Schools of Muslim Law

Two Muslim families in the same Mumbai lane, one from the Konkan coast and one from Uttar Pradesh, may follow different rules on a point like how many witnesses a marriage needs or what share a daughter takes. Both follow their faith sincerely. The difference lies in which school of law each community follows. Why did Muslim law split into schools, and why does a court in India have to ask, before anything else, which school the parties belong to?

In two minutes

Muslim law in India is applied according to the school the parties follow: four Sunni schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali) and Shia schools (Ithna Ashari, Ismaili, Zaidi), which differ mainly in method and in the rules on particular questions such as witnesses, guardianship and inheritance.

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