8-Belief and Islam - Hakikat Kitabevi

for this purpose through wealth, power or profession will not
escape torture. While working for this purpose, suffering
distress and persecution must be deemed as a great happiness
and a big profit. Prophets (’alaihimu ’s-salâm), while
communicating Allâhu ta’âlâ’s orders to people, underwent the
attacks of ignorant and ignoble people. They suffered very
much. Muhammad (’alaihi ’s-salâm), Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Beloved,
who was chosen to be the greatest of those great men, said,
‘No prophet suffered so much ill-treatment as I did.’ ”
Ahl as-sunna scholars who showed the right path to all
Muslims on the earth and guided us to learn the religion of
Muhammad (’alaihi’s-salâm) without any change or interpolation
are the scholars of the four madhhabs who reached the grade
of ijtihâd. The most prominent ones of them are four. The first of
them was al-Imâm al-a’zâm Abu Hanîfa Nu’mân ibn Thâbit
(rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ). He was one of the greatest ’ulamâ’ of
Islam. He became the leader of Ahl as-Sunna. His biography is
written in the Turkish books Seadet-i Ebediyye and Faideli
Bilgiler. [1] He was born in Kûfa in 80 A.H. [699] and was
martyred in Baghdad in 150 [767].
The second one was the great scholar Imam Mâlik ibn
Anas (rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ). The book Ibni Âbidîn says that he
lived eighty-nine years. His grandfather was Mâlik bin Ebî Âmir.
The third one was Imâm Muhammad ibn Idrîs ash-Shâfi’î
(rahimah-Allâhu ta’âlâ), who is the apple of the eyes of Islamic
scholars. He was born in 150 [767] in Ghazza, Palestine, and
passed away in Egypt in 204 [820].
The fourth one was Imâm Ahmad ibn Hanbal (rahimah-
Allâhu ta’âlâ), who was born in Baghdad in 164 [780] and
passed away there in 241 [855]. He is the archstone of the
Islamic building.
Today, he who does not follow one of these four great
imâms is in great danger. He is in heresy. Besides them there
were many other Ahl as-sunna scholars who had righteous
madhhabs, too. But in the course of time their madhhabs were
forgotten and could not be committed to books. For instance,
the seven great Medinan scholars who were called al-Fuqahâ’
[1] Also in the first chapter of The Sunni Path and in the fifth and sixth
chapters of the first fascicle of Endless Bliss.
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