Shafi'i school

"Shafi" redirects here. For other uses, see Shafi (disambiguation).
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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 (c. 767–820 CE), "the father of Muslim jurisprudence",[3] in the early 9th century.[4][5][3]

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, Somalia, Yemen and Indonesia, and among the Kurdish people, in the North Caucasus and generally all 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).

  1. ^ a b Hallaq 2009, p. 31.
  2. ^ a b Saeed 2008, p. 17.
  3. ^ a b "Abū ʿAbd Allāh ash-Shāfiʿī". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 8 April 2024.
  4. ^ a b Ramadan 2006, pp. 27–77.
  5. ^ Kamali 2008, p. 77.
  6. ^ a b Shanay, Bulend. "Shafi'iyyah". University of Cumbria.
  7. ^ a b c d "Shāfiʿī". Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  8. ^ Hasyim 2005, pp. 75–77.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Christelow 2000, p. 377.
  12. ^ Pouwels 2002, p. 139.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ "International Religious Freedom Report: Comoros" (PDF). United States Department of State. 2013.
  15. ^ Ahmady, Kameel 2019: From Border to Border. Comprehensive research study on identity and ethnicity in Iran. Mehri publication, London. p 440.