Schools of law and creedal schools in Islam
According to Islamic teaching, God is the one Creator; Muslims believe in the prophets, angels, sacred books, the Last Day and divine decree, and regard Muhammad as the final prophet. The five pillars of practice are the declaration of faith (shahada), prayer (salat), almsgiving (zakat), fasting in the month of Ramadan and, for those able, the pilgrimage (hajj). The main festivals are Eid al-Fitr (1 Shawwal of the Hijri calendar) and Eid al-Adha (10 Dhu al-Hijjah); in Uzbekistan both are official holidays. During the caliphate of Ali (656–661), internal disputes began the formation of Sunni, Shi’a and Kharijite currents; Sunnis make up the majority of Muslims (roughly 85–90 percent). In the 8th–9th centuries four legal schools formed within Sunnism: Hanafi (Abu Hanifa, 699–767), Maliki (Malik ibn Anas, c. 711–795), Shafi’i (al-Shafi’i, 767–820) and Hanbali (Ahmad ibn Hanbal, 780–855). They reach rulings from the Qur’an and Sunna and do not reject one another on basic questions, though they differ on some points of law. Questions of creed are studied by kalam (theology); Sunnism has two creedal schools: Maturidi (Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, c. 870–944, Samarkand) and Ash’ari (Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari, c. 873–936, Basra/Baghdad). The Maturidi school spread widely in Transoxiana because it values reason and is close to the Hanafi school. Schools of law are traditional centres of religious learning; organisations formed for political aims and banned by law (for example Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in Uzbekistan) are not schools of law.
On a map mark the regions where the four schools are traditionally found (Hanafi – Central and South Asia, Turkey; Maliki – North Africa; Shafi’i – Southeast Asia, East Africa; Hanbali – Arabian Peninsula).