Ẓāhirī

Emergence

While those outside the school of thought often point to Dawud al-Zahiri (815–883/4 CE) as the "founder" of the school, followers of the school themselves tend to look to earlier figures such as Sufyan al-Thawri and Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh as the forerunners of Zahiri principles. Umm al-Qura University professor Abdul Aziz al-Harbi has argued that the first generation of Muslims followed the school's methods and therefore it can be called "the school of the first generation."

The Zahiri school was initially called the Dawudi school after Dawud al-Zahiri himself and attracted many adherents, although they felt free to criticize his views, in line with the school's rejection of taqlid. By the end of the 10th century, members of the madhhab were appointed as qadis in Baghdad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Firuzabad, Ramla, Damascus, Fustat, and Bukhara.

Westward expansion

Parallel to the school's development in the east, Zahiri ideas were introduced to North Africa by theologians of the Maliki school who were engaged in lively debates with the Hanafi school, and to the Iberian Peninsula by one of Dawud al-Zahiri's direct students. Unlike Abbasid lands, where the Zahiri school developed in parallel and in opposition to other madhhabs (chiefly Hanafi, Shafi'i, and Hanbali), in the West it only had to contend with its Maliki counterpart, which enjoyed official support of the Umayyad rulers. An increasing number of Zahiri scholars appeared starting from the late 9th century CE in different parts of the Iberian peninsula, though none of their works have survived.

It was not until the rise of the Almohads that the Zahiri school enjoyed official state sponsorship. While not all of the Almohad political leaders were Zahiris, a large plurality of them were not only adherents but were well-versed theologians in their own right. Additionally, all Almohad leaders – both the religiously learned and the laymen – were extremely hostile toward the Malikis, giving the Zahiris and in a few cases the Shafi'is free rein to author works and run the judiciary. In the late 12th century, any religious material written by non-Zahiris was at first banned and later burned in the empire under the Almohad reforms.

Decline

The Zahiri school enjoyed its widest expansion and prestige in the fourth Islamic century, especially through the works of Ibn al-Mughallis, but in the fifth century it lost ground to the Hanbalite school. Even after the Zahiri school became extinct in Baghdad, it continued to have some followers in Shiraz. Zahirism maintained its prestige in Syria until 788 A.H. and had an even longer and deeper impact in Egypt. In the 14th century C.E., the Zahiri Revolt marked both a brief rekindling of interest in the school's ideas as well as affirmation of its status as a non-mainstream ideology. Al-Muhalla, a Medieval manual on Zahiri jurisprudence, served in part as inspiration for the revolt and as a primary source of the school's positions. However, soon afterwards the school ceased to function and in the 14th century Ibn Khaldun considered it to be extinct. With the Reconquista and the loss of Iberia to Christian rule, most works of Zahiri law and legal theory were lost as well, with the school only being carried on by individual scholars, once again on the periphery.

Wael Hallaq has argued that the rejection of qiyas (analogical reasoning) in Zahiri methodology led to exclusion of the school from the Sunni juridical consensus and ultimately its extinction in the pre-modern era. Christopher Melchert suggests that the association of the Zahiri school with Mu'tazilite theology, its difficulty in attracting the right patronage, and its reliance on outmoded methods of teaching have all contributed to its decline.

Modern history

In the modern era, the Zahiri school has been described as "somewhat influential", though "not formally operating today". While the school does not comprise a majority of any part of the Muslim world, there are communities of Zahiris in existence, usually due to the presence of Zahiri scholars of Islamic law. In particular, adherents of the modern-day Ahl al-Hadith movement have self-consciously emulated the ideas of the Zahiri school and identified themselves with it. Modernist revival of the general critique by Ibn Hazm – the school's most prominent representative – of Islamic legal theory among Muslim academics has seen several key moments in recent Arab intellectual history, including Ahmad Shakir's republishing of Al-Muhalla, Muhammad Abu Zahra's biography of Ibn Hazm, and the republishing of archived epistles on Zahiri legal theory by Sa'id al-Afghani in 1960 and Ihsan Abbas between 1980 and 1983. In 2004 the Amman Message recognized the Zahiri school as legitimate, although it did not include it among Sunni madhhabs, and the school also received recognition from Sudan's former Islamist Prime Minister, Sadiq al-Mahdi. The literalist school of thought represented by the Zahiri madhhab remains prominent among many scholars and laymen associated with the Salafi movement, and traces of it can be found in the modern-day Wahhabi movement.

Principles

Of the utmost importance to the school is an underlying principle attributed to the founder Dawud that the validity of religious issues is only upheld by certainty, and that speculation cannot lead to the truth. Most Zahirite principles return to this overarching maxim. Japanese Islamic scholar Kojiro Nakamura defines the Zahiri schools as resting on two presumptions. The first is that if it were possible to draw more general conclusions from the strict reading of the sources of Islamic law, then God certainly would have expressed these conclusions already; thus, all that is necessary lies in the text. The second is that for man to seek the motive behind the commandments of God is not only a fruitless endeavor but a presumptuous one. Thus in the Zahiri view, Islam as an entire religious system is tied to the literal letter of the law, no more and no less.

The Zahiri school of thought generally recognizes three sources of Islamic law within the principles of Islamic jurisprudence. The first is the Qur'an, considered by Muslims to be the verbatim word of God (Arabic: الله Allah); the second consists of the prophetic as given in historically verifiable reports, which consist of the sayings and actions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad; the third is absolute consensus of the Muslim community. Certain followers of the Zahiri school include religious inference as a fourth source of Islamic law.

The school differs from the more prolific schools of Islamic thought in that it restricts valid consensus in jurisprudence to the consensus of the first generation of Muslims who lived alongside Muhammad only. While Abu Hanifa and Ahmad ibn Hanbal agreed with them in this, the followers of the Hanafi and Hanbali schools generally do not, nor do the other two Sunni schools. Additionally, the Zahiri school does not accept analogical reasoning as a source of Islamic law, nor do they accept the practice of juristic discretion, pointing to a verse in the Qur'an which declares that nothing has been neglected in the Muslim scriptures. While Al-Shafi'i and followers of his school agree with the Zahiris in rejecting the latter, all other Sunni schools accept the former, though at varying levels.

Distinct rulings

Reception

Like its founder Dawud, the Zahiri school has been controversial since its inception. Due to their some so-called rejection of intellectual principles considered staples of other strains within Sunni Islam, adherents to the school have been described as displaying non-conformist attitudes.

Views on Zahirism within Sunni Islam

The Zahiri school has often been criticized by other schools within Sunni Islam. While this is true of all schools, relations between the Hanafis, Shafi'is and Malikis have warmed to each other over the centuries; this has not always been the case with the Zahiris.

Not surpisingly given the conflict over al-Andalus, Maliki scholars have often expressed negative feelings regarding the Zahiri school. Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, whose father was a Zahiri, nevertheless considered Zahiri law to be absurd. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr, himself a former Zahiri, excluded Dawud al-Zahiri along with Ahmad ibn Hanbal from his book on Sunni Islam's greatest jurists, though Ignác Goldziher has suggested that Ibn Abdul-Barr remained Zahiri privately and outwardly manifested Maliki ideas due to prevailing pressures at the time. At least with al-Ballūṭī, one example of a Zahiri jurist applying Maliki law due to official enforcement is known. Zahiris such as Ibn Hazm were challenged and attacked by Maliki jurists after their deaths.

Followers of the Shafi'ite school within Sunni Islam have historically been involved in intellectual conflict with Zahirites. Al-Juwayni and Al-Nawawi considered the Zahirite school entirely invalid; Al-Dhahabi and Ibn al-Salah merely disagreed with Zahirite teachings, but still defended their legitimacy from criticism such that of Juwayni and Ibn al-Arabi, pointing out that the Zahirites arrived to their conclusions via scholarly discourse just as the other legal schools had.

Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Qayyim, while himself a critic of the Zahiri outlook, defended the school's legitimacy in Islam, stating rhetorically that their only sin was "following the book of their Lord and example of their Prophet."

Zahirism and Sufism

The relationship between Zahirism and Sufism has been complicated. Throughout the school's history, its adherents have always included both harsh critics of Sufism as well as Sufis themselves. Many practitioners of Sufism, which often emphasizes detachment from the material world, have been attracted to Zahirism's combination of strict ritualism and lack of emphasis on dogmatics.

Notable Zahiris

Discerning who exactly is an adherent to the Zahiri school of thought can be difficult. Harbi has claimed that most Muslim scholars who practiced independent reasoning and based their judgment only on the Qur'an and Sunnah, or Muslim prophetic tradition, were Zahiris. Followers of other schools of thought may have adopted certain viewpoints of the Zahiris, holding "Zahirite leanings" without actually adopting the Zahiri school; often, these individuals were erroneously referred to as Zahiris despite contrary evidence.

Additionally, historians would often refer to any individual who praised the Zahiris as being from them. Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi has most often been referred to as a Zahiri because of a commentary on one of Ibn Hazm's works, despite having stated twice that he isn't a follower of the Zahiri school or any other school of thought. Similarly, Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari would include Zahiri opinions when comparing differing views of Sunni Muslims, yet he founded a distinct school of his own. The case of Muslim figures who have mixed between different schools have proven to be more problematic. Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani, for example, referred to himself as a Zahiri when pressed on the matter, though he is generally acknowledged not to have adhered to any specific school. When Ibn Hazm listed the most important leaders of the school, he listed known Zahirites Abdullah bin Qasim, al-Balluti, Ibn al-Mughallis, al-Dibaji and Ruwaym, but then also mentioned Abu Bakr al-Khallal, who despite his Zahirite leanings is almost universally recognized as a Hanbalite.

Followers of the Zahiri School

Contemporary followers of the school