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Khums and mujtahid each are held with a distinct account, differing from the identical four Sunni schools, Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafii. Unlike Usul al-fiqh's genuine four-way split among these same traditions, reading what each school actually says here finds one finding stated four times over, not four different findings.

One Reading of Khums, Four Times

In Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafii law alike, khums is the fifth of the spoils of war set aside by Quran 8:41, and nothing more; none of the four schools extends it to a standing annual levy on ordinary surplus wealth, which is the reading Twelver Shia jurisprudence gives the same verse's word for gain. The four Sunni schools are not disagreeing with each other about khums. They are agreeing with each other, in near identical language repeated once per school, against a fifth reading held elsewhere in this atlas that none of the four is being asked to answer.

One Reading of the Mujtahid, Four Times

The same four schools give the same account of independent legal reasoning again: in each of Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafii law, a jurist's reasoning is exercised within that school's own method and its own transmitted material, whether that method is the Hanafi tradition, the Hanbali tradition, the Maliki tradition, or the method al-Shafii himself set out in the Risala. The classical schools argued at length, and still argue, over whether the door of reasoning outside a school ever remained open at all, and all four accounts recorded here answer that argument the same way: reasoning happens inside the school, not across its boundary. Two entries, four bodies each, and both entries turn out to be the same shape, one position held in common by four schools that elsewhere, on legal theory itself, genuinely disagree.

Where To Read More

• KhumsCharitable PracticesOne finding, stated four times: the spoils-of-war fifth, nothing more
• MujtahidIslam RolesThe other finding, also stated four times: reasoning stays inside the school
• Hanafi SchoolOne of the four Sunni schools repeating both findings
• Hanbali SchoolOne of the four Sunni schools repeating both findings
• Maliki SchoolOne of the four Sunni schools repeating both findings
• Shafii SchoolOne of the four Sunni schools repeating both findings