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Shafi'i school

The Shafi'i school or Shafi'ism (Arabic: ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلشَّافِعِيّ, romanized: al-madhhab al-shāfiʿī) is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam.[1][2] It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al-Shafi'i, "the father of Muslim jurisprudence",[3] in the early 9th century.[4][5][3]

"Shafi" redirects here. For other uses, see Shafi (disambiguation).

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]


The Shafiʽi school was widely followed in the Middle East until the rise of the Ottomans and the Safavids.[6][10] Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafiʽi Islam across the Indian Ocean, as far as India and Southeast Asia.[11][12] The Shafiʽi school is now predominantly found in parts of the Hejaz and the Levant, Lower Egypt and Yemen, and among the Kurdish people, in the North Caucasus and across the Indian Ocean (Horn of Africa and the Swahili Coast in Africa and coastal South Asia and Southeast Asia).[13][14][1][15]


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 sacred scripture of Islam.[9][4]

Qurʾān

— defined by Al-Shāfiʿī as "the sayings, the acts, and the tacit acquiescence of Prophet Muhammad as related in solidly established traditions".[9][17]

Sunnah

Risālah[edit]

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.[19] A first version of the Risālah, al-Risalah al-Qadima, produced by al-Shafiʽi during his stay in Baghdad, is currently lost.[9]

Shafiʽi school argued that various existing local traditions may not reflect the practice of (a critique to the Mālikī thought).[9] The local traditions, according to the Shāfiʿī understanding, thus cannot be treated as sources of law.[20]

Muhammad

The Shafiʽi thoughts were initially spread by Al-Shafiʽi students in and Baghdad. By the 10th century, the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and Syria also became chief centres of Shafiʽi ideas.[10]

Cairo

The school later exclusively held the judgeships in , 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]

Syria

Under , 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]

Salah al-Din

Traders and merchants helped to spread Shafiʽi Islam across the , as far India and the Southeast Asia.[11][12]

Indian Ocean

Middle East and North Africa: Parts of , 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][34][35]

Hejaz

Eurasia: Northern regions of , Dagestan, Chechen and Ingush regions of the North Caucasus.

Azerbaijan

Djibouti

The Shafiʽi school is presently predominant in the following parts of the world:[13]


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.

Sunni Islam

Hanafi

Maliki

Hanbali

Shia Islam

Al-Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad ibn Idrīs; Lowry, Joseph E. (2013). . Translated by Lowry, Joseph E. New York University Press. ISBN 9781479855445. JSTOR j.ctt17mvkhj.

The Epistle on Legal Theory: A Translation of Al-Shafi'i's Risalah

Cilardo, Agostino (2014). "Shafiʽi Fiqh". In Fitzpatrick, Coeli; Walker, Adam Hani (eds.). . ABC-CLIO.

Muhammad in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God

Yahia, Mohyddin (2009). Shafiʽi et les deux sources de la loi islamique, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers,  978-2-503-53181-6

ISBN

Rippin, Andrew (2005). Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 90–93.  0-415-34888-9.

ISBN

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: Shafiʽi's Risala. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society. pp. 286.

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.

Shafi'iyyah (University of Cumbria)