A madhhab is the way followed, the method and view that is adopted. Religiously, a madhhab is the religious school formed by people who adopt the ideas and views of a mujtahid scholar.

There is difference among madhhabs in essentials. There are some differences in details that are not related to the essence of the religion.

Besides, no mujtahid emerged with the claim of setting up a madhhab based on his name. A madhhab was set up spontaneously based on the name of a mujtahid when some people adopted the judgments and decrees deduced from verses and hadiths by that mujtahid.