The Humble I

Knowing, Doing, Becoming

Muslim schools of law

October 9, 2012

The Four Imams: Did They Forbid the Layman from Taqlid?

Let me clarify two issues before I explain the point of this post. The first issue that needs clarifying is: what is taqlid? The second one is: who are the Four Imams? [1] As an Arabic word, taqlid stems from qallada, meaning: ‘To place a collar (qiladah) around the neck.’1 It is called this because the person who does taqlid, the muqallid, entrusts his affair… Continue reading

correctives & clarifications, fiqh & usul al-fiqh, knowledge & learning, salafism reconsidered

Abu Hanifah, Ahmad bin Hanbal, al-Shafi’i, blind-following, Four Imams, Hanafi, Hanbali, Imam Malik, madhhabs, Maliki, medieval Muslim law colleges, Muslim schools of law, Shafi’i, taqlid

About Me

My name is Surkheel Sharif (aka Abu Aaliyah). Born and raised in London, England, I began my more formal, but gradual studies of the Islamic sciences around the late 1980s (just a few years after having quit my degree in Astrophysics). I also gained an MA in Islamic Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2009.

I’ve translated a few Islamic works from Arabic into English; one of them, a short text on Muslim spirituality, called The Exquisite Pearl (2000). I have also authored a few books, including: More Fish Please & the Earth’s Complaint (2011); Fussing Over the 15th of Sha’ban & the Golden Rule of Differing (2011); A Muslim’s Guide to Modernity (2025); and Salafism Reconsidered (forthcoming)

I am the founder and current Director of the Jawziyyah Institute (est. 1999): a non-profit organisation dedicated to cultivating an Islam true to its time-honoured tradition, relevant to its current context, and of benefit to wider society.

Muslim schools of law

The Four Imams: Did They Forbid the Layman from Taqlid?