ar-Rafi'i

Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad ar-Rafi'i al-Qazwini (555-623 AH / 1160-1226 CE) was a major Shafi'i jurist from Qazwin (in modern Iran). Along with an-Nawawi, he is considered one of the two foundational pillars of the later Shafi'i jurisprudential tradition.

Ar-Rafi'i studied in Qazwin and traveled to study under major scholars of his era, including Imam al-Baghawi. He became the foremost Shafi'i authority of his time and spent most of his scholarly career in Qazwin.

His main work, al-Aziz fi Sharh al-Wajiz (also known as ash-Sharh al-Kabir or Fat'h al-Aziz), is a comprehensive multi-volume commentary on al-Ghazali's al-Wajiz (a concise Shafi'i legal text). This massive work systematically presents and evaluates the opinions of Shafi'i scholars on every legal question, documenting the development of the madhhab up to his time. It became one of the two foundational reference texts for determining the relied-upon (mu'tamad) positions of the Shafi'i school — the other being an-Nawawi's al-Majmu'.

An-Nawawi based much of his own work on ar-Rafi'i's scholarship and frequently references and evaluates his views. The pair ar-Rafi'i and an-Nawawi are collectively called the Two Shaykhs (ash-Shaykhani) in the Shafi'i school. When their views agree, their joint opinion represents the strongest position. He also authored Fath al-Aziz and Muharrar, another important Shafi'i legal text.

Ar-Rafi'i passed away in Qazwin in 623 AH. His scholarship defined the parameters of the late classical Shafi'i tradition and established the standards for determining the madhhab's authoritative positions.