Having a hard time understanding madhabs

[Captain_Obvious]

Re: Having a hard time understanding madhabs

@ajazali

It is to accommodate differences but reality is only aima practically accommodated the differences among them. All the sects today hate each other, not to speak of accommodating differences.

None of the madhabs considers the other to be a separate sect. We all pray together without any problems. When we have people from different madhabs praying in a single congregation, they’re all accommodated. For instance, the Hanafis don’t need to do an individual qirat (reciting of Fatiha + surah) in their salat, whereas the Shafis do. So when Shafis are in the jamaat, the imam slows it down to allow them enough time for their qirat.

@PyariCgudia

What madhab did the Prophet (SAW) follow?

Whatever any of the madhabs follow are based on accounts of what Nabi (SAW) said or did. One of the functions of the madhab is to analyze the different proofs and then see which one should be preferred over the other. The 4 imams had their own systematic methods for according preference to certain proofs over others.

@kakaballi

Quran: The most authentic source of guidance.

Hadith: Most of them are authentic, some might not be that reliable

Imams: Lease reliable of the three. I am not sure if their guidance has never been prone to ‘editing’. Anyways, they give you guidelines based on their interpretations of the above two.

If you find some guidelines not exactly in accordance with the first two, you can choose not to follow. I don’t think one has to follow strictly the third source of guidance if any of the first two seem clear enough on a given subject.

I don’t believe people would be judged on the judgement day on how exactly they performed wudu or where (if) they tied their hands in salat or if they consumed some jelly beans which had traces of ingredients that had traces of gelatin from pigs.

Following the imams is following the Qur’an and Sunnah. The imams differ in matters where Qur’an and Sunnah don’t give you something conclusive. So the matters you mentioned like trying hands in salat, performance of wudhu (though, it’s more the things that nullify wudhu that they differ in). So you’re right, if Qur’an and Sunnah are clear enough on any subject, we don’t need to follow the imams for it. If that were the case for any given matter, the imams themselves would not have differed on them either.