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 (c. 767–820 CE) of the early 9th century.

Like the other schools, the Shafiʽis rely on the Quran and the sound books of hadiths as primary sources of law. The Shafi'i school affirms the authority of both divine law-giving (the Quran and the Sunna) and human speculation regarding the Law. Where passages of Quran or the hadiths are ambiguous, the school seeks guidance of qiyas (analogical reasoning). The ijma (consensus of scholars) 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 (personal opinion) and the Istihsan (juristic discretion).

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 after the Hanafi and Maliki schools. The Shafi'i school is predominant in the Horn of Africa, North Caucasus, Southeast Asia, Lower Egypt, Qatar, Kerala and among the majority of the Kurdish Muslim population throughout Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The Shafiʽi school was the largest school followed in the Middle East until the rise of the Ottomans and the Safavids who patronized the Hanafi and Ja'fari schools respectively.

Principles

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". 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.

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

The Foundation (al asl)

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 (Qiyas al-Ma'na/Qiyas al-Illa)
    • Analogy by Resemblance (Qiyas al-Shabah)
  • Ijmā' — consensus of scholars or of the community ("accepted but not stressed").

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

Risālah

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. 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 Al-Bara'ah (Surah At-Tawbah). And "Shafi'i" jurists, unlike other Sunni schools, 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

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

With Mālikī view

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

With Ḥanafī view

  • The Shafiʽi school rebuffed the Ahl al-Ra'y (personal opinion) and the Istiḥsān (juristic discretion). 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 Imams).
  • The Shafiʽi 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

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.

Under Ottomans and the Safavids

  • Rise of the Ottomans in the 16th century resulted in the replacement of Shafiʽi 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

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. Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafiʽi Islam across the Indian Ocean. 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 Shafiʽi 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 Shafiʽis

Contemporary Shafiʽi scholars

From Middle East and North Africa:

From Southeast Asia:

From South Asia:

See also