Brief History of Shafi’I School of Law

 Named after Muhammad ibnIdris al-Shafi’I (767-819)

He belonged originally to the school of Medina and
was also a pupil of Malik ibnAnas, the founder of Maliki
School of Law. However, he came to believe in the
overriding authority of the traditions from the Prophet
and identified them with the Sunnah

 Baghdad and Cairo were the chief centres of

Shafi’iyyah
The Shafi’I teaching was spread by the students in
Cairo, Mecca and Baghdad. From these two cities, Shafii
teaching spread into various parts of the Islamic world.
In the 10th century, Mecca and Medina came to be
regarded as the school’s chief centres outside of Egypt

 The Shafi’I school was, in the early history of Islam,

the most followed ideology for Sharia.
The Shafi’I jurisprudence was adopted as the official
law during the Great Seljuq Empire, Zengid dynasty,
Ayyubid dynasty and later the Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo),
where it saw its widest application. However, with the
Ottoman Empire’s expansion and patronage in West Asia
and Turkic Sultanates in Central and South Asia, it was
replaced with the Hanafischool in many parts of the
Muslim world
 in part because Hanafites allowed Istihsan (juristic
preference) that allowed the rulers flexibility in interpreting
the religious law to their administrative preferences.

Shafii does not consider Istihsan (the personal

preference of Islamic legal scholars) as an acceptable
source of religious law because it amounts to “human
legislation” of Islamic law

The School of Imam al-Shafii went through five major

developmental stages:
 The stage of ta’sis
 The stage of naql
 The stage of tadwin and tawassu
 The stage of tahrir
 The stage of istiqrar
The stage of ta’sis (establishment/foundation)
 The period in which the foundations of the
school were established
 Ended with the death of its founder
 Left behind works such as al-Umm, Ar-
Risala, and others

This period represents the earliest stage in

the school’s development and it ended with
the death of its founder, Muhammad ibnIdris
al-Shafi’I, who left behind works such as al-
Umm, Ar-Risala and others.

Al-Umm is a book of law that is used as an

authoritative guide by the Shafii school of
fiqh, within the Sunni branch of Islam.

Ar-Risala is a seminal text on the principles

of Islamic jurisprudence which deals with the
rules of derivation and interference
The stage of naql /naklu/ (transmission)
 The period in which the school developed
during the period of ta’sis was transmitted

Basically, it is the period when the students of

Shafii started teaching and spreading the
knowledge of their teacher

The responsibility of transmitting and

spreading the Shafi’i school was shouldered by
the students of al-Shafi’i.

 “al-Mukhtasar” by Imam al-Muzani

The most famous work written by al-Shafi’i’s
students during this period is al-Mukhtasar by
Imam al-Muzani.

Al-Mukhtasar is a work of Imam Yahya al-Muzani

on the fiqh of his teacher, Imam Shafii, which would
serve as basis for some of the most significant fiqh
books to come
The stage of tadwin and tawassu
 The period in which scholars began formally
recording the fiqh of al-Shafi’i on paper as well as
expounding on many legal issues
The time when more events appeared which
forced the scholars in responding to these issues
with what they were taught as a bases of their
approach.

 From this period, two schools emerged:

1. The Iraqi School
The Iraqi school, which was led by Abu
Hamid al-Isfara’ini, al-Mawardi, Abu Tayyib
al-Tabari, al-Bandaniji, al-Mahamili, Sulaym
al-Razi, and others.

2. The Khurasani school

The Khurasani school, which was led
by al-Qaffal al-Saghir, Abu Bakr al-
Marwazi, Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni, al-
Furani, al-QadiHusayn, Abu ‘Ali al-Sinji, al-
Mas’udi, and others.
The stage of tahrir
 the period of revision
 Led by two Sheikhs of the school:
1. Imam al-Rafi’I
Imam al-Rafi’i, who recorded his findings in al-
Muharrar, Sharh al-Kabir and al-Sharh al-Saghir, two
works explaining Ghazzali’s al-Wajiz,

2. Imam al-Nawawi
and Imam al-Nawawi, whose impact on the
school during this critical stage of development is
exemplified by works like Minhaj al-Talibin, al-
Majmu’, a commentary of Shirazi’s al-Muhadhdhab,
and Rawdat al-Talibin and Ar-Rawda.

- In these works, al-Rafi’i and al-Nawawi revise the legal

issues of the school as well as the proofs for those legal
issues and determine which of the narrations of the
school are correct and which statements of the scholars
of the school should be given consideration.
- These six books were essential in the verification process
of the school and in reviewing the narrations and
statements of the scholars or the school, and
authenticating the information narrated within the
school boundaries.
The stage of istiqrar
 The period which focused on two great scholars:
1. IbnHajar al-Haytami
o (Tuhfat al-Muhtaj)
2. Shams al-Din al-Ramli
o (Nihayat al-Muhtaj)

- The period of consolidation in which the two great

imams, IbnHajar al-Haytami, and Shams al-Din al-Ramli,
- who, in the works Tuhfat al-Muhtaj and Nihayat al-
Muhtaj, discuss the views and statements of earlier
scholars of the school that neither al-Rafi’ nor al-
Nawawi had addressed, in addition to correcting what
remained of the school’s legal issues and tracking
various issues throughout the chapters of fiqh
- Having undergone verification at the hands of al-Rafi’I
and al-Nawawi, with the issues left unaddressed by the
two imams now finally taken care of by IbnHajar and al-
Ramli, the school reached its final stages of
development.
- Because of the rigour these imams had when revising
and consolidating the school, scholars of the later-
Shafi’I school wholeheartedly approved of their works.
- For whatever al-Rafi’i and al-Nawawi agreed upon
became the reliable position, and if either of the
imams were found disagreeing on an issue, later-
Shafi’is concluded that the view of al-Nawawi is to be
given preference—notwithstanding the fact that
formal legal edicts on the view of either imam is
permitted. And for any legal issue in the school that
has been left unaddressed, the reliable position is
what IbnHajar and al-Ramli agree upon. If IbnHajar
and al-Ramli hold divergent views on an issue the
people of Hijaz and Hadramawt give preference to
IbnHajar, while those in Egypt and the Levant tend to
support al-Ramli. As a concluding remark, it is
permitted to act on and issue formal legal verdicts
upon views frequently conveyed by in books by
scholars other than al-Rafi’I, al-Nawawi, IbnHajar, al-
Ramli as long as there is not agreement that the
respective viewpoint is an outright mistake, the
product of absentmindedness, or weak, and the only
way a view can be known as such is by studying
under the masters of this field.