Rais Aam reminds Muslims to embrace schools of thought

Jakarta, NU Online
The supreme leader (Rais Aam) of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) KH Ma'ruf Amin explained that those who do not embrace certain schools of thought are the same as those who do not have a guidance. In fact, they could fall into the notion that everything seems trivial (tasahhuli). Without schools of thought, people could easily be trapped into the notion that everything seems difficult (tasyaddudi).

"Those not embracing (certain) schools of thought will not have such a guidance," Kiai Ma'ruf said on the sidelines of a meeting at the NU headquarters in Jakarta on Monday (29/5).

According to Kiai Ma'ruf, since the beginning NU has adhered to four schools of thought that are considerably moderate (tawassuthi).

"In Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), the four schools of of thought are Hanafi, Maliki, Syafi'i, and Hanbali," Kiai Ma'ruf said.

NU has deliberately adopted these four schools of thought they have clear books and guidance on how to construct a religious text and are sufficient to answer any possible problems.

"Because the four imam / mujtahid of the schools have books and standards in understanding religion," he said.

He explained that not all the great scholars embracing the teachings of Ahlussunnah wal Jama'ah could serve as imam of the school.

"Sheikh Nawawi, Auzai, Ibn Uyainah, Sufyan Ats-Tsauri could not be followed (as imam of the school) even though they are (embracing) Aswaja, because they have no standards and books," he said.

The four imam of the schools are known as scholars who are also productive in writing. Imam Abu Hanifah authored the book Fiqhul Akbar, Imam Malik ibn Anas authored the book Al-Muwattha', Imam Shafi'i authored Ar-Risalah and Al-Umm, and Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal authored al-Musnad. (Muchlishon Rochmat/Masdar)