Sunni law, there grew students each of whom emphasized a certain aspect of the sources of the Shari'ah such as Ibn yanbal, who relied essentially on prophetic Hadith after the Quran and discounted ijma and qiyas, and Da'ud ibn Khalaf who believed that the external (zahiri) meaning of the Quran alone should be followed and founded the Zahirite school. The school of Ibn Hanbal became the fourth accepted school of Sunni law with its characteristic disdain of rationalist methods and complete reliance upon Hadith literature while the Zahirite school gradually disappeared.

Ideals and realities of Islam On page 109 Saturday, January 5, 2013 @ 4:45pm