In Sunni Islam, the set of recognized legal schools is most commonly described as how many madhhabs?

• A. Two
• B. Four
• C. Six
• D. Eight

Answer: (B)

Four main Sunni legal schools form the framework for classical jurisprudence. These madhhabs are named after their founders—Abu Hanifa, Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal—and each developed a distinct method for deriving rulings from the Quran and Sunnah, shaped by their regional contexts and scholarly priorities. Over centuries, these four became the widely recognized and treated as the standard set of Sunni legal traditions across much of the Muslim world. While there were other jurists and smaller strands, they didn’t gain the same broad, enduring authority as these four, which is why this topic is described as having four madhhabs. Counts like two, six, or eight don’t align with the traditional Sunni framework.