The Reasons for the Fame of the Four Imams
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Fatwa number ( 1591 )
Q: How did the four schools of jurisprudence emerge, and how did they justify independent legal reasoning for themselves to the exclusion of others? What is the evidence that it is obligatory to follow only one of the four schools?
A: Praise be to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon His Messenger, his family, and his Companions.. After that: There are many mujtahids among the jurists, especially in the three centuries that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) testified to as being the best. Over the years, four became famous among them: Abu Hanifah al-Nu'man ibn Thabit in Iraq, and Abu 'Abd Allah Malik ibn Anas al-Asbahi in al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, and Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i al-Qurashi , the scholar of Quraysh and its pride, in Baghdad and then in Egypt , and Abu 'Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani , the imam of the people of hadith and their model, and the jurist of the people of Iraq in his time. The reasons for their fame are many, among them: the spread of their school in the land where they grew up or to which they migrated, in accordance with the cosmic sunnah; like Abu Hanifah and Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on them both) in Iraq, and Malik in al-Madinah, and al-Shafi'i in Makkah and Egypt .
And among them: the activity of their students and those who adopted their school, who built upon their principles and exerted effort in calling to their school in their lands or the lands to which they migrated; like Muhammad ibn al-Hasan and Abu Yusuf , for example, in Iraq, and Ibn al-Qasim and Ashhab in Egypt, and Sahnun in the Maghreb , and al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman in Egypt, and the students of Imam Ahmad in al-Sham and Iraq , and others. And among them: the support of rulers for the school and its scholars, appointing them to positions such as judges and muftis, opening schools for them, and showering them with good from endowments and other sources. None of them called people to his school exclusively, nor did he show partisanship for it, nor did he oblige others to act according to it or a specific school. Rather, they called to acting according to the Book and the Sunnah, explaining the texts of the religion, clarifying its rules, deriving rulings from them, and issuing fatwas on what was asked of them, without obliging any of their students or others to follow their opinions. In fact, they criticized those who did so and ordered that their opinions be cast aside if they contradicted an authentic hadith. One of them said: "If a hadith is authentic, then it is my school." May Allah have mercy on them all. It is not obligatory for anyone to follow a specific school among these schools. Rather, he must strive to know the truth if he is able, or seek help from Allah, then
from the scientific wealth that the predecessors, the scholars of the Muslims, left for those who came after them, by which they made the path of understanding and applying the texts easy for them. And whoever is unable to derive rulings from the texts and the like thereof, due to something that prevents him from doing so, should ask the trusted scholars about the rulings of the Shari'ah he needs; because of the saying of the Exalted:
So ask the people of the message if you do not know.
فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ
Source
www.alifta.gov.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.