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]
One who ascribes to the Shafi'i school is called a Shafi'i, Shafi'ite or Shafi'ist (Arabic: ٱلشَّافِعِيّ, romanized:al-shāfiʿī, pl. ٱلشَّافِعِيَّة, al-shāfiʿiyya or ٱلشَّوَافِع, al-shawāfiʿ).
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]
As-Shafiʽi was the first jurist to insist that Ḥadīth were the decisive source of law (over traditional doctrines of earlier thoughts).[16] In order of priority, the sources of jurisprudence according to the Shafiʽi thought, are:[4][17]
Sunnah — defined by Al-Shāfiʿī as "the sayings, the acts, and the tacit acquiescence of Prophet Muhammad as related in solidly established traditions".[9][17]
The school rejected dependence on local community practice as the source of legal precedent.[7][18][9]
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."[4][17]
Analogy by Cause (Qiyas al-Ma'na/Qiyas al-Illa)[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.[10] Al-Shafiʽi also postulated that "penal sanctions lapse in cases where repentance precedes punishment".[16]
Views on FGM
The school does not differentiate male and female circumcision and considers female circumcision (Female Genital Mutilation) alongside male circumcision to be wajib (obligatory). This makes it unique among the four primary Sunni schools of Jurisprudence as the only one to fully require FGM.[19]
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.[20] A first version of the Risālah, al-Risalah al-Qadima, produced by al-Shafiʽi during his stay in Baghdad, is currently lost.[9]
Al-Shāfiʿī fundamentally criticised the concept of judicial conformism (the Istiḥsan).[21]
With Mālikī view
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.[21]
With Ḥanafī view
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.[21][22][23] 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[21]).[24][21]
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".[25][26][27][28]
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][29][30]
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.[10]
The school later exclusively held the judgeships in Syria, Kirman, Bukhara and the Khorasan. It also flourished in northern Mesopotamia and in Daylam.[10] The Ghurids also endorsed the Shafiʽis in the 11th and 12th centuries AD.[10]
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).[10] It was the "official school" of the Ayyubid dynasty and remained prominent during Mamlūk period also.[16]Baybars, the Mamlūk sultan, later appointed judges from all four madhabs in Egypt.[10]
Rise of the Ottomans in the 16th century resulted in the replacement of Shafiʽi judges by Ḥanafī scholars.[28][10]
Under the Safavids, Shafiʽi preeminence in Central Asia was replaced by Shi'a Islam.[10]
After the beginning of the Safavid rule, the presence of the Shafi's in Iran was limited to the western regions of the country.[31][32][33][34]
An approximate map showing the distribution of the Shafiʽi school (azure blue)
The Shafiʽi school is presently predominant in the following parts of the world:[13]
Middle East and North Africa: Parts of Hejaz, the Levant (Palestine, Jordan and a significant number in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq), Lower Egypt, among Sunnis in Iran and Yemen, and the Kurdish people.[16][7][35][36]
The Shafiʽi school is one of the largest school of Sunni madhhabs by number of adherents.[2][13] The demographic data by each fiqh, for each nation, is unavailable and the relative demographic size are estimates.
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."[14]
Ridgeon, Lloyd (2003). Major World Religions: From Their Origins to the Present. Routledge. ISBN978-0415297967.
Dutton, Yasin. The Origins of Islamic Law: The Qurʼan, the Muwaṭṭaʼ and Madinan ʻAmal.
Haddad, Gibril F. (2007). The Four Imams and Their Schools. Muslim Academic Trust, London.
Pouwels, Randall L. (2002). Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0521523097.
Christelow, Allan (2000). Levtzion, Nehemia; Pouwels, Randall (eds.). "Islamic Law in Africa," in The History of Islam in Africa. Ohio University Press. ISBN978-0821412978.
Zayn Kassam; Bridget Blomfield (2015). "Remembering Fatima and Zaynab: Gender in Perspective". In Farhad Daftory (ed.). The Shi'i World. I. B. Tauris Press.
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.
