Development
It is claimed that the schools of thought were developed in the 9th and 10th centuries as a means of excluding dogmatic theologians, government officials and non-Sunni sects from religious discourse. Historians have differed regarding the time at which each of the various schools had emerged. It is said that Sunni Islam was initially split into six schools (Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali, Zahiri, Jariri) before various ruling dynasties later narrowed the number down to four, with the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt eventually creating four independent judicial positions, thus solidifying the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i and Hanbali schools. Conversely, some view that Sunni jurisprudence falls into two groups: Ahl al-Ra'i, or people of opinions, due to their emphasis on scholarly judgment and reason; and Ahl al-Hadith, or people of traditions, due to their emphasis on restricting juristic thought to only what is found in scripture.
Ibn Khaldun, on the other hand, defined the Sunni schools as three: the Hanafi school, the Zahiri school, and a broader, middle school encompassing the Shafi'i, Maliki and Hanbali schools. Shi'ite historian Ibn al-Nadim, on the other hand, divides the Islamic schools of thought into eight groups: Maliki, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Zahiri, Imami Shi'ite, Ahl al-Hadith, Jariri and Kharijite.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Schools
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“... work is only part of a man’s life; play, family, church, individual and group contacts, educational opportunities, the intelligent exercise of citizenship, all play a part in a well-rounded life. Workers are men and women with potentialities for mental and spiritual development as well as for physical health. We are paying the price today of having too long sidestepped all that this means to the mental, moral, and spiritual health of our nation.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“I could not undertake to form a nucleus of an institution for the development of infant minds, where none already existed. It would be too cruel.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“On fields all drenched with blood he made his record in war, abstained from lawless violence when left on the plantation, and received his freedom in peace with moderation. But he holds in this Republic the position of an alien race among a people impatient of a rival. And in the eyes of some it seems that no valor redeems him, no social advancement nor individual development wipes off the ban which clings to him.”
—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911)