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6 What does "Sunni Hanafi" mean?

sharia sunni islamic-basis hanafi

What does the term "Sunni Hanafi" mean and what are these divisions?

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Hussain Akhtar Wahid 'Ghouri' asked

379 ● 3 ● 4 ● 14 Dec 21 '13 at 14:18

Rebecca J. Stones edited

19.3k ● 14 ● 76 ● 232 Dec 8 '16 at 19:36

2 Answers order by votes

Initially, Prophet Muhammad (SAW) gave us gift of Quran and his Sunnah (in the form of
3 Hadith). Now after him the issue of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) rose. To resolve this, great
Scholars of Islam took the initiative to define Islam, based on how Islam can be applied in the
ever changing day to day life and different matters that come up, where clear cut answer cannot
be found from Sunnah and Quran. For this purpose, different Schools of Thought were formed by
the Great Imams. There are 4 imams, named

Imam Abu Hanifa (people who follow his school of thought are called hanafi, or sunni
hanafi)
Imam Shafi (Followers called shafi)
Imam Malik ( Followers called maliki)
Imam Ibn Hanbal (Followers called hanbali)
All of these 4 great imams were greatest scholars of their time, and all of them greatly helped
Muslims in understanding and resolving issue of Fiqh. But in many issues, the rulings of 4 great
imams differed, for example on how to pray. In that case, all of the Imams explicitly said that if
their wording/ruling/saying goes against Quran or hadith, you should then prefer Quran/Hadith
and reject what they say.
In case of a difference of opinion, we must keep in mind that only the ruling of Allah is perfect
(Quran and Hadith), after that, there will surely be difference of opinion among the scholars.
And Allah knows the best

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Farhan answered
3,538 ● 12 ● 25 Dec 21 '13 at 20:37

goldPseudo ♦ edited
11.6k ● 12 ● 42 ● 113 Oct 11 '14 at 18:31

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 of a collection of hadith and narrators and interpretation of Quran and consider other hadith and
narrators and interpretations of Quran unreliable.
About beliefs there is a main disagreement between Muslims about Imamat. Imamat means
only God has the right to choose the successor of the Prophet SAWW for political leadership of
Ummah. So those who believe Imamat is one of the five pillars of Islam are called Shia Muslims
and those who do not believe Imamat is one of the five pillars of Islam are called Sunni
Muslims.
About Fiqh (school of Islamic jurisprudence) there have been different schools but only five
main schools survived during history. The current main five schools of Fiqh of Muslims are:
1. Jafari
2. Hanafi (therefore Sunni Hanafi)
3. Shafei
4. Hanbali
5. Maliki

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Battle of Karbala answered

13.4k ● 6 ● 38 ● 82 Dec 22 '13 at 5:29

‫اﻟﻠﻬﻢ ﺻﻞ ﻋﻠﯽ ﻣﺤﻤﺪ و آل ﻣﺤﻤﺪ‬ edited

May 20 '17 at 12:46
10.7k ● 13 ● 56 ● 126

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