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 (, or ).
The other three schools of Sunnë jurisprudence are Ḥanafë, MÃÂlikë and Ḥanbalë. Like the other schools of fiqh, Shafii recognize the First Four Caliphs as the Islamic prophet Muhammad's rightful successors and relies on the QurþÃÂn and the "sound" books of Ḥadëths as primary sources of law. The Shafi'i school affirms the authority of both divine law-giving (the QurþÃÂn and the Sunnah) and human speculation regarding the Law. Where passages of QurþÃÂn and/or the Ḥadëths are ambiguous, the school seeks guidance of QiyÃÂs (analogical reasoning). The IjmÃÂ' (consensus of scholars or of the community) 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 IstiḥsÃÂn (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 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.
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 QurþÃÂn or the Sunnah or it is possible, by means of analogical reasoning (Qiyas), to infer it from the QurþÃÂn or the Sunnah.
Al-Shafii was the first jurist to insist that Ḥadëth were the decisive source of law (over traditional doctrines of earlier thoughts). In order of priority, the sources of jurisprudence according to the Shafii thought, are:
The school rejected dependence on local community practice as the source of legal precedent.
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".
The groundwork legal text for the Shafii law is al-Shafiýi's al-Risala ("the Message"), composed in Egypt. It outlines the principles of Shafii legal thought as well as the derived jurisprudence. A first version of the RisÃÂlah, al-Risalah al-Qadima, produced by al-Shafiýi during his stay in Baghdad, is currently lost.
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 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.
Al-ShÃÂfiÿë fundamentally criticised the concept of judicial conformism (the Istiḥsan).
Al-ShÃÂfiÿë (âÂÂ820 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 MÃÂlik ibn Anas, the founder of the MÃÂlikë school of law, and of Muḥammad ShaybÃÂnë, the Baghdad Ḥanafë intellectual.
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.
In Hadith:
In Tafsir:
In Fiqh:
In Usul al-Fiqh:
In Arabic language studies:
In Theology:
In Philosophy:
In Sufism
In history
From Middle East and North Africa:
From Southeast Asia:
From South Asia:
Primary sources
Scholarly sources
Falah (A concise guide to Arkan ul Iman and Arkan ul Islam as pdf)