Author. Sultan al-Masumi lived in a part of the Muslim world that was steeped in Sufism and following the madhhabs - there are at least five recognised law schools, each regarded with Muslim egalitarianism as equally valid - the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi, Hanbali and Jaferi schools. In practice, the first four madhhabs did not differ markedly from one another. Each Muslim could choose the one he or she would follow, though most tended towards the one that was prevalent locally. Al-Masumi's studies led him to question the correctness of blindly following of the madhhabs. Al-Masumi was imprisoned several times when the Communist revolution took place, in 1917, under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin and many scholars were slaughtered and many transported to the frozen north. In Margheeyaan he challenged the atheists and destroyed their arguments, consequently the atheists looted his house and his arrest was ordered and that he be shot. Al-Masumi fled to China and remained there for a number of years. Al-Masumi left China and reached Makkah in 1354H where he became a teacher in Daar ul-Hadeeth. Muhammad Sultan al-Masumi was born in Khajnadah, a town of Mesopotamia.