What are the legal schools?

There are different established schools of law (madhhab, plural madhahib) in Islam. They agree on the fundamentals of their faith but differ on finer points of law and judgements because of their different methodologies of interpretation. The principal schools are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali, among the Sunni, and amongst the Shi'a the Ja'afari and Zaidi madhahib.

The Sunni schools developed when questions arose on issues where the Qur'an does not give explicit injunctions. The Hanafi madhhab was developed by Abu Hanifa, followed by the Maliki school of thought of Imam Malik ibn Anas, then the Shafi'i school of Imam Shafi'i and finally the Hanbali madhdab whose principal jurist was Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal. Overall, 75% of the religious rulings or legal conclusions of the four Sunni schools are shared.