Indexed OCR Text

His appointment
When Malik died, ash-Shafi'i felt that he had obtained a good portion of
knowledge and since at that time he was still poor, he decided to work to earn
something to satisfy his basic needs and alleviate his poverty. The governor
of Yemen came to the Hijaz and a Qurayshi suggested that he allow ash-
Shafi'i to accompany him. The governor took him with him as an assistant.
The gifts, experience, intelligence, knowledge and noble lineage of ashShafi'i
shone. He was known as a just and distinguished man. People mentioned his
name in Makka, and the fuqaha' and hadith scholars with whom he had
studied or taught discussed his situation, about which there was
disagreement. Some of them censured him for accepting the post and advised
him to leave it.
His post was in Najran and he was responsible for establishing justice there.
The people in Najran acted as they always do, bribing and flattering
governors and q a d i s to ingratiate themselves with them; but they found in
ash-Shafi'i a just man who could not be corrupted. Ash-Shafi'i closed the
door of bribery and flattery so that no one could reach him through it, and by
doing so protected himself from every evil and injustice. He was completely
devoted to justice, but dispensing justice can be difficult and only men with
firm resolve are strong enough for it. They will be exposed to the harshness
and evil of the time. That is what happened to ashShafi'i.
His trial
Najran was a district of Yemen where there was an unjust governor. Ash-
Shafi'i used to restrain his power and prevent his injustices from afflicting
those under him. Perhaps ash-Shafi'i injured that governor by wielding a
weapon which scholars possess and think it good to use and frequently
sharpen: censure. Perhaps as well as hindering him he also censured him. The
governor used that as a pretext to manoeuvre against him through intrigue,
slander and defamation.
The Abbasids considered their main opponents to be the descendants of 'Ali
because they had a similar lineage and they also had maternal kinship to the
Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, which the

Abbasids did not have. When the Abbasid state was established on the basis
of their lineage with the Prophet, the 'Alawites hoped for something similar,
especially in view of their female kinship with the Prophet through Fatima.
So whenever the Abbasids discerned any 'Alawite partisanship they put an
end to it while it was still in its infancy. They executed people for it on mere
suspicion without any real evidence since they believed that taking an
innocent life would ensure the status quo whereas letting a suspect might
disturb the peace and unsettle society.
The unjust governor raised the suspicion of ash-Shafi'i's involvement with
the 'Alawites and sent word to the khalif Harun ar-Rashid that nine 'Alawites
were agitating, saying in his letter: "I fear that they may rebel. There is a man
here from the descendants of al-Muttalib whom I can neither command or
forbid." In one transmission he said about ash-Shafi'i. "He accomplishes with
his tongue what a warrior cannot accomplish with his sword." ArRashid told
him to send to him those nine 'Alawites, and ashShafi'i as well.1
The sources state that the nine were killed but ash-Shafi'i was saved by his
strong argument and the testimony of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan. As for his
argument, when he arrived as a suspect before ar-Rashid and stood between
the executioner's mat and the sword, he said, "Amir al-Mu'minin, what do
you say about two men, one of whom sees me as a brother and the other as
his slave: which should I love?" He replied, "The one who sees you as a
brother." He said, "That is you, Amir al-Mu'minin. You are the descendants
of al-'Abbas and they are the descendants of 'Ali. We are the Banu'l-
Muttalib while you are the descendants of al-'Abbas. You see us as brothers
but the 'Alawites see us as their slaves."
As for the testimony of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, that was because ash-
Shafi'i was familiar with the way the assembly of arRashid dealt with such
accusations and because people of knowledge have an affinity with one
another. Hence he mentioned that he had a certain amount of knowledge and
fi qh and that Qadi Muhammad ibn al-Hasan was aware of it. When ar-
Rashid asked Muhammad he told him, "He has a great portion of knowledge
and the man who accused him has none." The Khalif said, "Ta ke
1. Two things should be noted here: ash-Shafi'i was known for his love of the descendants of
'Ali; transmitters agree that ash-Shafi'i was suspected of being an 'Alawite and that ar-

Rashid tried him for that reason. There is some disagreement whether this occurred when he
was in Makka or Yemen.
charge of him until I have investigated him again," and by this he was saved.
Ash-Shafi'i arrived in Baghdad for this trial in 184 AH when he was 34 years
old. Perhaps this trial was Allah's means of making him devote himself to
knowledge and not to administration and government. From this time he
directed himself to study and teaching and produced the lasting influence on
and development of fiqh which was his legacy to the Muslims. He stayed
with Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ash-Shaybani, of whom he had already heard,
knowing that he was the bearer and disseminator of the fiqh of the Iraqis. It is
even possible that he had met him previously.
Ash-Shafi'i began to study the fiqh of the Iraqis and to read the books of
Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan and study with him, thus combining the fiqh
of the Hijaz with the fiqh of Iraq. In this way he had both fi qh which was
dominated by transmission and also fi q h which was dominated by opinion,
and thus he became the master of fiqh in his time.
Ash-Shafi'i remained in Baghdad as a student of Imam Muhammad ash-
Shaybani and debated with him and his companions on the basis that he was
a Madinan faqih and one of the companions of Malik. After that he returned
to Makka with the books of the Iraqis. He did not mention most of the
transmitters he listened to in Baghdad but he must have stayed a reasonable
length of time in order to be able to transmit from the people of opinion (ra'y)
and their school. It is likely that he stayed in Iraq for about two years.
After ash-Shafi'i returned to Makka he began to teach in the Haram and
during the Hajj met there the greatest scholars of the time, who heard from
him. It was during this period that Ahmad ibn Hanbal met him. Ash-Shafi'i
began to set forth a new fi q h which was neither the fiqh of the people of
Madina nor the fiqh of the people of Iraq but a mixture of the two and the
product of a luminous intellect which had matured in knowledge of the Book
and Sunna, knowledge of Arabic, information about people, analogy and
opinion. That is why the scholars who met him realised that he was unique in
his scholarship. Ash-Shafi'i stayed in Makka at this time for about nine years,
as can be deduced from the reports we have from various transmitters.

As we have seen ash-Shafi'i had been exposed to two different traditions of f
i q h . After he had debated and argued the pros and cons and seen the
ramifications of the various opinions, the divergence of views and contrast of
sources, he felt that he must set out the criteria for discerning the true from
the false, or at least to recognise what is closer to the truth. Having witnessed
with his own eyes the differences between the views of the Hijazis and Iraqis
- each of them having its own justification and evidence - it is not logical
that ash-Shafi'i would judge one of the two views to be invalid without
having a precise and accurate criterion for doing so. This is why he came up
with his technique for extrapolating the rules of deduction.
We can understand from his long residence in Makka, far from the tumult of
Iraq and the battle of opinions there, that he was able to fully devote himself
to his studies and reflect on the extrapolation of these rules. He had a
complete grasp of Allah's Book and knew how to evaluate its evidence and
judgements, which texts abrogate and are abrogated, and the special qualities
of each. He knew the place held by the S u n n a in the science of the S h a r i
'a, how to tell the sound from the weak, the methods of using it for evidence,
and its position in relation to the Noble Qur'an. He knew how to extrapolate
rulings when there was nothing in the Book or Sunna when no precise rules
of ijtihad applied, and he set out the limits for the m u j t a h i d. He himself
did not exceed those limits so as to be safe from exceeding the bounds of
ijtihad.
That is why he remained in Makka for a long time, and it must have been
during this period that he laid down the principles of deduction and produced
them for people. Perhaps when he reached a point where it was proper to
expound it to the mass of fuqaha', he travelled to Baghdad, the focal point for
all the fuqaha' since the decline of Madina after the death of Malik. At that
point Baghdad became home to both the exponents of opinion and the
adherents of hadith.
Ash-Shafi'i visited Baghdad for the second time in 195 AH with his new
system of f i q h. He began not by examining the details of secondary rulings
and subsidiary questions but by formulating universal rules and basic
principles by which the subsidiary questions could be decided. He
transformed fiqh into a total science, not merely a matter of secondary
rulings, and he derived general rules rather than fatwas and personal

decisions. So scholars and fiqh students thronged to him and the hadith
scholars and people of opinion all sought him out. It was during this visit,
they say, that he first put on paper his Risala which set out the basis of the
science of the fundamental principles of fiqh.
The Virtues of ash-Shafi'i by ar-Razi reports that it is related that 'Abdu'r-
Rahman ibn Mahdi asked ash-Shafi'i to write a book outlining the
preconditions for deducing judgements using the Qur'an, the Sunna,
consensus and analogy, clarifying the abrogating and abrogated, and
explaining the categories of the general and particular, and so ash-Shafi'i
wrote the Risala and sent it to him. When 'Abdu'r-Rahman ibn Mahdi read it,
he said, "I did not think that Allah Almighty had created such a man!" Ar-
Razi continues, "Know that ash-Shafi'i wrote the Risala while he was in
Baghdad. When he returned to Egypt, he rewrote it and there is much
knowledge in both versions."
In Iraq ash-Shafi'i began to disseminate the new system he had introduced.
He expounded its basic principles, and, using them, criticised the existing
positions of knowledge. He wrote books, sent letters, and men of f i q h
studied with him. He remained in Baghdad for two years during this visit. He
returned again in 198 AH, stayed there for a few months and then decided to
travel to Egypt which he did in 199 AH. Why did he stay for such a short
time in Baghdad on this final visit when it was the cradle of so many
scholars? He had students and disciples there and knowledge was widespread
in all its quarters. At that time Egypt did not have anything like the position
with respect to knowledge that Baghdad had. It is a puzzling question.
Perhaps the answer is that in 198 AH al-Ma'mun became khalif.
During the reign of al-Ma'mun there were two problems which the
personality and scholarly method of ash-Shafi'i could not endure. The first
was that power in the time of al-Ma'mun was in Persian hands because the
battle between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun was in reality one between the Arab
army, represented by al-Amin and his generals, and the army of al-Ma'mun,
the commanders of whose army were all Persian. The battle ended in the
victory of the Persians, which in turn gave them substantial influence and
effective power. The Qurayshite ash-Shafi'i was not content to reside in the
shadow of a power which was Persian in its influence and tone.

The second was that al-Ma'mun was a theologian and philosopher and
brought the Mu'tazilites close to him, appointing some of them as his scribes,
chamberlains and companions. Ash-Shafi'i was averse to the Mu'tazilites and
their scholastic methods. He handed down punishment to some people who
delved into speculative questions as they did and spoke about matters of faith
in the manner in which they did. So someone like ash-Shafi'i was not content
to remain in their company under the auspices of a khalif who raised them to
a position that eventually led him to impose on the fuqaha' and hadith
scholars an inquisition which Islamic history describes as the Trial of the
"Creation of the Qur'an".
It is reported that al-Ma'mun offered to appoint ash-Shafi'i q a d i but he
excused himself. Not being prepared to remain in Baghdad he had to move
from there, but he found no suitable place to emigrate to except Egypt, whose
governor was an Abbasid of Hashimi descent. Yaqut states in his Collection,
"The reason why he went to Egypt was that al-'Abbas ibn 'Abdullah ibn al-
Abbas ibn Musa, who was al-Ma'mun's governor in Egypt, invited him to go
there." So ash-Shafi'i went to Egypt and obtained wealth from the share of
his relatives by virtue of being a s h a r i f. He gained success through the
spread of his knowledge, opinion and fiqh. Finally he died and was buried in
Fustat, dying at the end of the night on the last day of Rajab in 204 AH at the
age of 54.
Before concluding the discussion on the life of ash-Shafi'i, it is important to
mention one particular scholarly turning point in his life. Before ash-Shafi'i
came to Baghdad in 195 AH, while he was studying in Makka, he developed
a new system of f i q h and new opinions which were distinct from the
opinions of Malik. Yet he did not criticise or Malik's opinions or say that
they were wrong. He presented his opinions, whether or not they differed
from those of Malik, without any criticism of him. That is because he was
considered to be one of the companions of Malik, whether some of his
opinions differed from his a little or much. Some of the companions of Malik
differed from Malik, just as some of the companions of Abu Hanifa differed
from their shaykh.
But something occurred that compelled ash-Shafi'i to criticise the views of
his shaykh. He heard that in some Muslim lands M a lik 's relics and clothes
were being sanctified and that some Muslims would hear a h a d i t h of the

Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and oppose it
on account of something that Malik had said. This provoked ash-Shafi'i
because he thought that some people were attributing to the statements of
Malik a rank which should be reserved for the h a d i t h s of the Messenger
of Allah. He considered this dangerous because people were contradicting
hadiths of the Messenger of Allah with statements of people who might be
either right or wrong. It was not proper for anyone to accept anyone's opinion
in preference to a hadith. That is why ash-Shafi'i was caller "the Helper of
Hadith" by scholars in his time: because he supported the hadith.
This led him to criticise some of the views of Malik and state that they were
wrong, so that people would know that Malik was a mortal who could be
right or wrong and that his opinion counted for nothing in the face of a sound
hadith. He wrote a book on the subject, entitled "The Disagreement with
Malik". But he hesitated to make it public out of loyalty to Malik, his shaykh
and teacher, for throughout his life he had called Malik "the Teacher". He
hesitated to point out to people what he saw as Malik's error, but at the same
time he feared for the Sunna because of the sanctification of Malik. So he
withheld the book for a year, hesitating and then he did an istikhara prayer for
guidance before making it public.
Ar-Razi reports: "Ash-Shafi'i wrote the book on Malik because he had heard
that in Andalusia Malik's cap was used for seeking rain and that when people
were told, 'The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him
peace, said ... ' they would r e ply, 'Malik said ... ' Ash-Shafi'i said, 'Malik is
a human being. He can err and make mistakes.' It was that which led ash-
Shafi'i to write the book on Malik. He used to say, 'I was reluctant to do so
and performed the istikhara prayer about it for a year.' Ar-Rabi' said, 'I heard
ash-Shafi'i say, "I came to Egypt and did not know that Malik took a contrary
position to the hadiths in his possession except in sixteen instances. When I
examined it I saw that he spoke by the root and ignored the branch, and spoke
by the branch and ignored the root.""""
Ash-Shafi'i differed from Malik, but he only did so for the sake of Allah. He
endured much trouble and difficulty on that account. If Malik had been in
Egypt, he would have occupied the foremost position among the mujtahids
and so the Malikis attacked and criticised ash-Shafi'i. Some of them went to
the governor to ask him to expel him. Ar-Razi says about that: "When ash-

Shafi'i wrote his book on Malik, the people of Malik went to the ruler and
asked him to expel ash-Shafi'i. Ash-Shafi'i had not only criticised the
opinions of Malik but he had also previously criticised the opinions of the
Iraqis: Abu Hanifa, his followers, and other fuqaha' of Iraq. He mentioned
their disagreements and said that some of their opinions were wrong. He
mentioned the inconsistencies of alAwza'i and criticised his opinion about
certain behaviour. Each of those had supporters among the men of fiqh in
their time who were their partisans and defended them."
Because of his criticism of them, a flood of debate and arg u m e n t burst in
on ash-Shafi'i. He used to debate and argue, basing his a rguments and debate
on clear evidence alone without speaking ill of the person with the opinion,
until this process led him to become someone with a specific legal
philosophy. Ahmad ibn Hanbal said about him, "Ash-Shafi'i was a
philosopher as regards four matters: language, the disagreements of people,
meanings and fi q h. "
When he set down the principles and rules of fi q h, he found that some of
the fu q aha ' among the Hijazis went beyond these principles and were not
limited by them, including his shaykh. He found that Malik took the root and
ignored the branch and took the branch and ignored the root. So he argued
with the people of the Hijaz and he spent all his life in the defence of the f i q
h of the Shar i' a and for the path of the Truth, so that some historians
thought that his death was caused by the intensity of his struggle to see the
truth prevail." He was truly the Imam of the Shari'a in his time.
1. One of the Malikis, Fityan, debated with ash-Shafi'i and lost. Being an i n t e m p e r a t e
individual, he resorted to abuse and was disgraced by the governor on that account. Fityan's
followers resorted to violence and attacked ash-Shafi'i after one of his circles. He was taken
to his home and remained unwell until he died.
Chapter Two Ash-Shafi'i's Knowledge and Its Sources
In examining his life story we have already observed ashS h a fi ' i 's stages
of development and his journeys and discussed their relevance to his life, but
the sources of ash-Shafi'i's knowledge should be isolated and studied
independently. Some of the events which happened to him were integral to
the development of his fiqh and this fiqh is the core of the subject we are

studying. His shaykhs, readers and the students who studied with him all
agreed that he was a peerless paragon among the scholars of his time; and
this testimony has been confirmed by history.
His teacher Malik praised him at a time when he was not yet fully developed
and before he reached his prime. After reading the treatise on the basic
principles which ash-Shafi'i wrote at his request, 'Abdu'r-Rahman ibn Mahdi
said, "These are the words of a young man of great understanding."
Muhammad ibn 'Abdu'lHakam was one of ash-Shafi'i's students in Egypt.
He said, "If it had not been for ash-Shafi'i, I would not have recognised how
to reply to anyone, and through him I know what I know. He is the one who
taught me analogy, may Allah have mercy on him. He knew s u n n a and
tradition; he had excellent character and eloquence and sound firm
intelligence."
Ahmad ibn Hanbal said about him, "It is related from the Prophet, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, that Allah Almighty will send to his
community every hundred years a man who will set its d e e n straight. 'Umar
ibn 'Abdu'l-'Aziz was the man at the end of the first hundred years and I
hope that ashShafi'i will be the one at the end of the next hundred."
According to Da'ud ibn 'Ali az-Zahiri, "Ash-Shafi'i possessed virtues which
no one else possessed: noble lineage, sound d e e n and doctrine, g e n e r o s
i ty, knowledge of sound and weak h a d i t h, the abrogating and abrogated,
memorisation of the Book and Sunna, the lives of the khalifs, and good
handwriting."
These are some of the testimonies to ash-Shafi'i's position in knowledge in
his time in the books on his virtues and biographies. We will leave these
testimonies aside, even those that are noteworthy, because their authors may
be prone to partiality and are necessarily biased against those who say the
opposite. The testimony which has stronger force is what he himself left:
transmitted statements, f a t w a s, treatises, books, arguments and debates.
All of these contain evidence of his knowledge, his immense gifts, the
breadth of his fi q h, the eloquence of his exposition, and the strength of his
heart. He was greater than a mere writer and more than just a faqih.
He had knowledge of Arabic and knowledge of writing and so he understood
its meaning, secrets and aims. He conveyed a taste of that in his lessons. One

of his students said, "When ash-Shafi'i began tafsir, it was as if he were
witnessing the Revelation." He had knowledge of hadith, memorised the
Muwatta' of Malik, and was meticulous in the rules of the Sunna and
understanding of its goals and stated them. He knew the abrogating and
abrogated texts of the Sunna and knew the fiqh of opinion and analogy and
laid out the rules for making analogy and listed the criteria needed to
recognise when it is sound or faulty.
Ash-Shafi'i used to say, "Whoever learns the Qur'an has immense value.
Whoever cites h a d i t h strengthens his proof. Whoever studies fi q h has
noble stature. Whoever examines language refines his nature. Whoever
considers the Reckoning has sound opinion. Whoever does not protect
himself does not benefit from his knowledge."
His circle of knowledge involved investigation into a number of sciences. Ar-
Rabi' ibn Sulayman said, "Ash-Shafi'i used to sit in his circle when he had
prayed S u b h, and the students of the Qur'an would come to him. When the
sun rose, they arose and left and the students of hadith came to him to ask
him to explain them and their meanings. When the sun was high, they left.
Then there was a circle of debate and analysis. When mid-morning came, it
dispersed and the students of Arabic, poetry, prose and grammar came, and
they continued until it was close to midday."
How did ash-Shafi'i acquire this huge body of knowledge and what enabled
him to have this incomparable scholastic position and such a profound effect
on his generation that he became the axis about which they revolved? There
are four elements which affect a person's acquisition of knowledge. The first
is the one on which all the other elements depend: the gifts, predisposition
and aptitude of the person concerned. The second is those directors and
shaykhs who establish a path for him among the various paths and methods
of knowledge and prescribe lines of research which become indelibly
stamped on him. The third is his own life, experiences and personal situation.
The fourth is the age in which he lives and the intellectual environment which
nurtures him.
We will discuss each of these elements in respect of ashShafi'i, for they all
had an effect on his formation.

His Gifts
Allah gave ash-Shafi'i great natural gifts which put him in the first rank of
the leaders of thought and opinion. He had strong mental powers and
faculties. He was quick-witted and ideas came to him when he needed them.
He was very good at explaining himself and was known for his clear
expression, eloquent language and fine exposition, and he had a voice which
had a profound effect on his listeners. The first time ash-Shafi'i met Malik,
Malik asked him to read the M u w a t t a ' to some of his companions and
ash-Shafi'i said, "I will read a page to you." When he read the page, Malik
wanted him to read on and on because of the profound effect of his voice.
When he recited the Qur'an, his listeners used to weep.
Ash-Shafi'i had penetrating insight into people's characters and like his
shaykh Malik he had strong firasa (insight into character) enabling him to
recognise the states of the men and what they were capable of. That is a
necessary quality for a debater who seeks to bring his opponent over to his
side; it is also necessary for a teacher, to enable him to instruct his students
with as much as they are capable of grasping. Ash-Shafi'i's insight, together
with his clear exposition, was one reason for the great number of companions
and students that gathered around him.
It is related that when ash-Shafi'i arrived in Baghdad he only had six
companions but the time came when he had to go to the Great Mosque so that
there would be enough room for his teaching and when he was there, there
was not enough room for anyone else to hold a teaching circle in the mosque
whereas before that there had been about fifty circles, as is stated in The
History of Baghdad.
His insight into people's states led him only to impart to his listeners
knowledge which they were capable of grasping. Ya q u t said, "He used to
recite poetry from memory with some of his contemporaries, but would tell
those who recited with him: 'Do not let any of the people of hadith know
about this. They would not be able to bear it.""
Ash-Shafi'i had a heart free of the impurities of this world which meant that
he was sincere in his quest for knowledge and his desire for the truth. He
sought knowledge for the sake of Allah alone, directed himself to the Straight

Path in his quest, and sincerely directed himself to seeking direct knowledge
of inner realities which come into the heart by the light of gnosis and create
in the soul a purity which makes the realities clear, the intellect perceptive
and thought direct.
Ash-Shafi'i's absolute sincerity was necessary for all levels of his quest of
knowledge. When his sincerity caused him to go against people's generally
held opinions, he boldly and forcefully publicly announced his own opinion.
He saw the high position of 'Ali both in history and also in the reports of the
Companions and he continued to uphold this so that he was accused of being
a Rafidite. The more he proclaimed the truth and knowledge the more
accusations he received. His judgement was that all those who rebelled
against 'Ali were rebels. He also mentioned the
1. A term used for those Shi'ites who reject and display great hostility towards Abu Bakr and
'Umar as well as 'Uthman.
excellence of Abu Bakr and was accused of being a Nasibite. He did not pay
any attention to this, just as he had paid no attention to the first accusation.
He said:
I preferred 'Ali, so that makes me a Rafidite according to those who are
ignorant.
When I mentioned the excellence of Abu Bakr, I was accused of being a
Nasibite on that account. So I continue to be both Rafidite and Nasibite,
holding to this until I am buried in the sands.
When ash-Shafi'i's loyalty to his shaykhs conflicted with his perception of
the truth, he preferred the truth. His loyalty to Malik did not prevent him
from opposing him; nor did his loyalty to Muhammad ibn al-Hasan prevent
from debating with him so effectivenely that he triumphed over his followers,
causing them to consider him one the people of the Hijaz and to call him the
'Helper of Hadith'. He was like at every stage of his quest for knowledge,
seeking illumination by true sincere devotion to the truth for the sake of the
truth. So he came to his debates with absolute sincerity and overcame so long
as the truth was his goal.
Ash-Shafi'i believed that the basis of the Islamic Shari'a was the Book of

Allah and the Sunna of His Messenger and he never believed that he had
encompassed complete knowledge of the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah.
He encouraged his companions to seek out hadith and, if they thought they
were sound and contrary to what he stated, to reject his opinion and take the
hadith. Yaqut reports from ar-Rabi' ibn Sulayman, "When a man asked ash-
Shafi'i about something and said, 'It is related that the Messenger of Allah
said such-and-such' he asked ash-Shafi'i, 'Abu 'Abdullah, do you also say
this?' Ash-Shafi'i trembled, turned pale and his countenance changed. I heard
him say, 'What earth will harbour me and what heaven will shade me if you
relate
1. One of a group of people who do not like 'Ali or his family; they are the counterpart of the
Rafidites.
from the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and I
do not say, "Yes, with all my being"?"
Ar-Rabi' also said, "I heard ash-Shafi'i state, 'There is no one who does not
forget some of the Sunna of the Messenger of Allah. Whenever I say a word
or establish a principle and what I said differs from the Messenger of Allah,
the proper position is whatever the Messenger of Allah said, may Allah bless
him and grant him peace, and it is my position.' He repeated these words."
There is another type of sincerity by which Allah singles out the elect of His
slaves who are models and paradigms for other people. It is complete
devotion to a high ideal. Sincerity of this kind is elevated and hard to attain
and is a rare quality. Those who compete in debate, argue using proofs, and
try to outdo each other by producing evidence, are almost always prone to
arrogance and love of prominence. But ash-Shafi'i was a rare exception to
this rule. That is why he did not get angry in an argument or become
overbearing with a sharp tongue in an encounter. He desired only the truth
when he argued and did not desire elevation. He had no concern for rank in
knowledge. He simply wanted people to benefit by his knowledge without his
having any concern about whether it was ascribed to him or not.
Ibn Kathir states that ash-Shafi'i used to say, "I want people to learn this
knowledge and for none of it to be ascribed to me so that they may be
rewarded for it and not praise me. Then by my sincerity I will have acquired
intelligence, nobility and strength of self and be far from base things and

above anything which does not befit a complete man." Yahya ibn Ma'in said
in his description, "Even if lying were permitted, his manliness would have
prevented him from doing it. This is the noblest thing that a truthful sincere
person can achieve."
His shaykhs
Ash-Shafi'i learned figh and hadith from shaykhs who lived far apart and
whose methods varied. Some of them were Mu'tazilites interested in the
science of kalam whose study ash-Shafi'i forbade. He obtained the good that
each possessed and took from them what he thought should be taken, leaving
aside what he thought should be rejected. He received knowledge from
shaykhs in Makka, Madina, Yemen and Iraq.
A r-Razi gives the names of some of them as follows, "Know that the
shaykhs from whom he related were numerous. We will mention the most
famous of them. There were nineteen whose discipline was fi qh and fat w
a: five in Makka, six in Madina, four from Yemen and four Iraqis. Those in
Makka were Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna, Muslim ibn Khalid az-Zanji, Sa'id ibn
Salim al-Qaddah, Da'ud ibn 'Abdi'r-Rahman al-'Attar, and 'Abdu'l-Hamid
ibn 'Abdi'l-'Aziz ibn Abi Rawwad. Those of the people of Madina were
Malik ibn Anas, Ibrahim ibn Sa'd al-Ansari, 'Abdu'l-Aziz ibn Muhammad
ad-Darwardi, Ibrahim ibn Abi Yahya al-Usami, Muhammad ibn Abi Sa'id
ibn Abi Fudayk, and 'Abdullah ibn Nafi' as-Sa'igh, the companion of Ibn
Abi Dhu'ayb. Those of Yemen were Mutarrif ibn Mazin, Hisham ibn Yusuf,
the Qadi of San'a, 'Umar ibn Abi Salama, the companion of al-Awza'i, and
Yahya ibn Hassan, the companion of al-Layth ibn Sa'd. Those from Iraq
were Waki' ibn al-Jarrah and Abu Usama Hammad ibn Usama of Kufa, and
Isma'il ibn 'Ulayya and 'Abdu'l-Wahhab ibn 'Abdi'l-Majid of Basra."
Ash-Shafi'i heard the books of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan directly from him
and he related hadiths from him and learned the f i q h of the people of Iraq
with him. So he was also one of his teachers. Ar-Razi refused to mention that,
out of partisanship; but knowledge cannot be made subject to partisanship.
This tells us that ash-Shafi'i learned knowledge from a number of shaykhs
with different schools and leanings. We may say that he learned the fi qh of

most of the schools existing in his time. He learned Malik's fi qh with him
and he was his Teacher and "the Luminous Star" among his shaykhs. He
learned the fi q h of alAwza'i from his companion, 'Umar ibn Abi Salam. He
learned the fiqh of al-Layth ibn Sa'd, the faqih of Egypt, from his companion
Yahya ibn Hassan. Then he learned the fiqh of Abu Hanifa and his students
from Muhammad ibn al-Hasan.
Thus he knew the fi q h of Makka, Madina, Syria, Egypt and Iraq. He saw no
see any harm in seeking figh from someone who was known for being a
Mu'tazilite, even though he knew that in the fundamentals of doctrine he did
not follow the course of the people of hadith and fiqh. This enabled him to
formulate a masterly legal blend in which all the positions met in a
harmonious balance in which those general ideas were fused together by
ashShafi'i and presented to people in that splendid exposition and masterly
form.
We cannot go into the details of everyone from whom he learned, but we
must point out that some writers on fiqh have contended that in reality he
took from only two schools of figh, each of which was established according
to a particular method. All the fuqaha', with very few exceptions, followed
the path of one or the other of these two schools, not diverging from it
significantly. One was the school of hadith in Madina and the other was the
school of opinion in Iraq. We can add a third school: t a f s ir of the Qur' a n
. Ash-Shafi'i knew the situational exegesis of its revelation (asbab a n - n u z
u l), the transmission of t a f s i r on the subject and how to understand the
Qur'an in that light, the language of the Arabs, and some of their customs:
that school is the school of Makka which Ibn 'Abbas founded.
In my opinion the factors which distinguish between the two schools are not
opinion and h a d i t h. What in fact distinguishes them is the method
employed to come to a judgement, the way opinion is used, and the
abundance or paucity of the fatwas of the Companions. It is confirmed that
the seven fuqaha' who were the teachers of Hijazi fi q h used opinion a
great deal. Whatever the case, ash-Shafi'i took from everyone.
The school of the Hijaz was transmitted from Malik, who learned it from a
group of the Ta bi ' i't - Tabi 'in, who learned their figh from the Tabi'un
who were renowned for their knowledge of the fatwas of the Companions

and transmitted tradition and opin
1. The seven fuqaha' of Madina were the early jurists among the Tabi'un in Madina who laid
down the foundations of Madinan fiqh. They were Sa'id ibn alMusayyab (d. 93 AH), 'Urwa
ibn az-Zubayr (d. 94 AH), Abu Bakr 'Ubayd (d. 94 AH), al-Qasim ibn Muhammad (d. 108
AH), 'Ubaydullah ibn 'Abdullah (d. 98 AH), Sulayman ibn Yasar (d. 100 AH), and Kharija
ibn Zayd (d. 100 AH).
ion as well. They had learned from the Companions who were following the
transmitted method of 'Umar, Zayd ibn Thabit and Ibn 'Umar. If something
happened, they derived the ruling on it from the Qur'an if there was one. If
there was not, they derived it from a transmission from the Prophet.
Otherwise, they made a f a t w a according to what would serve people's best
interests.
The shaykhs of the school of Iraq were the companions of Abu Hanifa who
survived him. Abu Hanifa derived his knowledge from some of the Tabi'i't-
Tabi'in who learned it from the Tabi'un who preferred the fiqh of Mu'adh
ibn Jabal who used opinion after the Sunna; and they learned from 'Abdullah
ibn Mas'ud who represented the method of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab.
Ash-Shafi'i learned the fiqh and tafsir of the Qur'an in Makka with those
who still followed the method of Ibn 'Abbas which he established there. Ibn
'Abbas used to study the Qur'an to such an extent that there is a volume of
tafsir ascribed to him. 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud described him as the "Translator
of the Qur'an." When Ibn 'Umar was asked about the meaning of an ayat he
said, "Go to Ibn 'Abbas and ask him. He has the most knowledge of what
Allah revealed to the Seal of the Prophets." 'Ata' said, "I have not seen any
assembly nobler than that of Ibn 'Abbas, and he had the greatest
understanding and was the greatest of them in fear of Allah. The students of f
i q h were with him, the students of the Qur ' a n were with him, and the
students of poetry were with him. All of them issued from one valley." Al-
A'mash recalled: "Ibn 'Abbas gave the khutba when he was in charge of the
'Id, and he began to recite and explain. I said, 'If the Persians and Romans
had heard, they would have become Muslims.""
Ash-Shafi'i grew up in Makka, whose scholars, or some of them, preferred
the method of 'Abdullah ibn 'Abbas and his understanding of the Deen.
Makka was where he was brought up, trained, and later taught and set out the

ground-plan of his method. However, at the beginning he followed the path
of Ibn 'Abbas. He raised himself on that model and followed in his footsteps.
There was harmony between them and their predispositions were clearly
close. The virtues of Ibn 'Abbas were much proclaimed at that time and
scholars and historians related and reported them because of the position of
the Hashimites.
Ash-Shafi'i was eloquent in exposition, as Ibn 'Abbas had been before him,
and he was concerned with the knowledge of the Qur'an as Ibn 'Abbas had
been. He was concerned with poetry as well as fiqh, which was also the case
with Ibn 'Abbas. His lessons were attended by students of the Qur'an,
students of hadith, students of fiqh, and students of poetry and Arabic, as Ibn
'Abbas's had been. So we can see that ash-Shafi'i took Ibn 'Abbas as a
model.
Ash-Shafi'i, through his studies and residence in Makka, learned a body of
knowledge which could not be found in either Iraq or Madina. By adopting
the method of Ibn 'Abbas with his devotion to the study of the Qur'an, he
developed a concern with what was mujmal (general) and mufassal
(detailed), mutlaq (unrestricted) and m u q a y y a d (qualified), k h a s s
(particular) and ' a m m (general), until it produced a new discipline for the
fuqaha' of his time which they had not studied previously, even though they
had all the material for it.
His private studies and experiences
A scholar does not derive his knowledge from his gifts and teachers alone:
his private studies and reflection, his journeys and experiences, also have a
tremendous importance in his education and a major effect on his writings
and the fruits of his personal intellectual quest. While ash-Shafi'i was
studying with his shaykhs in Makka and Madina, he loved to search and
loved to travel. He went to the tribe of Hudhayl as a child and became
eloquent in their dialect. He spent a lot of time travelling and stopped
camping with them. So he had experience of the land of the Arabs, their
customs and their character. It was among them that the Qur' a n was
revealed, and so some of their customs shed light on what is in the Noble
Qur'an.

After that, he travelled to seek hadith and fiqh. He travelled to Malik and
stayed with him. Then while studying with Malik, he travelled throughout the
Arabian Peninsula in search of knowledge. After Malik died, ash-Shafi'i
went to Yemen to occupy a post in local government. He was in Najran and
studied the nature of the relationship between ruler and ruled, experiencing at
first hand the relations and dealings of people with one another, and their
customs and habits. All of that influenced his thinking on justice and his
understanding of it and its effect on people. So his travels enabled him to
formulate criteria for his deductions. He derived much benefit from travel,
which is why he said:
I will travel the length and breadth of the land and will obtain my desire or
die in exile. If I perish Allah is an excellent Host! If I am spared I will surely
return home.
There is no doubt that travel gives the faqih material and information whose
very nature broadens the mind, increases discernment, sharpens the senses
and provides food for thought through new impressions. Much experience of
everyday events is necessary for any thinker who wants to set out universal
principles. That is why many philosophers who dealt with effects of the
human intellect travelled widely.
The journeys of ash-Shafi'i usually had a pedagogic aim, being for the most
part connected to shaykhs and learning and teaching. In the course of his
travels, he studied and attended various schools, some by actually listening to
the one who taught them and some by reading books about them. He studied
the school of alAwza'i and recorded what was transmitted from the books of
this school. It is stated in the biography of al-Awza'i that ash-Shafi'i debated
the views of al-Awza'i, disagreeing with him on some of them and agreeing
on others.
He studied the school of al-Layth ibn Sa'd to such an extent that it is related
that he preferred him to Imam Malik in figh. He said, "Al-Layth had more f i
q h than Malik but his colleagues did not establish it." Ash-Shafi'i could not
have made this statement unless he had studied his opinions. He recognised
the relative strength of opinions and what they indicated of a person's range
of ability in figh. Without a doubt ash-Shafi'i studied the fiqh of alLayth
deeply.

Ash-Shafi'i then studied profoundly the fi qh of the people of Iraq. He
studied the books of Muhammad ibn al-Hasan orally with him. He studied the
books dealing with the disagreements of the Iraqis among themselves.
Among them there was T h e Disagreements of Abu Hanifa and Ibn Abi
Layla, by Abu Yusuf, setting out the conflict between the opinions of Abu
Hanifa and those of Ibn Abi Layla. Ash-Shafi'i chose the opinions which he
found closest to the truth.
In general, we find that ash-Shafi'i studied all the schools known in his time
profoundly and sought guidance from them. His scholarly journeys prevented
him from confining himself in his studies to those fuqaha' who obeyed the
rulers. He also studied the opinions of the Shi'a and others. We find a trace of
that in his praise for some of their scholars. Ibn Kathir reports that he said,
"Anyone who desires fiqh needs Abu Hanifa. Anyone who desires s ir a
needs Muhammad ibn Ishaq. Anyone who desires h a d i t h needs Malik.
Anyone who desires t a fs i r needs Muqatil ibn Sulayman."
Muqatil ibn Sulayman, whom ash-Shafi'i considered to be the Imam of tafsir,
was a Zaydi Shi'ite. We find in the Fihrist of Ibn an-Nadim: "Muqatil ibn
Sulayman was a Zaydite ha dith scholar and reciter. He composed a
large book of ta fs i r, a book on the abrogating and abrogated, a book on
recitation, a book on the ambiguous expressions of the Qur'an and the
answers of the Qur'an." So although Muqatil was a Shi'i ash-Shafi'i
nevertheless studied his works, and as a result of his studies he encouraged
people to read him and considered him an Imam in this field. This fact shows
conclusively that he studied all matters relating to fiqh and ijtihad without
confining himself to any one group. He was concerned only to gain
knowledge, without paying attention to the particular leaning of those who
possessed it.
Ash-Shafi'i studied everything that could be beneficial to a faqih who wanted
to found a legal school based, and relying on the Book and Sunna. He studied
Arabic language, the Qur'an, hadith, the transmissions of those before him,
and their disagreements and agreements, not confining himself to any
particular sect, school or group. He undertook journeys for the sake of
knowledge and to gain experience of people's natures, their states and the
circumstances of their society. There are even some who maintain that he
learned Greek; this is based on a report by ar-Razi of Harun arR a s hid 's

questioning of ash-Shafi'i when he was brought before him. He mentioned
that his knowledge of medicine included the teachings of the Greeks, Arab
doctors, Indian philosophers and Persian scholars. But there is no
independent confirmation of this.
Chapter Three The Times of ash-Shafi'i
Imam ash-Shafi'i was born and lived in that part of the Abbasid era during
which the rule of the dynasty was established and its power consolidated. It
was an era in which Islamic life flowered. The period was distinguished by
the revival of sciences, the awakening of Islamic thought and scholars
borrowing from Greek phil o s o p h y, Persian culture and Indian sciences.
We will discuss briefly the distinguishing intellectual and social features of
this epoch.
The Muslim cities were seething with different cultural and ethnic elements:
Persians, Greeks, Indians, and Aramaeans. Baghdad was the centre of power
and the capital of the Muslim world. It was awash with different races and
there were delegates arriving there from all areas of the Islamic world, each
embodying the civilisation and feelings of his race. A society formed in such
a manner is bound to have many incidents arising from the effects of the
clash and interaction of the various distinct elements within it. Each incident
had its ruling in the Shari'a, for the Islamic Shari'a is a universal one which
deals with all matters, major or minor. The study of these incidents expanded
the understanding of fuqa ha' and opened their minds to solving problems
and formulating the rules of the various branches of fiqh.
This was a period of active translation from ancient texts, which the Abbasid
khalifs encouraged and stimulated. The Arabic language expanded with the
influx of Greek ideas which came through a number of means. They came
from Persian sources where people preferred Hellenism; from Syriac sources,
as the Syrians were the greatest transmitters of Hellenism at that time; and
directly from the Greek itself. Some of the new Muslims were proficient in
both Arabic and Greek and translated some of the great Greek texts.
Sometimes Greek philosophy was pure, sometimes clothed in a Persian garb,
and sometimes coloured by the influences of Judaism and Christianity by
way of Syriac.