Opinions found in the Maliki school are as follows:
1. Muttafaq ‘alayhi – agreed upon within the madhab
2. Rajih – has stronger evidence
3. Mashhur – dominant in the number of scholars who held it
4. Musawi – multiple opinions equal in strength
5. Da’if – weak, opposite of rajih
6. Shadh – odd, opposite of mashhur
In Al-Butlayhiyya, Imam al-Aghlali organizes this in a couplet:
فما به الفتوى تجوز المتفق * عليه فالراجح سوقه نفق
فبعده المشهور فالمساوي * إن عدم الترجيح في التساوي
Why Do Some Say the Mashhur Precedes the Rajih?
Ibn Bashir says: “Scholars have defined the mashhur in two ways:
- That with the stronger evidence.
2. That which has been popularized.
Ibn Abd al-Salam says that the first definition is for the mujtahid, while the second is for the muqallid. Hence, there is no essential contradiction, but rather just a difference in how mashhur and rajih were defined. The mujtahid looks at the evidence (rajih) while the muqallid looks at what the imams of the madhab said (the mashhur).
Written by Harun Saleh
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