Imam Shafei was the founder of Shafei School of Islamic Jurisprudence. He was a disciple of Imam Malik at Madeena and later he went to Koofa and worked with the disciples of Imam Abu Hanifa. There are followers of Shafei School in Egypt, Cairo, Southern Arabia, South East Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Malabar (Kerala).
After the death of the Prophet in 632, his followers subsequently built an empire that would stretch from Central Asia to Spain less than a century after his death. But a debate over succession split the community, with some arguing that leadership should be awarded to qualified individuals and others insisting that the only legitimate ruler must come through Mohammed’s bloodline. At the time of the death of the Prophet, there was a quarrel between the two groups for imamate (the temporal leadership of the religion). One group advocated the principle of the election in choosing the Imam. This group is known as “Sunni”. The adherents to the Sunni doctrine are called Sunni. While, the other group opposed the principle of the election in choosing the Imam and proclaimed that Ali is the successor of the ‘Prophet’. They firmly believe that imamat must be devolved upon the successors of the prophet, i.e. (i) Ali, the son in law; and (ii) Fatima, the daughter of Prophet. This group is known as “Shia”. Thus, there are two main schools of Muslim Law: a) Sunni school and b) Shia school. There are four sub-schools in Muslim Law. Viz: Hanafi school, Maliki school, Shafei school, and Hanbali school.
Shafei School of Muslim Law:
Imam Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Idris Ash Shafei, the founder of Shafei School of Islamic Jurisprudence was born in 150 A.H. in Ghazza (Palestine). He belonged to the tribe of Quraish, he was a Hashmi and thus, remotely connected with the Prophet. His mother was Ummal Hassan Binte-Hamza ibn al Qasim ibn Yazid ibn Imam Hussain. Thus, he related to Prophet from both paternal as well as Maternal side. His father died when he was only two years old and was brought up in very humble circumstances in the sacred city of Mecca. In Mecca he studied Hadith and fiqh with Muslim ibn Khalid Zindji (died 180 A.H.) and sufyan ibn aina (died 198 A.H.). He memorized Holy Quran and Muwatta at the age of ten years and when he was about 20 years he went to Medina to Malik Ibn Anas, studied fiqh under him and remained there till his master’s death in 179 A.H. He developed a school of Jurisprudence influenced by both Hanafi and Maliki fiqh and wrote many books, it was called Madhab-e-Qadeem of Imam Shafei’s (old School of Jurisprudence). In this way he got mastery in Hanafi Jurisprudence as well as Maliki. He inherited the knowledge of traditions from his master Imam Malik. He also got the legacy of talents and discretion from his other master Imam Mohammad of Hanafi school. He went to Egypt. There he attached himself to Abd Allah, son of newly appointed governor of Egypt. As a result of disturbances there, he left Egypt and went to Mecca from where he returned in 200 A.H. to Egypt and remained there till his death in 204 A. H. His legal thinking got slight modification in Egyptian environment and there he wrote many books. This was called his new School for Islamic Jurisprudence or ‘Madhab Jadeed’ of Imam Shafei’s and he died on the last day of Rajab 204 A.H.
Imam Shafei is regarded as one of the greatest Jurist in the history of Islamic Jurisprudence. He was first to compile sources of law. He writes in a systematic way on the origins of Jurisprudence in his famous treatise al-Risala. Al-umm is another work of Shafi, containting seven volumes of usul or principles of law and was compiled by his pupil al-Rabi ibn Sulayman. Iktilaf-al-Hadith and Musanad-al-Imam Shafi are other works of Imam Shafi. His most famous pupil was Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
The only authoritative book of Islamic jurisprudence is Al-Risala is written by Imam Shaffie. He discussed the science of Islamic law and interpretation such as Ijma’a (Consensus), Qiyas (Analogy), Ijthihad (Personal reasoning) Isthihsan (Juristic preference) and Ikhthilaf (Disagreement) in a separate chapter in this book. His other book Kitab-ul-umn is the authority on Fiqh (the science of way of life).
Main Features of Shafei School:
Main features of Shafei school are as follows:
- It is highly influenced by both Hanafi and Maliki School. Imam Shafi studied both the doctrine of Hanafi school as well as Maliki school. He made enormous use of Hadith found from different centres.
- Acceptance of four sources of law; the Quran, the Sunnah; the Ijma and the Qiyas.
- The school gives more prominence to the traditions of the Prophet.
- Imam Shafi was strong supporter of the doctrine of Ijma.
- The school accepted Istidial as fifth source of law;
- This school does not accept, Ishithsan of Hanafi School and al-Malih al-mursalah of Maliki School.
Conclusion:
Imam was one of the greatest jurist of Islam. He adopted the middle way in giving a clear and balanced theory of law. He was a pious man who was a lover of legal learning. Imam Shafei conceived the idea of harmonizing the two schools Hanafi and Maliki in a friendly manner. He is the creator of the classical theory of Islamic Jurisprudence. Shafei established Ijma‘a as an important source of Muslim law and gave validity to the custom of the people of Islam following more to the method of Hanafi school. Quiyas or analogy is the contribution of Imam Shaffie to Muslim law.