Shafi'i school

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The Shafi'i school (Arabic: ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلشَّافِعِيّ, romanized: al-madhhab al-shāfiʿī) is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence. It belongs to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam.[1][2] It is named after the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al-Shafi'i (c. 767–820 CE), also known as "the father of Muslim jurisprudence",[3] in the early 9th century.[4][5][3] One who subscribes to the Shafi'i school is called a Shafi'i (Arabic: ٱلشَّافِعِيّ, romanized: al-shāfiʿī, pl. ٱلشَّافِعِيَّة, al-shāfiʿīyah or ٱلشَّوَافِع, al-shawāfiʿ).

The other three schools of Sunnī jurisprudence are Ḥanafī, Mālikī and Ḥanbalī.[1][2] Like the other schools of fiqh, Shafiʽi 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.[4][6] The Shafi'i school affirms the authority of both divine law-giving (the Qurʾān and the Sunnah) and human speculation regarding the Law.[7] Where passages of Qurʾān and/or the Ḥadīths are ambiguous, the school seeks guidance of Qiyās (analogical reasoning).[7][8] The Ijmā' (consensus of scholars or of the community) was "accepted but not stressed".[7] The school rejected the dependence on local traditions as the source of legal precedent and rebuffed the Ahl al-Ra'y (personal opinion) and the Istiḥsān (juristic discretion).[7][9]

The Shafi'i school is followed by more than 350 million people, comprising around 17.5% of the Muslim population worldwide.[10] 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 Shafiʽi school was widely followed in the Middle East until the rise of the Ottomans and the Safavids.[6][11] Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafiʽi Islam across the Indian Ocean, as far as Southeast Asia.[12][13]

Principles

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Aqidah
Sunni
Six Articles of Iman
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File:Chester Beatty T 414 fol 130r al-Shāfiʿī.jpg
Illustration of a 1585-1590 Ottoman manuscript depicting Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī

The fundamental principle of the Shafiʽi 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".[9] This statute is either presented as such in the Qurʾān or the Sunnah or it is possible, by means of analogical reasoning (Qiyas), to infer it from the Qurʾān or the Sunnah.[9]

Al-Shafiʽi was the first jurist to insist that Ḥadīth were the decisive source of law (over traditional doctrines of earlier thoughts).[14] In order of priority, the sources of jurisprudence according to the Shafiʽi thought, are:[4][15]

The Foundation (al asl)

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The school rejected dependence on local community practice as the source of legal precedent.[7][16][9]

Ma'qul al-asl

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  • Qiyas with Legal Proof or Dalil Shari'a — "Analogical reasoning as applied to the deduction of juridical principles from the Qurʾān and the Sunnah."[4][15]
    • Analogy by Cause (Qiyas al-Ma'na/Qiyas al-Illa)[9]
    • Analogy by Resemblance (Qiyas al-Shabah)[9]
  • Ijmā' — consensus of scholars or of the community ("accepted but not stressed").[7]

The concept of Istishab was first introduced by the later Shafiʽi scholars.[11] Al-Shafiʽi also postulated that "penal sanctions lapse in cases where repentance precedes punishment".[14]

Risālah

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The groundwork legal text for the Shafiʽi law is al-Shafiʽi's al-Risala ("the Message"), composed in Egypt. It outlines the principles of Shafiʽi legal thought as well as the derived jurisprudence.[17] A first version of the Risālah, al-Risalah al-Qadima, produced by al-Shafiʽi during his stay in Baghdad, is currently lost.[9]

Proximity of Shia and Shafi'i

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Shia jurists, based on the narrations of Fourteen Innocents, believe that "In the Name of God, the Most Merciful, 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

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Al-Shāfiʿī fundamentally criticised the concept of judicial conformism (the Istiḥsan).[18]

With Mālikī view

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  • Shafiʽi school argued that various existing local traditions may not reflect the practice of Muhammad (a critique to the Mālikī thought).[9] The local traditions, according to the Shāfiʿī understanding, thus cannot be treated as sources of law.[18]

With Ḥanafī view

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  • The Shafiʽi school rebuffed the Ahl al-Ra'y (personal opinion) and the Istiḥsān (juristic discretion).[9] It insisted that the rules of the jurists could no longer be invoked in legal issues without additional authentications.[18][19][20] 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 Imams[18]).[21][18]
  • The Shafiʽi thinking believes that the methods may help to "substitute man for God and Prophet Muhammad, the only legitimate legislators"[9] and "true knowledge and correct interpretation of religious obligations would suffer from arbitrary judgments infused with error".[22][23][24][25]

History

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File:Indian Ocean-CIA WFB Map.png
Shafiʽi school is predominantly found across the Indian Ocean littoral.

Al-Shāfiʿī (c. 767–820 AD) 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.[3][26][27]

  • The Shafiʽi thoughts were initially spread by Al-Shafiʽi students in Cairo and Baghdad. By the 10th century, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and Syria also became chief centres of Shafiʽi ideas.[11]
  • The school later exclusively held the judgeships in Syria, Kirman, Bukhara and the Khorasan. It also flourished in northern Mesopotamia and in Daylam.[11] The Ghurids also endorsed the Shafiʽis in the 11th and 12th centuries AD.[11]
  • Under Salah al-Din, the Shafiʽi school again became the paramount thought in Egypt (the region had come under Shi'a influence prior to this period).[11] It was the "official school" of the Ayyubid dynasty and remained prominent during Mamlūk period also.[14] Baybars, the Mamlūk sultan, later appointed judges from all four madhabs in Egypt.[11]
  • Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafiʽi Islam across the Indian Ocean, as far India and the Southeast Asia.[12][13]

Under Ottomans and the Safavids

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  • Rise of the Ottomans in the 16th century resulted in the replacement of Shafiʽi judges by Ḥanafī scholars.[25][11]
  • After the beginning of the Safavid rule, the presence of the Shafi's in Iran was limited to the western regions of the country.[28][29][30][31]

Distribution

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File:Madhhab Map3.png
An approximate map showing the distribution of the Shafiʽi school (azure blue)

The Shafiʽi 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.[1][32] 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.[14][7][33][34] The Shafi'i school is principal school of thought followed throughout Southeast Asia, in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.[2][35][32][36] 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.[2][35]

The Shafiʽi school is the third-largest school of Sunni madhhabs by number of adherents, after Hanafi and Maliki.[2][35] The demographic data for Shafi'ism is considered to be more than 350 million.[10] It is one of two dominant schools of thought practiced among Muslims in the United States other than Hanafi.[37]

Notable Shafiʽis

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Contemporary Shafiʽi scholars

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From Middle East and North Africa:

From Southeast Asia:

From South Asia:

See also

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References

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Notes

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1.^ "The law provides sanctions for any religious practice other than the Sunni Shafiʽi doctrine of Islam and for prosecution of converts from Islam, and bans proselytizing for any religion except Islam."[32]

Citations

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  1. ^ a b Hallaq 2009, p. 31.
  2. ^ a b c d Saeed 2008, p. 17.
  3. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ a b c d e Ramadan 2006, pp. 27–77.
  5. ^ Kamali 2008, p. 77.
  6. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  8. ^ Hasyim 2005, pp. 75–77.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  10. ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  12. ^ a b Christelow 2000, p. 377.
  13. ^ a b Pouwels 2002, p. 139.
  14. ^ a b c d Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  15. ^ a b c Al-Zarkashi 1393, p. 209.
  16. ^ Brown 2014, p. 39.
  17. ^ Khadduri 1961, pp. 14–22.
  18. ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  19. ^ Istislah The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press
  20. ^ Istihsan The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, Oxford University Press
  21. ^ Ridgeon 2003, p. 259–262.
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  24. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  25. ^ a b Hallaq 2009a, p. 58–71.
  26. ^ Haddad 2007, p. 121.
  27. ^ Dutton, p. 16.
  28. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  31. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  32. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  33. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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  35. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  36. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  37. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

Bibliography

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Primary sources

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Scholarly sources

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Further reading

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  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Yahia, Mohyddin (2009). Shafiʽi et les deux sources de la loi islamique, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  • Rippin, Andrew (2005). Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 90–93. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value)..
  • Calder, Norman, Jawid Mojaddedi, and Andrew Rippin (2003). Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature. London: Routledge. Section 7.1.
  • Schacht, Joseph (1950). The Origins of Muhammadan Jurisprudence. Oxford: Oxford University. pp. 16.
  • Khadduri, Majid (1987). Islamic Jurisprudence: Shafiʽi's Risala. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society. pp. 286.
  • Abd Majid, Mahmood (2007). Tajdid Fiqh Al-Imam Al-Syafi'i. Seminar pemikiran Tajdid Imam As Shafie 2007.
  • al-Shafiʽi, Muhammad b. Idris, "The Book of the Amalgamation of Knowledge" translated by A.Y. Musa in Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on The Authority Of Prophetic Traditions in Islam, New York: Palgrave, 2008.
  • BinAzeez (2025).'A concise guide to Arkan ul Iman and Arkan ul Islam' PDF download:https://archive.org/details/Salah_Guide
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[https://archive.org/details/Salah_Guide Al Falah (A concise guide to Arkan ul Iman and Arkan ul Islam as pdf)]

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