Shafi'i school


The Shafi'i school is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition. It is named after the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al-Shafi'i, also known as "the father of Muslim jurisprudence", in the early 9th century. One who subscribes to the Shafi'i school is called a Shafi'i.
The other three schools of Sunnī jurisprudence are Ḥanafī, Mālikī and Ḥanbalī. Like the other schools of fiqh, Shafii recognize the First Four Caliphs as the Islamic prophet Muhammad's rightful successors and relies on the Qurʾān and the "sound" books of Ḥadīths as primary sources of law. The Shafi'i school affirms the authority of both divine law-giving and human speculation regarding the Law. Where passages of Qurʾān and/or the Ḥadīths are ambiguous, the school seeks guidance of Qiyās. The Ijmā' was "accepted but not stressed". The school rejected the dependence on local traditions as the source of legal precedent and rebuffed the Ahl al-Ra'y and the Istiḥsān.
The Shafi'i school is followed by more than 350 million people, comprising around 17.5% of the Muslim population worldwide. As such, it is the third-largest Sunni school and is followed predominantly in Lower Egypt, the Horn of Africa, Southeast Asia and among the Kurdish Muslim population throughout Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Shafii school was widely followed in the Middle East until the rise of the Ottomans and the Safavids. Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafii Islam across the Indian Ocean, as far as Southeast Asia.

Principles

The fundamental principle of the Shafii thought depends on the idea that "to every act performed by a believer who is subject to the Law there corresponds a statute belonging to the Revealed Law or the Shari'a". This statute is either presented as such in the Qurʾān or the Sunnah or it is possible, by means of analogical reasoning, to infer it from the Qurʾān or the Sunnah.
Al-Shafii was the first jurist to insist that Ḥadīth were the decisive source of law. In order of priority, the sources of jurisprudence according to the Shafii thought, are:

The Foundation (al asl)

  • Qurʾān — the sacred scripture of Islam.
  • Sunnah — defined by Al-Shāfiʿī as "the sayings, the acts, and the tacit acquiescence of Prophet Muhammad as related in solidly established traditions".
The school rejected dependence on local community practice as the source of legal precedent.

Ma'qul al-asl

  • Qiyas with Legal Proof or Dalil Shari'a — "Analogical reasoning as applied to the deduction of juridical principles from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah."
  • * Analogy by Cause
  • * Analogy by Resemblance
  • Ijmā' — consensus of scholars or of the community.
The concept of Istishab was first introduced by the later Shafii scholars. Al-Shafii also postulated that "penal sanctions lapse in cases where repentance precedes punishment".

Risālah

The groundwork legal text for the Shafii law is al-Shafiʽi's al-Risala, composed in Egypt. It outlines the principles of Shafii legal thought as well as the derived jurisprudence. A first version of the Risālah, al-Risalah al-Qadima, produced by al-Shafiʽi during his stay in Baghdad, is currently lost.

Proximity of Shia and Shafi'i

Shia jurists, based on the narrations of Fourteen Innocents, believe that "In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" is part of all the surahs of the Qur'an, except the Surah of Ba'at. And "Shafi'i" jurists, unlike other Sunni sects, agree with the Shi'a opinion, and consider "In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful" as part of all the surahs of the Qur'an. Therefore, it is considered obligatory to recite it in a loud voice in the Jahriyeh prayer.

Differences from Mālikī and Ḥanafī thoughts

fundamentally criticised the concept of judicial conformism.

With Mālikī view

  • Shafii school argued that various existing local traditions may not reflect the practice of Muhammad. The local traditions, according to the Shāfiʿī understanding, thus cannot be treated as sources of law.

    With Ḥanafī view

  • The Shafii school rebuffed the Ahl al-Ra'y and the Istiḥsān. It insisted that the rules of the jurists could no longer be invoked in legal issues without additional authentications. The school refused to admit doctrines that had no textual basis in either the Qurʾān or Ḥadīths, but were based on the opinions of Islamic scholars.
  • The Shafii thinking believes that the methods may help to "substitute man for God and Prophet Muhammad, the only legitimate legislators" and "true knowledge and correct interpretation of religious obligations would suffer from arbitrary judgments infused with error".

    History

visited most of the great centres of Islamic jurisprudence in the Middle East during the course of his travels and amassed a comprehensive knowledge of the different ways of legal theory. He was a student of Mālik ibn Anas, the founder of the Mālikī school of law, and of Muḥammad Shaybānī, the Baghdad Ḥanafī intellectual.
  • The Shafii thoughts were initially spread by Al-Shafii students in Cairo and Baghdad. By the 10th century, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and Syria also became chief centres of Shafii ideas.
  • The school later exclusively held the judgeships in Syria, Kirman, Bukhara and the Khorasan. It also flourished in northern Mesopotamia and in Daylam. The Ghurids also endorsed the Shafiis in the 11th and 12th centuries AD.
  • Under Salah al-Din, the Shafii school again became the paramount thought in Egypt. It was the "official school" of the Ayyubid dynasty and remained prominent during Mamlūk period also. Baybars, the Mamlūk sultan, later appointed judges from all four madhabs in Egypt.
  • Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafii Islam across the Indian Ocean, as far India and the Southeast Asia.

    Under Ottomans and the Safavids

  • Rise of the Ottomans in the 16th century resulted in the replacement of Shafii judges by Ḥanafī scholars.
  • After the beginning of the Safavid rule, the presence of the Shafi's in Iran was limited to the western regions of the country.

    Distribution

The Shafii school is presently predominant in the Indian Ocean and the Horn of Africa in the countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia while forming a minority in the Swahili Coast. Within the Middle East, it is the majority school of the Kurdish Muslim population in the Levant and Iraq, as well as Lower Egypt and Yemen. The Shafi'i school is principal school of thought followed throughout Southeast Asia, in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Shafi'is form a plurality in coastal southern Indian states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and are half of the Muslim population in Sri Lanka and the Maldives alongside Hanafis.
The Shafii school is the third-largest school of Sunni madhhabs by number of adherents, after Hanafi and Maliki. The demographic data for Shafi'ism is considered to be more than 350 million. It is one of two dominant schools of thought practiced among Muslims in the United States other than Hanafi.

Notable Shafiis

In Hadith:
In Tafsir:
In Fiqh:
In Usul al-Fiqh:
  • Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi
  • Al-Juwayni
  • Al-Ghazali
  • Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
  • Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam
  • Taqi al-Din al-Subki
  • Al-Mahalli
  • Al-Suyuti
  • Taj al-Din al-Subki
In Arabic language studies:
In Theology:
In Philosophy:
In Sufism
In history
Statesmen
File:Tabaqat al-Subki.jpg|thumbnail|right|Book cover of Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra by Shaykh al-Islam Taj al-Din al-Subki