The Šāfiˤī madhab (Arabic: شافعي) is one of the four schools of fiqh, or religious law, within Sunni Islam. The Šāfi'ī school of fiqh is named after its founder, Abū ˤAbdu l-Lāh aš-Šāfiˤī, also known as Imām Šāfiˤī. Madhhab(مذهب) (Madhahib, pl) is an Islamic term that refers to a school of thought or religious jurisprudence (fiqh) within Sunni Islam. ... The Arabic language (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ‎ translit: ), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ... Islamic jurisprudence, (Arabic: Fiqh) (in Arabic and Persian: فقه) is made up of the rulings (Fatwa) of Muslim Islamic jurists (Ulema) to direct the lives of the Muslims. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Islamic jurisprudence, (Arabic: Fiqh) (in Arabic and Persian: فقه) is made up of the rulings (Fatwa) of Muslim Islamic jurists (Ulema) to direct the lives of the Muslims. ... This article may not be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ...

Principles

The Šāfiˤī School of thought stipulates authority to four sources of jurisprudence, also known as the Usul al-fiqh. In hierarchical order the usul al-fiqh consist of: the Quran, the Sunnah of the Prophet, ijma' (consensus), and qiyas. The Šāfiˤī school also refers to the opinions of the Prophet's companions (primarily Al-Khulafa ar-Rashidun). The school, based on Šāfiˤī's books al-Risala fi Usul al-Fiqh and Kitāb al-Umm, which emphasizes proper instibat (derivation of laws) through the rigorous application of legal principles as opposed to speculation or conjecture. Usul al-fiqh is an Islamic Arabic term which literally translates to the roots of the law and refers to the study of the origins and practice of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). ... Sunnah (Arabic: ) means “way” or “custom”, and therefore, the sunnah of the prophet means “the way of the prophet”, or what is commonly known as the Prophet’s traditions. ... Ijmāʿ (إجماع) is an Arabic term referring ideally to the consensus of the ummah (the community of Muslims, or followers of Islam). ... In Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, Qiyas is the process of analogical reasoning from a known injunction (nass) to a new injunction. ...

The Šāfiˤī school is considered one of the more conservative of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, but there are many adherents of the Šāfi'ī tradition who maintain liberal views in practicing their religion.

History

As a member of the school of Medina, aš-Šāfiˤī worked to combine the pragmatism of the Medina school with the contemporary pressures of the Traditionalists. The Traditionalists maintained that jurists could not independently adduce a practice as the sunnah of Muhammad based on ijtihad, or independent reasoning, but should only produce verdicts substantiated by authentic hadith. This article is about the city in Saudi Arabia. ... This article is about the city in Saudi Arabia. ... Traditionalist Catholic and Traditional Catholic are broad terms used to denote Roman Catholics who reject some or all of the reforms that were instituted after the Council, in particular the revised rite of Mass, which was promulgated in 1969 by Pope Paul VI as part of the process of implementing... Ijtihad (Arabic اجتهاد) is a technical term of Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Quran and the Sunnah. ... Hadith (Arabic: , Arabic pl. ...

Based on this claim, aš-Šāfiˤī devised a method for systematic reasoning without relying on personal deduction. He argued that the only authoritative sunnah were those that were both of Muhammad and passed down from Muhammad himself. He also argued that sunnah contradicting the Quran were unacceptable, claiming that sunnah should only be used to explain the Quran. Furthermore, aš-Šāfiˤī claimed that if a practice is widely accepted throughout the Muslim community, it cannot be in contradiction of sunnah.

Importance of the Šāfiˤī School

The Šāfiˤī school is followed throughout the Ummah, but is most prevalent by Kurds in Turkey in Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Syria and is the official madhab followed by the government of Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia. It is followed by approximately 15 percent of Muslims world-wide. [1] Umma (Arabic: ) is an Arabic word meaning community or nation. ... The Sultanate of Brunei, more commonly referred to as Brunei Darussalam or simply Brunei, is an oil-rich country located on the island of Borneo, in southeast Asia. ...

The Šāfiˤī tradition is accessible to English speakers from the translation of the Reliance of the Traveller. Umdat al-Salik wa Uddat al-Nasik (Reliance of the Traveller and Tools of the Worshipper) is a manual of Fiqh for Sunni Muslims, mostly comprised of the teachings of Imam al-Nawawi, a Shafii mujtahid. ...

Famous followers of this school

• Nizam al-Mulk, the Persian Grand Vizier
• Ibn Hajr Asqalani, author
• al-Nawawi, jurist
• al-Ghazali, author
• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi
• Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, author

Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi Nizam al-Mulk (نظام الملك، ابو علي الحسن الطوسي in Arabic; 1018 - 14 October 1092) was a celebrated Persian vizier of the Seljuk Turks. ... ibn Hajr al-Asqalaniwas the author of the Fath al-Bari, the most valued Sunni commentary of Sahi Bukhari. ... al-Nawawi (Abu Zakariyya Yahiya Ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi) أبو زكريا يحيى بن شرف النووي (born 1233 - 1278), Muslim author on Fiqh and Hadith, was born at Nawa near Damascus. ... Al-Ghazali Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (Arabic: ابو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالى for short: الغزالى ) (born 1058 in Tus, Khorasan province of Persia, modern day Iran, died 1111 in Tus) was a Muslim theologian, and philosopher, known as Algazel to the Western Medieval world, Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, or al-Ghazzali as it... Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn `Ali ibn Thabit ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Shafi`i (392-463), A.K.A al-Khatib al-Baghdadi or the writer from Baghdad was a Shafii Sunni Muslim Islamic scholar. ... Balamis 14th century Persian version of Universal History by al-Tabari Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari AD 838-AD 923 (Father of Jafar, named Muhammad, son of Jarir from the province of Tabaristan, Arabic الطبري, ), was an author from Persia, one of the earlies, most prominent and...

References

• Rippin, Andrew (2005). Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices (3rd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 90-93. ISBN 0-415-34888-9.
• 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: Shafi'i's Risala. Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society. pp. 286.