Al-Shafi’i

Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i was a jurist who studied in Mecca and Medina, taught in Baghdad and spent his last years in Egypt. The eponym of the Shafi'i school of law, he is credited with systematising Islamic legal methodology. His Risāla set out how law is derived from the Qur'an, the Prophet's sunna as transmitted in hadith, consensus and analogical reasoning, giving later legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh) its framework.

Key ideas

• The sources of law are the Qur'an, the sunna, consensus and analogy (qiyās).
• Authenticated prophetic hadith is binding and explains the Qur'an.
• Legal reasoning must be disciplined by method, not left to unchecked personal opinion.
• Analogy extends rulings to new cases by identifying their shared legal cause.

Major works

• al-Risāla (The Epistle on legal theory)
• Kitāb al-Umm

In the conversation

• Discussion Dharma, li, sharia, natural law: four words English keeps flattening into “duty” or “law” Meera Kulkarni · 5 replies
• Discussion Usul al-fiqh and Dworkin’s integrity: two ways of saying law is more than its rules Hamza Qureshi · 5 replies
• Question How does Islamic legal reasoning decide on a financial product that no text mentions? Nur Aisyah Rahman · 5 replies