Rasūlullāh ﷺ
The Source of the Madhhab
Every madhhab begins with Rasūlullāh ﷺ. He is the origin (al-manshaʾ) and the primary source: the Ṣaḥābah took the religion from him, and every scholar of the madhhab after them inherits from that same source.
The foundation
مَّن يُطِعِ الرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَاعَ اللَّهَ
“Whoever obeys the Messenger has obeyed Allah.”
al-Nisāʾ 4:80
Obedience to Rasūlullāh ﷺ is obedience to Allah. The madhhab exists to preserve and convey that obedience: how the Ṣaḥābah understood and practised what he taught, passed down through a chain of scholars.
Rasūlullāh ﷺ in the Qurʾān
His Mission
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِّلْعَالَمِينَ
“And We have not sent you except as a mercy to all the worlds.”
al-Anbiyāʾ 21:107
يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ شَاهِدًا وَمُبَشِّرًا وَنَذِيرًا
“O Prophet, indeed We have sent you as a witness, a bearer of good news and a warner.”
al-Aḥzāb 33:45
لَقَدْ مَنَّ اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ
“Allah has certainly conferred a favour upon the believers when He sent among them a Messenger from among themselves.”
Āl ʿImrān 3:164
Source
The arrangement of this page follows al-Kaffawī (d. 990 AH), Katāʾib Aʿlām al-Akhyār min Fuqahāʾ Madhhab al-Nuʿmān al-Mukhtār.