Abu Zahra, Muhammad The Four Imams Their Lives, Works, And Schools Of Thought

This volume contains the English translation of four books describing
and analysing the life and work of the Imams who founded the four
canonical schools of Sunni Islamic law. These men are among Islam’s
greatest spiritual and intellectual figures. All four books were written
in Arabic by the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abu Zahra, who succeeded
admirably in producing a detailed picture and analysis of the four
madhhabs and their founders, including their legal methodology and
conclusions.
Muhammad Abu Zahra (1898 1974) was an Egyptian public intellectual,
scholar of Islamic law, and author. He also served as a member of
al-Azhar's Academy of Islamic Research. Abu Zahra was born on March 29,
1898 in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, the second largest city in the Nile Delta.
In 1913, Abu Zahra completed high school and enrolled in the Ahmadi
Madrasa in Tanta. In 1916, he scored highest on the entry examination
for the judiciary institute in the Gharbia rGovernorate despite being
several years younger and less experienced than his colleagues.Having
been rooted in traditional Azharite education, and never having studied
in Europe or in Egyptian Westernized schools, Abu Zahra has been
criticized by Orientalists as having a superficial grasp of Western
methods. He taught at al-Azhar's faculty of theology and later, as
Professor of Islamic law at Cairo University.Between 1933 and 1942, he
taught courses on the history of religions, denominations and sects at
Azhar, during w