Imam al-Shafi'i

Imam of the Shafi'i school and a great mujtahid; author of al-Risala, the first book in the field of legal theory (usul al-fiqh) to have come down to us. His full name is Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Idris ibn al-Abbas al-Shafi'i.

He was born in 150 (767) in Gaza. On his father's side his lineage joins that of the Prophet in Abd Manaf, the Prophet's ancestor four generations back; hence he is also called al-Qurashi and al-Muttalibi. al-Sa'ib, grandfather of his great-grandfather Uthman, was taken prisoner at Badr, ransomed himself and then accepted Islam; al-Shafi'i became famous by the nisba to his son Shafi'. For his maternal lineage, the reports tracing it to the tribe of Azd have been preferred.

When his father died, his mother Fatima took him to Mecca at the age of two. He grew up in want at Shi'b al-Khayf near Mina; thanks to his strong memory he continued his elementary education without fees by acting as a kind of assistant tutor, and obtained writing material from bones he collected and from the waste paper of a government office. He memorized the Qur'an at seven or nine and began teaching it in the Sacred Mosque at thirteen. He studied the readings with Isma'il ibn Qustantin. Then he joined the tribe of Hudhayl, learning their oral culture and customs as well as archery and horsemanship, and took an interest in Arabic poetry, literature and history. Encouraged by those around him, he began studying with Sufyan ibn Uyayna and Muslim ibn Khalid al-Zanji; al-Fudayl ibn Iyad is also named among his teachers of this period.

When he resolved to go to Imam Malik ibn Anas, he memorized al-Muwatta' from a borrowed copy and travelled to Medina with letters from his teacher al-Zanji and the governor of Mecca. al-Dhahabi states that he was then a little over twenty. Sensing his talent, Malik took charge of him personally; this discipleship lasted until his teacher's death (179/795), and al-Shafi'i became one of the students who penetrated his teacher's learning most deeply.

After Malik's death he went to Yemen at the invitation of its governor; his mother covered the journey's cost by pawning her house. There he took a public post and stayed about five years. Caught up in a political intrigue, he was accused of organizing a revolt against the government and taken to Raqqa to be brought before Harun al-Rashid; while those with him were executed, he barely escaped. This event of 184 (800) led to his meeting Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani; while under surveillance he attended his lessons and subjected the Hanafi heritage to critical study. When the caliph declared that his negative opinion of him had changed and rewarded him with 4000 (or 10.000) dirhams, he returned to Mecca.

In Mecca he both taught and wrote refutations of the works he had obtained in Iraq; he held debates with al-Shaybani in Baghdad and Mecca, at least one of them in the presence of Harun al-Rashid. Going to Baghdad in 195 (811) he stayed two years, left when the city was besieged during the struggle between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, returned in 198 (814), but three months later decided to go to Egypt. Reports of this period show that the most assiduous attendant of his lessons was Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and that the people of hadith gave him the title nasir al-hadith.

He remained in Egypt until the end of his life. For a time he stayed with his maternal relatives of Azd; he received the greatest support from the family of Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Hakam, one of Imam Malik's leading students. Despite serious health problems he pursued intensive writing and teaching; in this period the new (jadid) positions of his school were recorded through dictation. When he began to criticize his teacher Malik within scholarly bounds, he met with a reaction from certain circles; according to the source's account they pressed the governor to expel him from Egypt, al-Shafi'i asked for three days' grace, and on the third night the governor died.

He died on 29 Rajab 204 (19 January 820) and was buried at the Qarafa in the cemetery of the Banu Abd al-Hakam; later a tomb was built over his grave. It is reported that when Caliph al-Ma'mun wished to appoint him judge of Egypt he prayed, "O God! If this office is good for my religion, my world and my end, grant it; if not, take my soul", and died before three days had passed. He is recorded as having two sons and a daughter: Abu al-Hasan Muhammad died in 231 (845), and Abu Uthman Muhammad, who learned hadith from his father and from Ahmad ibn Hanbal and served as judge of Aleppo (or al-Jazira), died in 242 (856); his grandchildren through his daughter Zaynab distinguished themselves in learning.

It is reported that he was handsome, dyed his hair and beard with henna following the Sunna, scrupulously avoided swearing oaths, spent part of the night in worship, prayed the tarawih alone at home in order to recite more Qur'an, and had engraved on the stone of his ring "God is the surety of Muhammad ibn Idris". On the benefits of the sciences he is reported to have said: "Whoever learns the Qur'an grows in esteem; whoever studies law rises in worth; whoever writes hadith strengthens his proofs; whoever concentrates on language refines his nature; whoever concentrates on arithmetic strengthens his judgment; and whoever does not guard himself, his knowledge will not profit him."

His Circle of Influence — He trained many students. Among those of his pre-Egyptian period Abu Thawr, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Karabisi and al-Za'farani stand out. Of his Egyptian students, al-Buwayti, al-Muzani and al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman al-Muradi hold a central place for the school; al-Humaydi, Harmala ibn Yahya, al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman al-Jizi, Yunus ibn Abd al-A'la and Abu Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Hakam are also named among his students and transmitters. Abu Thawr, a transmitter of the old doctrine, differed from him on some points and formed a school of his own. Ahmad ibn Hanbal said that al-Shafi'i was the most learned in law concerning the Book of God and the Sunna of His Messenger.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — al-Shafi'i's line is that of law and legal theory. His scholarly life after his teacher Malik's death falls into a pre-Egyptian and an Egyptian period: the views of the first are called the old doctrine (qawl qadim), those of Egypt the new doctrine (qawl jadid); he himself said that in Egypt he had abandoned some earlier views and that his new views were his final understanding. Revelation, and in particular the Sunna of the Messenger, holds a central place in his thought; he regards the Sunna as an inseparable part of revelation. For him a religious ruling may be given only on the basis of a report in the Qur'an or Sunna, consensus, or analogy. He ties the correct understanding of the divine address to grasping Arabic in all its subtleties; the philologist Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham says that in many conversations with him he never heard him make a grammatical error, and al-Asma'i says he took the poetry of Hudhayl from him. It is reported that he first engaged in theology (kalam) and then turned to law because in that field one's foot may slip; he held that the principles of belief are to be accepted as expressed in the texts, and vehemently opposed those who claimed the Qur'an was created. His poems and wise sayings are scattered through various works; they were later compiled and published as Diwan al-Shafi'i, but he himself composed no such work.

His Works — ① al-Umm: the fullest reflection of his legal thought in the new period and the main source of the school, transmitted by al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman and al-Za'farani. ② al-Risala: containing his views on legal theory and the first book in this field to have come down to us. ③ al-Hujja: the basic work of the old-doctrine period, most reliably transmitted by al-Za'farani. ④ al-Imla' (al-Amali): works he dictated to his students. There are also the treatises included in al-Umm: al-Radd ala Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, Siyar al-Awza'i, Ikhtilaf al-Iraqiyyayn, Jima' al-ilm, Ibtal al-istihsan, Ikhtilaf Malik wa-l-Shafi'i, and Ikhtilaf al-hadith, the first of its kind. The Ahkam al-Qur'an attributed to him is by al-Bayhaqi, and al-Musnad was compiled from al-Umm by Abu al-Abbas al-Asamm (d. 346/957); al-Fiqh al-akbar very probably belongs to a later scholar.

His Tomb and Complex — The tomb stands in Cairo in the Qarafa al-Sughra cemetery. According to the source it is regarded as the symbol of the renewed dominance of the Sunni understanding in Egypt after Saladin brought Fatimid rule to an end. Saladin built a madrasa near the grave (1176-1179) and a wooden cenotaph for it (574/1178-79); bearing the name of its craftsman Ibn Ma'ali, this cenotaph is one of the most magnificent examples of medieval woodwork in Cairo. According to the inscription, the dome was built in 608 (1211) by al-Malik al-Kamil. The tomb rests on a square base with an interior width of 15 metres; the stone building is roofed with a lead-covered wooden dome and from outside appears to have two storeys. At the top of the dome is a copper boat said once to have been filled with grain for the birds. The corner mihrab and the coloured marble panels on the lower walls probably belong to Sultan Qaytbay's restoration of 885 (1480), and the painted decoration of the dome and transition zone to Amir Ali Bey al-Kabir in the second half of the XVIII century; Sultan Qansuh al-Ghawri also restored the dome. The marble stone bearing Imam al-Shafi'i's name and date of death is original. The tomb also holds a second cenotaph made for al-Malik al-Kamil's mother; Saladin's wife Shamsa and his son al-Malik al-Aziz Uthman are also buried in this tomb, though their exact places are not marked.