Al-Shafi'i

Al-Shafi'iTemplate:Efn (Template:Langx; {{#invoke:IPA|main}};767–820 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, traditionist, theologian, ascetic, and eponym of the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. He is known to be the first to write a book upon the principles of Islamic jurisprudence, having authored one of the earliest work on the subject: al-Risala. His legacy and teaching on the matter provided it with a systematic form, thereby "fundamentally influencing the succeeding generations which are under his direct and obvious impact,"<ref name="IJ" />Template:Rp and "beginning a new phase of the development of legal theory."<ref name="IJ">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp

Being born in Gaza, Palestine, to the Banu Muttalib clan of the Quraysh tribe,<ref name=haddad/> he relocated at the age of two and was raised in Mecca.<ref name=haddad/> He later resided in Medina, Yemen, Baghdad in Iraq, and Egypt, and also served as a judge for some time in Najran.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Introduction

The biography of al-Shafi'i is difficult to trace. It was said Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 884 CE) was the first to write one, but the work has been lost.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Pageneeded The oldest surviving biography goes back to Ibn Abi Hatim al-Razi (d. 938/939 CE), but is only a collection of anecdotes, some of them fantastical. Similarly, a biographical sketch written by Zakariyya ibn Yahya al-Saji was later reproduced, but even then, a great deal of legend had already crept into the story of al-Shafi'i's life.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> The first real biography was written by al-Bayhaqi (d. 1065/1066 CE), but is filled with what a modernist eye would qualify as pious legends. The following is what seems to be a sensible reading, according to a modern reductionist perspective.

Biography

Ancestry

Al-Shafi'i belonged to the Qurayshi clan of Banu Muttalib, which was the sister clan of the Banu Hashim, to which Muhammad and the Abbasid caliphs belonged. This lineage may have given him prestige, arising from his belonging to the tribe of Muhammad, and his great-grandfather's kinship to him.<ref name=":1" /> However, he grew up in poverty, in spite of his connections to the highest social circles.Template:Citation needed

Early life

Born in Gaza, Palestine, near the town of ʿAsqalān in 767/768 CE/150 AH.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> His father died in Sham while he was still a child. Fearing the waste of his sharif lineage, his mother decided to move to Mecca when he was about two years old. Furthermore, his maternal family roots were from Yemen, and there were more members of his family in Mecca, where his mother believed he would better be taken care of. Little is known about al-Shafi'i's early life in Mecca, except that he was brought up in poor circumstances and that from his youth he was devoted to learning.<ref name=":1" /> An account states that his mother could not afford to buy his paper, so he would write his lessons on bones, particularly shoulder-bones.<ref name=":2" /> He studied under Muslim ibn Khalid al-Zanji, the then-judge of Mecca, who is thus considered to be his first teacher.<ref>Ibn Kathir, Tabaqat Ash-Shafi'iyyin, Vol 1. Page 27 Dār Al-Wafa’</ref> By the age of seven, al-Shafi'i had memorised the Quran. At ten, he had committed Malik ibn Anas's Muwatta to heart, at which time his teacher would deputise him to teach in his absence. Al-Shafi'i was authorised to issue rulings at the age of fifteen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Apprenticeship under Malik ibn Anas

Al-Shafi'i moved to Medina in desire for further legal training,<ref name=":1" /> as was the tradition of acquiring knowledge. Accounts differ on the age in which he set out to Medina; an account placed his age at thirteen,<ref name=":0" /> while another stated that he was in his twenties.<ref name=":1" /> There, he was taught for many years by the famous Malik ibn Anas,<ref name="jacb1">Template:Cite book</ref> who was impressed with his memory, knowledge, and intelligence.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By the time of Malik's death in 179 AH (795 CE), al-Shafi'i had already gained a reputation as a brilliant jurist.<ref name=":1" /> Even though he would later disagree with some of the views of Malik, al-Shafi'i accorded the deepest respect to him by always referring to him as the "Teacher".<ref name=":0" />

Yemeni Fitnah

At the age of thirty, al-Shafi'i was appointed as the Abbasid governor in the Yemeni city of Najran.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="jacb1"/> He proved to be a just administrator but soon became entangled with factional jealousies. In 803 CE, al-Shafi'i was accused of aiding the Alids in a revolt, and was thus summoned in chains with a number of Alids to the caliph Harun al-Rashid at Raqqa.<ref name=":1" /> Whilst other conspirators were put to death, al-Shafi'i's own eloquent defence convinced the caliph to dismiss the charge. Other accounts state that the famous Hanafi jurist, Muhammad al-Shaybani, was present at the court and defended al-Shafi'i as a well-known student of the sacred law.<ref name=":1" /> What was certain was that the incident brought al-Shafi'i in close contact with al-Shaybani, who would soon become his teacher. It was also postulated that this incident impelled him to devote the rest of his career to legal studies, never again to seek government service.<ref name=":1" />

Apprenticeship under al-Shaybani, and exposure to Hanafi jurists

Al-Shafi'i traveled to Baghdad to study with Abu Hanifah's acolyte al-Shaybani and others.<ref name="jacb1"/> It was here that he developed his first school, influenced by the teachings of both Abu Hanifah and Malik.Template:Citation needed His work thus became known as "al-madhhab al-qadim li-l-imam al-shafi'i", or the "old school of al-Shafi'i".Template:Citation needed

It was here that al-Shafi'i actively participated in legal arguments with the Hanafi jurists, strenuously defending the Maliki school of thought.<ref name=":1" /> Some authorities stress the difficulties encountered by him in his arguments.<ref name=":1" /> Al-Shafi'i eventually left Baghdad for Mecca in 804 CE, possibly because of complaints by Hanafi followers to al-Shaybani that al-Shafi'i had become somewhat critical of al-Shaybani's position during their disputes. As a result, al-Shafi'i reportedly participated in a debate with al-Shaybani over their differences, though who won the debate is disputed.<ref name=":1" />

In Mecca, al-Shafi'i began to lecture at the Sacred Mosque, leaving a deep impression on many students of jurisprudence, including the founder of the Hanbali school, Ahmad ibn Hanbal.<ref name=":1" /> Al-Shafi'i's legal reasoning began to mature, as he started to appreciate the strength in the legal reasoning of the Hanafi jurists, and became aware of the weaknesses inherent in both the Maliki and Hanafi schools of thought.<ref name=":1" />

Departure to Baghdad and Egypt

File:Schafi'i-Mausoleum in Kairo.jpg

The Imam al-Shafi'i Mausoleum in Cairo, Egypt

Al-Shafi'i eventually returned to Baghdad in 810 CE. By this time, his stature as a jurist had grown sufficiently to permit him to establish an independent line of legal speculation. The caliph al-Ma'mun is said to have offered al-Shafi'i a position as a judge, but he declined the offer.<ref name=":1" />

Connection with the family of Muhammad

In 814 CE, al-Shafi'i decided to leave Baghdad for Egypt. The precise reasons for his departure from Iraq are uncertain, but it was in Egypt that he would meet another tutor, al-Sayyidah Nafisah, who would also financially support his studies,<ref name="sunnah">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="KassamBlomfield">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="Alia2015">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and where he would dictate his life's works to students. Several of his leading disciples would write down what al-Shafi'i said, who would then have them read it back aloud so that corrections could be made. Al-Shafi'i biographers all agree the legacy of works under his name are the result of those sessions with his disciples.<ref name=":1" />

Through Muhammad's grandson Hasan ibn Ali, Nafisah was a descendant of Muhammad, and she married another descendant of Muhammad, Ishaq al-Mu'tamin. Ishaq was the son of Ja'far al-Sadiq, a teacher of al-Shafi'i's teachers Malik ibn Anas,<ref name="Dutton">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="Haddad2007">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp as well as Abu Hanifah.<ref name="sunnah" /><ref name="KassamBlomfield" /><ref name="Alia2015" /> Thus, all of the four major imams of Sunni jurisprudence—Abu Hanifah, Malik, his student al-Shafi'i, and his student Ahmad—are connected to Ja'far al-Sadiq, who was from the household of Muhammad, whether directly or indirectly.<ref name="HistoryOfIslam">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Death

File:Imam Shafii Tomb.jpg

Al-Shafi'i's tomb in Cairo, Egypt

At least one authority states that al-Shafi'i died as a result of injuries sustained from an attack by supporters of a Maliki follower named Fityan. The story goes that al-Shafi'i triumphed in the argument over Fityan, who, being intemperate, resorted to abuse. The then-governor of Egypt, with whom al-Shafi'i had good relations, ordered Fityan punished by having him paraded through the streets of the city carrying a plank and stating the reason for his punishment. Fityan's supporters were enraged by this treatment and attacked al-Shafi'i in retaliation after one of his lectures, causing him to die a few days later.<ref>Khadduri, pp. 15–16 (Translator's Introduction). Khadduri cites for this story Yaqut's Mu‘jam al-Udabā, vol. VI pp. 394–95 (ed. Margoliouth, London: 1931), and Ibn Hajar's Tawālī al-Ta'sīs, p. 86.</ref> However, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani casts doubt on this story, claiming it is not "from a reliable source".<ref>Ibn Hajar's Tawālī al-Ta'sīs, p.185 DKi 1986 edition</ref> Al-Shafi'i was also known to have suffered from a painful intestinal illness and hemorrhoids,<ref>Ibn Hajar's Tawālī al-Ta'sīs, p.177 DKi 1986 edition</ref> which kept him frail and ailing during the later years of his life. Thus, the precise cause of his death is unknown.<ref>Khadduri, p. 16 (Translator's Introduction).</ref>

Al-Shafi'i died at the age of 54 on 20 January 820 CE/30 Rajab 204 AH, in al-Fustat, Egypt. He was buried in the vault of the Banu Abd al-Hakam, near Mokattam.<ref name=":1" /> The dome was built in 1212 CE/608 AH by the Ayyubid sultan al-Kamil. Al-Shafi'i's mausoleum remains an important site today.<ref name=Archnet>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=TourEgypt>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Legacy

Template:Main article The Shafi'i school, one of the four Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, known as madhhabs, is named for Al-Shāfi'ī, who is also credited setting up the framework of Islamic jurisprudence by establishing the relative importance order of its different sources as follows:

1. The Qur'an;
2. Hadith. i.e. collections of the words, actions, and silent approval of Muhammad. (Together with the Qur'an these make up "revealed sources");
3. Ijma. i.e. the consensus of the (pure traditional) Muslim community;
4. Qiyas. i.e. the method of analogy.<ref name=Schacht-OoMJ-1959-1>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Snouck Hurgronje, C. Verspreide Geschriften. v.ii. 1923-7, page 286-315</ref><ref>Étude sur la théorie du droit musulman (Paris : Marchal et Billard, 1892–1898.)</ref><ref>Margoliouth, D.S., The Early Development of Mohammedanism, 1914, page 65ff</ref><ref>Schacht, Joseph in Encyclopedia of Islam, 1913 v.IV, sv Usul</ref>

Scholar John Burton goes farther, crediting Al-Shafi'i not just with establishing the science of fiqh in Islam, but its importance to the religion. "Where his contemporaries and their predecessors had engaged in defining Islam as a social and historical phenomenon, Shafi'i sought to define a revealed Law."<ref name=JBSILITA1990:14>Burton, Islamic Theories of Abrogation, 1990: p.14</ref>

Al-Shāfi‘ī emphasised the final authority of a hadith of Muhammad so that even the Qur'an was "to be interpreted in the light of traditions (i.e. hadith), and not vice versa."<ref>J. SCHACHT, An Introduction to Islamic Law (1964), supra note 5, at 47</ref><ref name="Forte-1978-13">Template:Cite journal</ref> While traditionally the Quran is considered above the Sunna in authority, Al-Shafi'i "forcefully argued" that the sunna stands "on equal footing with the Quran", (according to scholar Daniel Brown) for – as Al-Shafi'i put it – "the command of the Prophet is the command of Almighty Allah."<ref>al-Shafii ‘’Kitab al-Risala’’, ed. Muhammad Shakir (Cairo, 1940), 84</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The focus by the Muslim community on ahadith of Muhammad and disinterest in ahadith of Muhammad's companions (whose ahadith were commonly used before Al-Shāfi‘ī since most of whom survived him and spread his teachings after his death) is thought (by scholar Joseph Schacht) to reflect the success of Al-Shāfi‘ī's doctrine.<ref name=Schacht-OoMJ-1959-4>Template:Cite book</ref>

Al-Shāfi‘ī influence was such that he changed the use of the term Sunnah, "until it invariably meant only the Sunnah of the Prophet" (according to John Burton this was his "principle achievement").<ref name=JBSILITA1990:15>Burton, Islamic Theories of Abrogation, 1990: p.15</ref> While earlier, sunnah had been used to refer to tribal manners and customs,<ref name=JBSILITA1990:12>Burton, Islamic Theories of Abrogation, 1990: p.12</ref> (and while Al-Shāfi‘ī distinguished between the non-authoritative "sunnah of the Muslims" that was followed in practice, and the "sunnah of the Prophet" that Muslims should follow),<ref name=JBSILITA1990:14/> sunnah came to mean the Sunnah of Muhammad.<ref name=JBSILITA1990:15/>

In the Islamic sciences, Burton credits him with "the imposition of a formal theoretical distinction" between ‘the Sunnah of the Prophet’ and the Quran, "especially where the two fundamental sources appeared to clash".<ref name=JBSILITA1990:15/>

Mu'tazalites

Al-Shafi'i was part of those early traditionalist theologians who strongly opposed i'tizal and criticised the speculative theologians for abandoning the Qur'an and sunna through their adoption of Greek philosophy in metaphysics.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Structures

Saladin built a madrasa 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 Fatimids. It remains a site where people petition for justice.<ref>Ruthven Malise, Islam in the World. 3rd edition Granta Books London 2006 ch. 4, page 122</ref>

Followers

Among the followers of Imam al-Shāfi‘ī's school were:

• Bayhaqi<ref>The Levels of the Shafiee scholars by Imam As-Subki طبقات الشافعية للسبكي</ref>
• Al-Suyuti<ref>Nahyan Fancy, Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt (2013, Template:ISBN), page 23: "... highlighted by the latter-day Shafi'i authority, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti."</ref>
• Al-Dhahabi<ref>Scott C. Lucas, Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunni Islam (2004, Template:ISBN), page 72: "It is somewhat astonishing that al-Dhahabi, a purported adherent to the Shafi'i madhhab, does not honor al-Shafi'i with the sobriquet Shayk al-Islam." (Emphasis added.)</ref>
• Al-Ghazali
• Ibn Hajar Asqalani
• Ibn Kathir
• Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi
• Al-Mawardi
• Al Muzani

Works

He authored more than 100 books, but few survived to this day.<ref>David Waines, An Introduction to Islam, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 68</ref> The extant works of his which are accessible today are:

• Al-Risala – 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 al-Shafi'i (on hadith) – it is available with arrangement, Arabic 'Tartib', by Ahmad ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Banna
• Ikhtilaf al-Hadith
• Al-Sunan al-Ma’thour
• Jima’ al-’Ilm

In addition to this, al-Shafi'i was an eloquent poet, who composed many short poems aimed at addressing morals and behaviour. The most famous of which is his Al-Diwan.Template:Fact

Anecdotal stories

Ahmad ibn Hanbal considered al-Shafi'i to be the "imam most faithful to tradition" who led the people of tradition to victory against the exponents of ra'y.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite book</ref> In the words of Ibn Hanbal, "at no time was there anyone of importance in learning who erred less, and who followed more closely the sunnah of the Prophet than al-Shafi'i."<ref name="auto" /> Template:Check quotation Template:PresentScholar stated:<ref>Izalat al-Khafa p. 77 part 7</ref> "A mujaddid appears at the end of every century: the mujaddid of the 1st century was the imam of ahl al-sunna, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz; the mujaddid of the 2nd century was Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i; the mujaddid of the 3rd century was Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari; the mujaddid of the 4th century was al-Hakim al-Nishapuri."

Quotations

• He who seeks pearls immerses himself in the sea.<ref>Diwan al-Imam al-shafi'i, (book of poems – al-shafi'i) p. 100; Dar El-Mrefah Beirut – Lebanon 2005. Template:ISBN</ref>
• He said to the effect that no knowledge of Islam can be gained from books of kalam, as it "is not from knowledge"<ref>Dhammul-Kalaam (Q/213)</ref><ref>Dhahabi, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' (10/30)</ref> and that "it is better for a man to spend his whole life doing whatever Allah has prohibited—besides shirk with Allah—rather than spending his whole life involved in kalam."<ref name=":2">Ibn Abi Hatim, Manaaqibush-Shaafi'ee, pg. 39</ref>Template:Efn
• If a hadith is authenticated as coming from the Prophet, we have to resign ourselves to it, and your talk and the talk of others about why and how, is a mistake.<ref name="Schacht-OoMJ-1959-13">Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• Fiqh
• Mujaddid
• Shafi'i
• Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i

References

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Ruthven Malise, Islam in the World. 3rd edition Granta Books London 2006 ch. 4
• Majid Khadduri (trans.), "al-Shafi'i's Risala: Treatise on the Foundation of Islamic Jurisprudence". Islamic Texts Society 1961, reprinted 1997. Template:ISBN.
• al-Shafi'i, Muhammad b. Idris,"The Book of the Amalgamation of Knowledge" translated by Aisha Y. Musa in Hadith as Scripture: Discussions on The Authority Of Prophetic Traditions in Islam, New York: Palgrave, 2008

Helal M Abu Taher, Char Imam(Four Imams), Islamic Foundation, Dhaka,1980.

External links

• Biodata at MuslimScholars.info
• The Biography of Imam ash-Shafi'i

[A concise guide to Arkan ul Iman and Arkan ul Islam:https://archive.org/details/Salah_Guide]

• The Life of Imam al-Shafi'i at Lost Islamic History
• Short Biography of Imam Shafi'i
• Concise Summary of Imam Shafi'i
• Diagram of teachers and students of Imam Shafi'i
• The Mausoleum of Imam al-Shafi'i