The Hanbali school (madhhab)

In the second hijri century the great schools of fiqh emerged, foremost the four madhhabs: Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanafi and Hanbali ¹. Among the Hanbali school's most notable features are its reliance on the text first, its following of the Companions and Tabi'in, and its distance from excessive opinion and positing cases that never occur ². The school did not spread in practice like the others, because its scholars shunned judgeship and office, turning to teaching and authorship ³.

Ibn Badran mentions that the Saudi state in the Arabian peninsula adopted the madhhab and ruled by it ². Abu Bakr al-Khallal had collected Imam Ahmad's accounts, and the companions took from him the school's codification and the authorship of fiqh books ⁴. Among its notables the book names: al-Khiraqi, Ibn Hamid, Abu Ya'la, Ibn Qudama author of al-Mughni, and Abu Bakr al-Khallal ⁴.