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Shafi'iyyah was the third school of Islamic
jurisprudence. According to the Shafi'i
school the paramount sources of legal
authority are the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
Of less authority are the Ijma' of
the community and thought of scholars
(Ijitihad) exercised through Qiyas.
The scholar must interpret the ambiguous
passages of the Qur'an according to
the consensus of the Muslims, and
if there is no consensus, according
to Qiyas.
The Shafi'iyyah school of Islamic law
was named after Muhammad ibn Idris
al-Shafi'i (767-819). He belonged
originally to the school of Medina
and was also a pupil of Malik ibn
Anas (d.795), the founder of Malikiyyah.
However, he came to believe in the
overriding authority of the traditions
from the Prophet and identified them
with the Sunnah.
Baghdad and Cairo were the chief centres
of the Shafi'iyyah. From these two
cities Shafi'i teaching spread into
various parts of the Islamic world.
In the tenth century Mecca and Medina
came to be regarded as the school's
chief centres outside of Egypt. In
the centuries preceding the emergence
of the Ottoman empire the Shafi'is
had acquired supremacy in the central
lands of Islam. It was only under
the Ottoman Sultans at the beginning
of the sixteenth century that the
Shafi'i were replaced by the Hanafites,
who were given judicial authority
in Constantinople, while Central Asia
passed to the Shi'a as a result of
the rise of the Safawids in 1501.
In spite of these developments, the
people in Egypt, Syria and the Hidjaz
continued to follow the Shafi'i madhhab.
Today it remains predominant in Southern
Arabia, Bahrain, the Malay Archipelago,
East Africa and several parts of Central
Asia.
The Shaf'i school is predominant in east
Africa, Indonesia Malaysia, Brunei,
and southeast Asia. Al Shafii’s (d.
855) thought influenced Indonesia,
Southern Arabia, Lower Egypt, parts
of Syria, Palestine, Eastern Africa,
Pakistan, India and South Africa.
The school remains predominant in
Southern Arabia, Bahrain, the Malay
Archipelago, East Africa and several
parts of Central Asia. Shafi'i is
practiced in Indonesia, Malaysia and
the Philippines. It is followed by
approximately 15% of Muslims world-wide.
The Shaf'i school is considered the easiest
school and the Hanbali is considered
the hardest in terms of social and
personal rules. Hanafi took Shafi
as his rival and vice versa. Tradition,
the consensus of the Muslim community
and reasoning by analogy are characteristics
of this school.
Most Kurds in Iraq follow the Shafii
school of Sunni Islam. A minority
of Kurds, concentrated in parts of
the Kifri and Klar areas of Kirkuk,
follow the Hanafi school.
The Shafi'iyyah school of Islamic law
was named after Muhammad ibn Idris
al-Shafi'i [Shaf'i, Shaafi`ee] (767-819).
The school of Imam Abu Abd Allah Muhammad
Shafii of the Quraysh tribe of the
Prophet, brought up in Mecca. He later
taught in both Baghdad and Cairo and
followed a somewhat eclectic legal
path, laying down the rules for analogy
that were later adopted by other legal
schools. He was a descendant of the
Prophet's uncle, Abu Talib, and came
to Egypt in the 9th century. Saladin
who founded the first madrasa, dedicated
to the Shafi'i rite near the tomb
of its founder, Imam al-Shafi'i. Al-Shafi`i
was known for his peculiar strength
in Arabic language, poetry, and philology.
Imam Shafi`i was called devil and
imprisoned. Prayers were said for
his death. He was taken in captivity
from Yemen to Baghdad, in a condition
of humiliation and degradation.
Then at the time of Al-Shafi'i, the Prophet's
ahadith were gathered from different
countries, and the disagreements among
the scholars increased until Al-Shafi'i
wrote his famous book, Al-Risalah,
which is considered the foundation
of Islamic jurisprudence. The Shafi'i
tradition is particularly accessible
to English speaking Muslims due to
the availability of high quality translations
of the Reliance of the Traveler.
There are no figures for the number of
followers of the school. It has some
adherents in the following countries:
Jordan, Palestine, Syria, the Lebanon
and Yemen. It has a large following
in the following countries: Egypt,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei,
Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the
Maldives, and among the Kurdish people.
Page last updated:
Friday, November 25, 2005 22:04:51 -0500 |
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