The Shāfi‘ī madhab () is one of the four schools of fiqh, or religious law, within Sunni Islam. The Shāfi‘ī school of fiqh is named after its founder, Imām ash-Shāfi‘ī. The other three schools of thought are Hanafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.

Principles

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The Shāfi‘ī School of thought stipulates authority to four sources of jurisprudence, also known as the Usul al-fiqh. In hierarchical order the usul al-fiqh consist of: the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet, ijma' (consensus), and qiyas. The Shāfi‘ī school also refers to the opinions of the Prophet's companions (primarily Al-Khulafa ar-Rashidun). The school, based on Shāfi‘ī's books ar-Risala fi Usul al-Fiqh and Kitāb al-Umm, which emphasizes proper istinbaat (derivation of laws) through the rigorous application of legal principles as opposed to speculation or conjecture.

The Shāfi‘ī school is considered one of the more conservative of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, but there are many adherents of the Shāfi‘ī tradition who maintain liberal views in practicing their religion.

History

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As a member of the school of Medina, ash-Shāfi‘ī worked to combine the pragmatism of the Medina school with the contemporary pressures of the Traditionalists. The Traditionalists maintained that jurists could not independently adduce a practice as the sunnah of Muhammad based on ijtihad, or independent reasoning, but should only produce verdicts substantiated by authentic hadith.

Based on this claim, ash-Shāfi‘ī devised a method for systematic reasoning without relying on personal deduction. He argued that the only authoritative sunnah were those that were both of Muhammad and passed down from Muhammad himself. He also argued that sunnah contradicting the Quran were unacceptable, claiming that sunnah should only be used to explain the Quran. Furthermore, ash-Shāfi‘ī claimed that if a practice is widely accepted throughout the Muslim community, it cannot be in contradiction of sunnah.

Importance of the Shāfi‘ī School

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The Shāfi‘ī school is followed throughout the Ummah, but is most prevalent by Kurds in Kurdistan (in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran) and by other communities in Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Syria and is the official madhab followed by the government of Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia. It is followed by approximately 15 percent of Muslims world-wide. ^*

The Shāfi‘ī tradition is accessible to English speakers from the translation of the Reliance of the Traveller.

Famous followers of this school

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• Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi - prime minister of Malaysia
• Nizam al-Mulk, the Persian Grand Vizier
• ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, author
• al-Nawawi, jurist
• al-Ghazali, author
• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
• Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, author

References

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• Rippin, Andrew (2005). Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 90-93. ISBN 0-415-34888-9.
• 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: Shafi'i's Risala. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society. pp. 286.

Shafi'i

شافعية | Schafiiten | Chaféisme | Şafii