# What Is a Madhab? Every Hard Question Answered in One Video! - Language: en - Published: 2026-08-26 - Canonical: https://blog.towardseternity.com/en/blog/what-is-a-madhab-every-hard-question-answered-in-one-video - Source video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tFuzwRu8g0 - Channel: Towards Eternity This is the cleaned transcript of the source video. The speech is unaltered. --- What is a Madhhab (school of thought), and why do we have Madhhabs? The first mistake that a person makes is to imagine that a Madhhab is the words of somebody, of one person who lived way back in the day. That's not the case. Madhhabs are here to make life easier for us. What exactly is the concept of bid'ah (religious innovation)? Rega'ib, Mi'raj, Barat, Mawlid. Are these also bid'ah? On one issue, there could be two statements. The number one most important thing that we should say for every Muslim today to investigate their belief. And the world of ideas is all coming right at our face through our cell phones. Assalamualaikum (peace be upon you), Dr. Shadee Elmasry. Thank you so much for being with us. It's our honor to host you at Towards Eternity. Welcome. Wa alaikum assalam wa rahmatullah (Upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah). It's my pleasure to be on. You have a great channel. I was just looking at your channel earlier. I was really, really impressed, masha'Allah (as Allah has willed). Jazakallahu khairan (may Allah reward you). Thank you so much. It means a lot. So, our main topic now is about Madhhabs. Many of our questions... So, what is a Madhhab, and why do we have Madhhabs? Okay, good question. So, in anything that is equivocal, or zanni (speculative), it could have multiple possible meanings. And many people don't realize that on one issue, there could be two statements. To give an example that happened during the time of the Prophet, (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), in his own presence, after the Battle of the Khandaq. So the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, made an announcement to everybody: "No one should pray Asr (afternoon prayer) except at Bani Qurayza." That's the name of that tribe, Bani Qurayza. So, everyone got ready at their own pace. Some person may be more ready than not. So therefore, some people made it before Maghrib (sunset prayer) to Bani Qurayza's area. Other people were delayed. So they did, by the time he went home, got his horse, got his sword, so Maghrib entered while he's on his way. So a group was out and they said, "Hold on, the Prophet said no one shall pray Asr except at Bani Qurayza." And then some said, "Okay, he said that as an expression meaning hurry up and get there before sunset." But he did not mean, "Don't pray Asr on time." And yet others said, "I'm going to go with the exact wording." This is a prophet here, this is not somebody else, this is a prophet. "So we will not pray Asr." So they didn't pray Asr. And they rode and rode and rode, they did not stop, and they prayed Asr after the sun had set. And when both-- when this was brought to the Prophet, (peace be upon him), he accepted the analysis of both. What does this prove? This proves to us that the Prophet ﷺ may speak in a manner that can be filtered by our brains and result in two different conclusions. And he also confirms that both of them are acceptable. And that's a summary of why Madhhabs exist, because the speech of God and His Prophet can possibly be filtered. Now, here's the question: who does the filtering? So you have to have certain competencies in the Arabic language in order to be able to be what they call mujtahid (one who performs independent legal reasoning). Someone who will filter, process this, and produce a result. Quran speaks to us in two types of commands. A command that can only be understood one way. We all know that as Muslims. We don't need, for example, jurisprudence to know that I have to pray five times a day, you have to pray five times a day, we have to avoid alcohol. We don't need jurisprudence for that. We do that because it's well-known. But then Allah Ta'ala (the Exalted) speaks to us and the Quran speaks in what's called equivocal language, or zanni al-dalala (of speculative indication). And that entails things that can be understood in multiple ways. So, well, how do I, how do I act upon it? So, that's one of the reasons why Madhhabs came into existence. There came a period of time when Abu Hanifa, his era, which was right after the Sahaba (companions of the Prophet), in which they sat down to codify and list out all the rulings of our body. What does our body have to do? In worship and with one another. And they came upon a lot of questions that requires nazar, or thinking, and examination. What does this word mean? What did the Sahaba do? That's what jurisprudence is. And each Imam has his own method. Madhhabs are here to make us, to make life easier for us. Why did Allah speak in such a way? Why did the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, give a speech in such a way that could, almost like a light that enters a crystal, fracture into multiple different beautiful colors? And it's for our ease. He does not want hardship for you, right? He wants yusr (ease) for you. He wants ease for you. Because human life is so different. Human backgrounds are so different. So this religion needs some flexibility, and Allah has built it in. So that flexibility allows us, if I'm living in a certain situation now where my understanding of things is just causing so many hardships that life is not normal for me anymore. It's becoming too difficult. I look and find another understanding of the same texts, and I find that it relieves my hardship. Madhhabs exist for ease and to make Islam practical for us. They don't exist to divide us into tribes, sub-tribes. They don't exist to be served, right? They exist to make life as a Muslim easy. Were the sources of knowledge of the Madhhab imams as rich as they are today? And perhaps they made certain ijtihads (independent legal reasonings) because they didn't have access to the right information. How can we be sure that they had the access to the right information? Well, that's a good question. Well, if you look at the teachers of those imams, then a person would rest assured that they firmly understood Islam, they firmly understood the Sunnah (Prophetic tradition), and the Arabic language. Because their teachers were the children and grandchildren of the companions. That's how early they were, these imams. Now keep in mind, there were many, many imams at that time, but some of their students did not advance their ideas. And it's ultimately, we hold, we would believe this is Allah's will that He chose these four that survived until today. Generation after generation, checking and double-checking and triple-checking and ensuring. So, the first mistake that a person makes is to imagine that a Madhhab is the words of somebody, of one person who lived way back in the day. That's not the case. A Madhhab is a living school of thought, meaning from the time of that Imam up until now, every single generation has had scholars who entered into that method of thinking and took the resources that they had and applied them. And and made sure that they checked and double-checked and triple-checked. And sometimes, yes, sometimes they did realize that the original founder's conclusion is actually not the best answer. His method was was sound, the bulk of his work is sound, but in this one, we're going to differ from him. That's actually the proof that these are reliable sources of knowledge and not cult followings. Remember, this is all a matter of judgment. And when you have a matter of judgment, you need a lot of thinkers, a lot of people to say, "Yep, this is the right answer." That's why we have so much trust in these Madhahib, because of how many minds went into them. And that again dismantles this idea that it's just one Imam and we've all been following him since. That's not the case at all. Apart from the school of fiqh (jurisprudence), there are also the Maturidi and Ash'ari schools. And what exactly do they tell us, and why is there a strong opposition to these two schools? Okay, so at the end of when the period of when the rulings were being documented, the jurisprudence was being documented, at the end of that time period, theological disputation emerged. And the theological disputation ended up with essentially two approaches to these errors. The first approach was the Hanbali approach, which is also known as the Athari approach. The the the methodology is just... is we can term it Athari, and the school of thought that represented that was the Hanbali school, which essentially said, "All of these errors of the Mu'tazilite thinkers are rejected." So they put a full stop to them. Follow the text and that's it, scripture and that's it. Now, after that came the Kalami schools. And there are two Kalami schools. Kalam meaning dialectical theology. Kalam being dialectical. Dialectical theology means we're actually going to answer you question by question. Yes, we're we're agreeing with the Athari, the ruling that you say, yeah, this is wrong, right? And we have to stick to the text. But we're going to answer you, and we're going to tell you why it's wrong. And we're going to debate you, and we're going to argue with you even by your own methodology, meaning we're going to take the rational approach or philosophical approach and show you why you're wrong and show Muslims why they have to believe in these certain beliefs. That is known as, roughly speaking, the "Kalami approach." So they are, so there are both approaches of defending the Sunnah and establishing the Sunnah. The Athari approach uses the the sources, Quran and Sunnah, and stops there. The Kalami approach seeks to organize these ideas and be able to respond to deviance, atheists. And Imam al-Nawawi says that one of the obligatory innovations of this ummah (community), he lists there and Ibn Hajar follows him later on, he says, "To be able to answer the philosophers, to be able to answer the atheists, to be able to answer heretics." Okay? And now if someone is a philosopher, you cannot tell him God exists just because God exists, because the Quran says so, because he doesn't accept the Quran in the first place. So you have to be able to refute their disbeliefs using a basis that they agree upon. And then you also have to present your beliefs in a basis that they would also recognize, in other words, a rational basis. So that's very roughly the concept of Kalam. And the juristic ruling of Kalam, as al-Nawawi says, if that's the goal, then that's a communal obligation upon the scholars. I believe that the number one most important thing that we should say for every Muslim today to investigate is their belief, namely that their iman (faith), their belief in Allah and His Messenger, and the Quran and the Hadith as the sources, and their responses to naturalism and scientism and evolution and secular morality, that is almost at the level of a fard 'ayn (individual obligation) today, in the same way that for your forefathers, it was fard 'ayn to learn how to use a sword and an arrow and ride a horse and fight the Mongols on one side and the Crusaders on the other side. Because I watched season one of Ertugrul, so I know very well what was going on. Right? Such a boy, is it not fard 'ayn for him? It's a... fard 'ayn, I should translate that as a individual obligation, because the likelihood that you will face a Mongol or a Crusader at that period of time was maybe 85%. You have to learn how to hold... how can a man raise a boy who doesn't know how to hold a sword or ride a horse or throw an arrow or hold a shield? So in today's world though, we probably, that's, will not face a physical fight. It's hard to imagine anyone with a mind and with a cell phone that will not face an ideological threat, a curveball in ideology, just because we mingle with so many people. And the world of ideas is all coming right at our face through our cell phones. So it seems to me that we can almost render it as an individual obligation to firmly and deeply examine why we're Muslims. I will have questions on different issues other than Madhhabs now. And when we look at Sufism, we see that it has been followed by a huge number of people throughout history, and many people have benefited from this path to save their hereafter. And why is there so much opposition to it? Well, there could be opposition to it if they don't do something correct. And we talked about when we look at jurisprudence, there can be a mufti who makes mistakes, right? There could be a mufti who has a terrible track record, all his fatwas are off. So that won't, doesn't mean that jurisprudence is to be canceled. So purification of the heart is something that is a necessity in our religion, irrespective of of any individual. And so likewise theology. So, remember, what is the purpose of the Kalami schools of theology? It is to defend the aqidah (creed) of the Quran and the Sunnah and Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah (the people of the Prophetic way and the community) through rational proofs, to be able to explain it and defend it. So, that doesn't mean every mutakallim, or Kalam theologian, is going to be accurate. He may make a mistake. Likewise, from the other side, it does... the athar, to follow that methodology, the Hanbali methodology, I'm sure within their ranks they had those, as Ibn al-Jawzi said, who made mistakes. Likewise in the third realm now. We said Islam, Iman, Ihsan. That's the rules, fiqh, and aqidah, and now we get to Ihsan, which is Tasawwuf. So, Tasawwuf, Tazkiyat al-Nafs (purification of the soul) is a field and a branch of knowledge agreed upon. No two Muslims will say that no, this is not a subject matter. Back in the old days, they used to call it al-Riqaq, right, the softening of the hearts. And later on, they called it different subjects-- different names, until they ended up calling it Tasawwuf, putting on wool, because they they didn't want to call it something that's not verifiable, such as... what do you call somebody who always tries to do Tazkiyat al-Nafs or purify his heart? Are you going to call him a pure one? Right? You can't, you can't say that because number one, I can't verify it. Number two, you can't praise yourself. If you're a reciter of Quran and you know the recitations, you can objectively verify that. You can recite in front of us all. If you're a muhaddith and a hadith scholar, you can recite your hadith and we can know that you are a hadith scholar. But you can't worship Allah day and night and call yourself a pure one. It's not going to, it's not going to be allowed. Number one, it's not verifiable. Number two, you're praising yourself. So ultimately, they simply called them the people who wear wool. And that's where the term Sufi came in. A Sufi is subject, someone who is going down that path of self-purification and he wants to focus on that and ibadah (worship) and cut off the dunya (world) and all of those beautiful things that draw a person close to Allah, he is subject to having sound theology and sound ibadah, fiqh, jurisprudence. If he exits from that, then he is blameworthy in that. And if not, then he's praiseworthy. What exactly is the concept of bid'ah? Is everything that arises later in Islam a bid'ah and therefore wrong? 'Izz ibn 'Abd al-Salam in the Shafi'i school and al-Qarafi in the Maliki school held that innovations are to be of of actions, are to be qualified into five categories. So that the innovation is the attribute of the action, but its legal category is based upon how we measure it against the Shari'ah (Islamic law). And that is, it can be obligatory, recommended, permitted, discouraged, and forbidden. And these are necessary innovations. You can say innovation that is an obligation. The the examination of narrators, hadith narrators. So we never saw the Sahaba going around saying, "Uh, let us assess the individual. Is he a thiqa (trustworthy)? Is he munkar (denounced)? Is he matruk (abandoned)?" and then labeling him that this narrator is unacceptable, this narrator is highly acceptable, etc. All of these fields of study and categorization and organization of knowledge can also be considered something that is a necessary innovation that something that didn't exist in the time of the Prophet and the Sahaba. Also maybe even praying Tarawih (special Ramadan prayers) in congregation, and completion of the Quran in a book form, into a book form. All of those were the innovations of that time. For sure, that did not exist in the time of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. But the question is, what is the ruling upon it? Is it okay, let's hypothetically, we say we agree that a certain act like group dhikr (remembrance of Allah) is an innovation. Okay, is it is this an innovation that puts me out of Islam? Innovations have to be categorized legally, by the legal categories. What are we defining as group dhikr? How do we define it? Any type of gathering of Muslims to remember Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala (the Glorified and Exalted), the Sahaba had done it, the Prophet ﷺ himself gathered with the Muslims. And so the only question that comes as a debated matter is the manner by which these gatherings can occur and if tasbih (glorification of Allah) in unison, tasbih, everyone reciting adhkar (pl. of dhikr) in unison is permitted or not. That's the only question. So reciting out loud, no problem. Saying adhkar out loud, not a problem. But saying it all in one unified, collective voice, and that's just a difference of opinion amongst fuqaha (jurists). Even in the Hanbali school, al-Buhuti states reciting the Quran all in one voice out loud is permitted. So the Hanbali school itself says this. All the four schools agree upon this, that it's allowed. That would tell us that in all four madhhabs, that it would be permitted to have a gathering of dhikr in which we recite Quran and dhikr all together in unison. Every year as Ramadan approaches, as, you know, three months approaches, the three sacred months, some special nights come to the agenda, come to the people's attention, like Rega'ib, Mi'raj, Barat, Mawlid. And are these also bid'ah and do they have any basis in the Sunnah of our Prophet, (peace be upon him)? Okay, so that's a good question. So these special nights, some of which came through narrations and ahadith (sayings of Prophet ﷺ). And the hadith may be weak, but nonetheless, nobody is claiming that observing these nights is an obligation. And weak hadith can be used for regular good deeds that are outside of, as long as nobody says obligation because weak hadith cannot be used to obligate or forbid. But they can be acted upon. So the early fuqaha, and I'll quote, give you an example from Imam Malik, held that he did not like that these nights be observed openly and publicly in large gatherings so that the people do not imagine them to be obligations. So he deemed the public gathering for that to be discouraged. Not in its essence, but because he didn't want people to think it's an obligation. Malik said the same thing about the six, fasting the six days of Shawwal. He did not want people to think it was an obligation. Now, later on, the scholars differed. Why? Because they saw there's a bigger problem. It's not that the people will think it's an obligation. The people now pretty much know what is an obligation and what is not. And there is a lack of general awareness. There's a ghaflah, a heedlessness has descended upon the ummah. Therefore they use Allah's saying, "wa ta'awanu 'ala al-birri wat-taqwa" "Support one another on good deeds." So if we find a deed that is there even in a weak hadith or in a general principle such as remembrance of the Prophet ﷺ in Rabi' al-Awwal, which is the Mawlid essentially, then they deemed it part of that, "wa ta'awanu 'ala al-birri wat-taqwa," support each other on good deeds and piety. And we see that the ummah's in ghaflah and a in a major ghaflah. So therefore, anything that has a basis, gather the people for, is a good thing. And that takes priority now because people don't even do their obligations, let alone think this is an obligation. That's, I think, the tahreesh (incitement to conflict) of Shaytan (Satan) the argumentation that Shaytan brings to the ummah. Do you think that divisions on these issues harm the ummah? Uh, I don't like to actually miss the bigger picture, that we have an ummah that's at war. And but one of the things that I could do and contribute is to show that certain things are decoys from Iblis (Satan) that are dragging people through the mud of debates. If Allah made something vast, it's not up to you to shrink it down to your opinion. And so this is where amongst the praying Muslims and the the practicing Muslims, the tahreesh of Iblis occurs by one group saying, "It's got to be this," the other group saying, "No, it's got to be that." And that's what's going to lead to disunity. And there is no coincidence that disunity emerges at a time where Muslims are at war. Right? When Muslims are being waged war upon, multiple layers of disunity affect us. So the power of the ummah has been broken up already. This is all from Iblis. A decoy to keep you far, far away from the actual battle that he wants to make sure you don't enter in upon, metaphorically speaking. And finally, if you had a chance to speak to all the young Muslim ummah, what would you like to say in a few moments? I would say simply that if we return to Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, then Allah Ta'ala will return to us. "In tansurullaha yansurkum" (If you aid Allah, He will aid you), right? Give victory to Allah, Allah will give us victory. It's doable within this lifetime. Uh, how is it doable? Well, how how how did other things that Allah created in history? How did David beat Goliath? How did the Arabs defeat the Byzantines and the Persians simultaneously? I mean, that's not even in in history, they say the first thing is, why do armies lose? Because they have to face a two-front war. What about an army of Sahaba, of Arabs who had nothing, intentionally go do a two-front war? And they won both. So that was something that occurred in the life of Umar. When he was 10 years old, if you had told him you'd defeat both of these armies and you'll be leading, it would have been a laughing, a laughing matter, right? And it happened. And it could happen if we, "in tansurullaha yansurkum." If we if we observe that as an ummah, then we don't know what's going to happen. A lot of great things will happen. And I personally believe, although there's darkness on the horizon, I believe that within this lifetime, a lot of great things will happen. Jazakallahu khairan, Sheikh (may Allah reward you with good). Thank you so much, Dr. Shadee Elmasry, for being with us. It was an utmost privilege to have this discussion with you. My pleasure. And insha'Allah (God willing), we would like to collaborate with you insha'Allah in future projects as well. And may Allah put barakah (blessings) and reward you for all the works you do. Jazakumullahu khairan (may Allah reward you), and great job with your channel. You're you're on the cusp of 3 million subs, -which is an amazing feat. -Alhamdulillah (Praise be Allah). Allah give you tawfiq (success).