What are the four Sunni madhhabs (schools of law), and how do they differ in practice?

Sunni Islam developed four major schools of jurisprudence (madhhabs), each named after the scholar whose methodology it follows: the Hanafi school (after Abu Hanifa, d. 767), historically dominant in Turkey, the Balkans, Central and South Asia; the Maliki school (after Malik ibn Anas, d. 795), widespread across North and West Africa; the Shafi'i school (after Muhammad al-Shafi'i, d. 820), common in East Africa, the Levant, and Southeast Asia; and the Hanbali school (after Ahmad ibn Hanbal, d. 855), predominant in Saudi Arabia. All four accept the same foundational sources — the Quran and the Sunnah — but differ in secondary methodology: how much weight is given to analogical reasoning (qiyas), scholarly consensus (ijma), local custom, or individual hadith. These differences produce practical variation in worship, such as how the hands are positioned in prayer, what invalidates ritual purity, or details of fasting and inheritance rules, though the core obligations remain identical. Muslim scholars have generally viewed this diversity as a legitimate reflection of sincere, disciplined effort (ijtihad) to interpret revelation, summarized in the Prophetic principle that a scholar who strives to reach the right ruling is rewarded even if ultimately mistaken.

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