This is Bilal Philips' best-selling work on the various schools of thought in Islam, including detailed facts, insight, and commentary on the four major madhabs as well as other, less-known madhabs in Islam. Includes mini-biographies on various eminent Islamic scholars.

The author very clearly presents a brief overview of the historical development of Islamic law and its schools (the 'madhabs, ''madhahib'). The book identifies the main reason for the appearance of the schools and the factors leading to differences among them. For those to whom the madh-habs have been a mystery, this aspect of the book will be extremely enlightening.