Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i

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<region> scholar
Medieval era
Name: Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi`i
Birth: 767
Death: 820 [1]
School/tradition: Shafi'i
Influences:
Influenced:

Al-Shafi'i, Arabic jurist (150 AH/767 AD - 204 AH/820 AD). He was active in juridical matters and his teaching eventually led to the school of fiqh named after him. Hence he is often called Imam al-Shafi'i. The Greatest Imam among the Four Imams of Fiqh, in terms of vast knowledge and authority. Scholars gave him the honorific title "Father of Usul Al-Fiqh" (The Patriarch of the Foundation of Islamic Jurisprudence)

His full name was Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idrīs al-Shafi'i (ابو عبد الله محمد بن إدريس الشافعي).

Contents

[edit] Introduction

The biography of al-Shafi'i is difficult to trace. The oldest surviving biography goes back to al-Razi(?) (died 327/938) and is no more than a collection of anecdotes, some of them dubious. The first real biography is by al-Bayhaqi (died 458/1065) and is filled with pious legends. The following is what seems to be a sensible reading.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Family

Al-Shafi'i belonged to the Qurayshi clan Banu Muttalib which was the sister clan of the Banu Hashim to which Muhammad and the Abbasid caliphs belonged. Hence he had connections in the highest social circles, but he grew up in poverty.

[edit] 767 – 786: Al-Mansur to Al-Hadi's era

[edit] Early life, Imam Malik

He was born in Gaza and moved to Mecca when he was about ten. He is reported to have studied with the "School of Mecca" (which might not even have existed, although some scholars are reported to have been active there). Then he moved to Madinah and became a disciple of Malik ibn Anas.

[edit] 786 – 809: Harun al-Rashid's era

After Malik's death in 796 he went into government service. This attempt at a career ended badly in 803 CE (187 Ah).

After that he lived in Mecca, Bagdad and finally Egypt.

Among his teachers were Malik ibn Anas and Muhammad ibn al Hasan al Shaybani, whom he studied under in Madinah and Baghdad.

At the time of Harun ar-Rashid, he had an appointment in Yemen, as a judge in Najran. Sunnis portray that his devotion to justice, even when it meant criticizing the governor, caused him some problems, and he was taken before the Caliph, falsely accused of aiding the Alawis in a revolt. At this time, al Shaybani was the chief justice, and his defense of ash-Shafi'i, coupled with ash-Shafi'i’s own eloquent defense, convinced Harun ar-Rashid to dismiss the charge, and to direct al Shaybani to take ash-Shafi'i to Baghdad.

In Baghdad, he developed his first madhab, influnced by the teachings of both Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik. Thus, his work there is known as “al Madhab al Qadim lil Imam as Shafi’i,” or the Old School of ash-Shafi'i.

Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller writes, “When the persecution arose over the uncreatedness of the Qur’an, he spoke to Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and they mutually agreed that rather than risk the loss of both Islam’s living mujtahids, they should part company, Shafi’i travelling with his books and belongings to Cairo, and Imam Ahmad remaining in ‘Iraq.” In less than four years, ash-Shafi'i had re-established his second school of fiqh, al Jadid, or the New School, which is transmitted mainly in his work Kitab al Umm.

[edit] 809 – 813: Al-Amin's era

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cousin of and step father of

[edit] 813 – 820: Al-Ma'mun's era

[edit] Fiqh research

It appears that all of his surviving writings were done in retirement in Egypt during the last five years of his life.

Al-Shafi'i was controversial in his own time but, as history has shown, he won his point. Starting from the Maliki position of reliance (largely) upon tradition in legal matters he came into contact with and opposed the Hanafi position of reliance (largely) upon common sense. He reached the conclusion that tradition was indeed the proper basis for legal decisions, but only if that tradition was based upon the prophet and no one else.

The Hanafis, of course, were not willing to exchange all their common sense for hadiths and the Maliki's were not willing to give up traditions just because they had no prophetic hadiths supporting them. As time went by, however, both the Hanafis and Malikis have grown to conform to Shafi'i's idea that only prophetic hadiths matter. The fourth school of fiqh came later.

Shafi'i probably did not expect what happened next. There was an explosion of prophetic hadiths and an entire science had to be invented to handle them.

[edit] Death

He died at the age of 63 on the 20th of Rajab in the Hijri year 204 (or, January 20, 820 AD). He was buried in al-Fustat, Egypt.

[edit] Views

It is stated in Rawdah-al-Manazir fi al-Awai'l wa al 'Awakhir that [2]:

“ Imam Shafi'i said that the testimony of four companions will not be accepted and those four are Muawiya, Amr ibn al-As, Mugheera and Ziyad ”

This view of Imam Shafi'i has also been attributed to him by his student Abu al-Fida [3]

[edit] Legacy

Saladin built a madrassa on the site of his death. Saladin's brother Afdal built a mausoleum for him in 1211 after the defeat of the Fatamids. It remains a site where people petition for justice.

Shafi'i developed the science of fiqh unifying 'revealed sources' - the Koran and hadith - with human reasoning to provide a basis in law. With this systemization of shari'a he provided a legacy of unity for all Muslims and forestalled the development of independent, regionally based legal systems. The four Sunni legals schools or madhhabs- keep their traditions within the framework that Shafi'i established.

Shafi'i gives his name to one of these legal schools Shafi'i fiqh - which is in followed many different places in the Islamic world, especially in Egypt, the Far East, and the Horn of Africa.

Today, many English speaking Muslims are introduced to the madhab of Imam Shafi’i through the translated works Umdat as Salik (Reliance of the Traveller) and al Maqasid, both done by Sheikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller.

Among the followers of Imam Shafi’i’s school were:

[edit] Works

He authored more than 100 books.

He also divided innovation into good and bad, based on the hadith of Umar about tarawih.

[edit] Sunni view

Many stories are told about the childhood and life of ash-Shafi'i, and it is difficult to separate truth from myth:

Tradition says that he memorized al Qur’an at the age of seven; by ten, he had memorized the Muwatta of Imam Malik; he was a mufti (given authorization to issue fatwa) at the age of fifteen. He recited the Qur’an every day in prayer, and twice a day in Ramadan. Some apocryphal accounts claim he was very handsome, that his beard did not exceed the length of his fist, and that it was very black. He wore a ring that was inscribed with the words, “Allah suffices Muhammad ibn Idris as a reliance.” He was also known to be very generous.

He was also an accomplished archer, a poet, and some accounts call him the most eloquent of his time. Some accounts claim that there were a group of Bedouin who would come and sit to listen to him, not for the sake of learning, but just to listen to his eloquent use of the language. Even in latter eras, his speeches and works were used by Arabic grammarians. He was given the title of Nasir al Sunnah, the Defender of the Sunnah.

He loved Muhammad very deeply. Al Muzani said of him, “He said in the Old School: ‘Supplication ends with the invocation of blessings on the Prophet, and its end is but by means of it.’” Al-Karabisi said: “I heard al-Shafi’i say that he disliked for someone to say ‘the Messenger’ (al-Rasul), but that he should say ‘Allah’s Messenger’ (Rasul Allah) out of veneration for him.” He divided his night into three parts: one for writing, one for praying, and one for sleeping.

Apocryphal accounts claim that Imam Ahmad said of ash-Shafi'i, “I never saw anyone adhere more to hadith than al-Shafi’i. No one preceded him in writing down the hadith in a book.” Imam Ahmad is also claimed to have said, “Not one of the scholars of hadith touched an inkwell nor a pen except he owed a huge debt to al-Shafi’i.”

Imam al Shaybani said, “If the scholars of hadith speak, it is in the language of al Shafi’i.”

Shah Waliullah, a 18th century Sunni Deobandi Islamic scholar stated [4]:

“ A Mujadid appears at the end of every century: The Mujtahid of the 1st century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah, Umar bin Abdul Aziz. The Mujadid of the 2nd century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah Muhammad Idrees as-Shafi'i the Mujadid of the 3rd century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah Abu Hasan Ashari the Mujadid of the 4rth century was Abu Abdullah Hakim Nishapuri. ”

According to many accounts he was said to have a photographic memory. One anecdote states that he would always cover one side of a book while reading because a casual glance at the other page would commit it to memory.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ira Lapidus, A History of Islamic Societies. pg. 86. Cambridge University Press 2002.
  2. ^ Rawdah-al-Manazir fi al-Awai'l wa al 'Awakhir Volume 11 page 133
  3. ^ Tarikh Abul Fida Volume 1 under the chapter addressing the events of 45 Hijri [1]
  4. ^ Izalat al-Khafa p. 77 part 7

4. Ruthven Malise, Islam in the World 3rd edition Granta Books London 2006 ch. 4

Also: "al-Shafi'i's Risala: Treatise on the Foundation of islamic Jurisprudence" Majid Khadduri. Original 1961, reprinted 1997. ISBN 0-946621-15-2.

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