Muhammad ibn Idr墨s al-Sh膩f墨士墨 was a Muslim jurist of early Islam. Often referred to as 'Shaykh al-Isl膩m', al-Sh膩fi鈥樐� was one of the four great Imams, whose legacy on juridical matters and teaching eventually led to the Shafi'i school of fiqh (or Madh'hab). He is often referred to as Imam al-Shafi鈥榠.
Legacy
Al-Sh膩fi鈥樐� developed the science of fiqh unifying 'revealed sources' - the Quran and hadith - with human reasoning to provide a basis in law. With this systematization of shari'a he provided a legacy of unity for all Muslims and forestalled the development of independent, regionally based legal systems. The four Sunni legals schools or madhhabs keep their traditions within the framework that Shafi'i established.
Al-Sh膩fi鈥樐� gives his name to one of these legal schools Shafi'i fiqh - the Shafi'i school - which is followed in many different places in the Islamic world: Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Somalia, Yemen as well as Sri Lanka and southern parts of India.
Saladin built a madrassa and a shrine on the site of his tomb. Saladin's brother Afdal built a mausoleum for him in 1211 after the defeat of the Fatamids. It remains a site where people petition for justice.
Works
He authored more than 100 books.
Al-Risala 鈥� The best known book by al-Shafi'i in which he examined principles of jurisprudence. The book has been translated into English.
Kitab al-Umm - his main surviving text on Shafi'i fiqh
Musnad ash-Shafi'i (on hadith) - it is available with arrangement, Arabic 'Tartib', by Ahmad ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Banna
In addition to this, al-Shafi'i was an eloquent poet, who composed many short poems aimed at addressing morals and behaviour.
Islam as a faith is a totality and by nature includes every area of life - nothing in Islam is out of the realm of the divine, which is a natural extension of the Islamic doctrine of Tawhid (Oneness of God). Combined with this thought is the fact that we as Muslims believe in a concept of The Real or Allah that in its core essence is unchanging. Yet the manifestations of the One in this world are unique in the sense that we are each individuals who "contain" God in our individual ways in the framework of the Sacred Law or nature.
What is not changing is the final Revelation in this world through the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in the form of the Qur'an. Yet the Qur'an, like everything else that is a part of the divine totality is a living entity, breathing in a continual process of renewed creation.
Jurisprudence is the branch of the Islamic sciences that admittedly causes the most friction in my own life (not as a concept, but in the human part of its reality). In accepting Islam I believe fully and completely in the need for a divine law. Better, I see the divine law in every element of the universe, right down to the human-in-the-world; the universe exists and functions on the basis of the divine law. Yet humanity by nature is an imperfection which at one and the same time provides the very necessity for a law and a clear path to The Real, but humans also must make sense of that law and path in daily lived experience, and humans are fallible creatures. And it is precisely here that is the rub.
How do we as humans take the divine law and make something so permanent in its underlying essence and ideals of morality and justice in the light of the final Revelation applicable to a changing world?
This book by Al-Shafi'i is a classic of Islamic jurisprudence. It can be tedious reading for those who are not Muslim or inclined towards legal history as it is filled with individual examples and illustrations of Shafi'i's method, some of which touch the smallest details of life. Shafi'i starts with the Qur'an (as does all of Islamic jurisprudence) as the first source in legal decisions, then the Sunnah (words, actions) of the Prophet followed by the consensus of the Islamic community on a given legal question and finally analogy or method of comparison.
One illustration of the dissonance I experience in my own life is that I believe that the Prophet Muhammad is the window to the divine, and that the love of the Prophet and his Sunnah is essential to Muslim life. I also believe the Prophet to be infallible and the symbol of perfection in the form of the Islamic "Universal Man". Yet everything that the Prophet has left for us outside of his being a vessel for the delivery of the Qur'an has come down to us - transmitted - through fallible humans. This is no reflection on the science of isnad or chain of transmission or transmitters from which these sayings and reported actions of the Prophet have come down, it's simply a statement of Islamic faith that the transmitters were by nature fallible humans as they were not of the Prophetic substance, no matter how reliable we might deem them.
My question simply is this: Does this infusion of raw fallible humanity into the divine transmission of the law cloud our vision of how that law should be manifested? Because not only are we dealing with transmitters of traditions of the Prophet, we are also dealing with a long chain of scholars/jurists who existed in a cultural milieu that influences their entire being, and therefore the legal decisions they make, no matter the claims to impartiality. Personally I see no easy answers to this question and I see the same question being grappled with in the Islamic community. Questions that have never come up during the formative days of Islamic law are now being faced, specifically as they relate to certain forms of bioethics, human rights and new modes of existence in a modern, technical world.
Shafi'i as a scholar was one of the most respected, if not the most respected jurist in Islamic history. Al-Ghazali was a scholar in the Shafi'i school as were many other notable Islamic figures. Shafi'i law is one of the four major Sunni Islam schools of law alongside Hanbali, Maliki and Hanafi law. This treatise is actually constructed in the form of a dialogue that Shafi'i is having with an interlocutor of the Hanafi school.
My "mark down" of this book is mostly a reflection of my own struggles with jurisprudence and is not meant as a reflection of the qualities of the book as a legal document (I'm not a jurist) nor is it meant as an indictment of the Shafi'i school of law. It is also not to be understood that I am questioning the importance of Islamic jurisprudence or its place in the life of the Muslim. I'm not. I simply believe that we are required as Muslims to learn all we can about this part of Islamic life. Furthermore, we are required as an Islamic community to uphold that part of the legal process, ijma (consensus of the community), in a responsible and informed manner.
From an Educational perspective, the book offers deep insight into the methods adopted by one of the greatest and respected scholars of Islam from an early time period.
The arguable "first" canonical piece of Islamic jurisprudence that sought to synthesis and unite the ahl al-ra'y (people of opinion) and ahl al-taqlid (people of tradition). The former were concerned with personal/independent reasoning in constructing legal argument and justifications whilst the traditionalists relied heavily on scripture.
The text shows a great utility in logic being applied to scripture in it's arguments of how to derive meaningful legal principles and decisions from the key sources, of which are given a hierarchy by Shafi'i for the first time: 1. Al-Quran, 2. Sunnah 3. Ijma (consensus of the Muslim community) 4. Qiyas (use of analogy). It is remarkable and challenging for 9th Century Arabia to have such a work be produced that attempts to diplomatically sow the gap between deeply divergent views, and shows early efforts to harmonise relatonships within the Muslim commnunity.
The grandness of Shafi'is "middle ground" withers to a considerable extent when he assumes ijtihad (independent reasoning) as the same as Qiyas and vice versa. Therefore, personal discretion is avoided at all costs in his legal framework which (possibly) contributed to the (near) closing of the gate of ijtihad. I am not fully knowledgable of the extent to which this text resolutely impacted the trend of a noticable decline in ijtihad in the context of ahl al-ra'y. However, it logically seems to signify and condone the essence of scripture and tradition, in of itself, as the primary authority which has galvanised tradition over "opinion". The importance of tradition is important, not just to 9th Century Arabia in combatting further civil strife in attempts to unify the community [note: Japan also underwent the process of 'tribal' unification under a single banner of community].
The acerbic knowledge of the Arabic language and Shafi'is recall of previous debates on key legal issues is fascinating to observe, despite the difficulty in my grasping of it's winding narrative and superfluous religious exhaltations which is expected for his time.
The Epistle on Legal Theory: A Translation of Al-Sh膩fi士墨鈥檚 Ris膩lah
The Epistle on Legal Theory is the oldest surviving Arabic work on Islamic legal theory and the foundational document of Islamic jurisprudence. Its author, Muhammad ibn Idris al-Sh膩fi士i (d. 204 H/820 AD), was the eponym of the Sh膩fi士i school of legal thought, one of the four rites in Sunni Islam. This fascinating work offers the first systematic treatment in Arabic of key issues in Islamic legal thought. These include a survey of the importance of Arabic as the language of revelation, principles of textual interpretation to be applied to the Qur'an and prophetic Traditions, techniques for harmonizing apparently contradictory precedents, legal epistemology, rules of inference, and discussions of when legal interpretation is required. The author illustrates his theoretical claims with numerous examples drawn from nearly all areas of Islamic law, including ritual law, commercial law, tort law, and criminal law. The text thus provides an important window into both Islamic law and legal thought in particular and early Islamic intellectual history in general.
This new translation by a leading scholar of Sh膩fi士i and his thought makes available in lucid, modern English one of the earliest complete works on Islamic law鈥攐ne that is centrally important for the formation of Islamic legal thought and the Islamic legal tradition.
About the Author
Muhammad ibn Idr墨s al-Sh膩fi士i听(d. 204H/820AD) was the eponym of the Shafi'i school of legal thought, one of the four rites in Sunn墨 Islam.
One thing that you have to know before reading this is that Usool of Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence) are only to be read and learned in Arabic. So why would I concern myself with a translation? Also, there are newer usool books that are longer and easier to understand. However, I wanted to go back and see the genius of a Mujaddid like Imam Al-Shafi'i and how he resolved issues of jurisprudence. And this serves well in this case. I do not see any other reason for getting your hands on this book. I intend to get into the books of Usool soon, and this was only an intro or preview of the Arabic Books that I am to start learning.
Antara karya terkenal yang dikarang oleh Imam Syafi'i. Ia menjadi asas kepada fikah yang dianuti oleh para pengikut mazhab Syafi'i. Beliau menyenaraikan sumber-sumber perundangan dalam Islam. Saya membaca karya ini di musim Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) dan di bulan ramadan. Saya tertarik dengan kisah Saidina Umar yang membatalkan lawatan ke Syria kerana berlakunya wabak dan beliau menuruti selepas mendengar hadis tentang wabak dan larangan oleh Rasulullah dari Abdurrahman bin Auf walapun beliau dikecam.