Understanding the Four Madhhabs: The Facts about Ijtihad and Taqlid

About The Book

Why four schools of thought? Is it necessary to follow one? Discussion on these and other questions. A great book for those confused about this subject.

Because of the traditional pious fear of distorting the Law of Islam, the overwhelming majority of the great scholars of the past - certainly well over ninety-nine percent of them - have adhered loyally to a madhhab. It is true that in the troubled fourteenth century a handful of dissenters appeared, but even these individuals never recommended that semi-educated Muslims should attempt ijtihad without expert help.

About The Author

Timothy J  Winter AKA Abdal Hakim Murad graduated from Cambridge University with a double-first in Arabic in 1983. He then studied  Islam under traditional teachers at Al-Azhar, one of the oldest universities in the world. He went on to reside in Jeddah, where he administered a commercial translation office and maintained close contact with Habib Ahmad Mashhur al-Haddad and other ulama from Hadramaut, Yemen.

In 1989, Tim Winter (Abdal Hakim being his Muslim Name ) returned to England and spent two years at the University of London learning Turkish and Farsi . Also a  University Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, England, and Director of Studies in Theology at Wolfson College. 
His research work focuses on Muslim-Christian relations, Islamic ethics and the study of the Orthodox Muslim response to extremism.

Sheikh Abdal Hakim is the translator of a number of works, including two volumes from Imam al-Ghazali Ihya Ulum al-Din. He gives durus and halaqas from time to time and taught the works of Imam al-Ghazali at the Winter 1995 Deen Intensive Program in New Haven, CT. He appears frequently on BBC Radio and writes occasionally for a number of publications including The Independent and Q-News International, Britain's premier Muslim Magazine.