulings. Once the principles had been laid out and the chain of transmission to the imam authenticated, every person took the madhhab of their imam. Then the word fiqh, in that time, became the epitome for following one imam only. The claim to ijtihad, especially in this age, is absolute nonsense and following such a person is unwarranted. The scholars of Islam are now unanimous upon following these four imams.”

 

Shaykh Zakariyyah Kandhelvi states:

“Now, for someone to ask for proof as to why taqleed is restricted to four imams is feeblemindedness. This is like the example of a father who had eight children of which four died in his life and four remained after his death. It is understood that any inheritance the father leaves behind will be distributed amongst the four children only, and the four children who died before the father will not receive any share of the inheritance. Of course, this is not a denial of their existence at some point in the past. In this case, you will never hear a person ask why the inheritance is being distributed amongst the four sons only and why the deceased children are not getting their share. But if anyone did ask, we would say that this is how fate had it.

 

Mulla Jivan wrote in his Tafsir al-Ahmadi:

“The truth is that the restriction to four imams is nothing but the grace of Allah (azza wa jal) and a sign of His acceptance of the four imams. There is no place for evidence and reasoning in this matter.”‘

 

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