Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafii

Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafii (767-820 CE) was the founder of the Shafii school of jurisprudence and the pioneer of usul al-fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence) as a formal discipline. Born in Gaza, Palestine, in the same year Imam Abu Hanifah died, he was raised in Mecca after his father's early death. He memorized the Quran by age seven and al-Muwatta of Imam Malik by age ten. He then traveled to Medina to study directly under Imam Malik, who was so impressed by the young man that he waived his tuition.

Ash-Shafii's unique position in Islamic intellectual history stems from his synthesis of the legal traditions of the Hijaz (represented by Malik) and Iraq (represented by Abu Hanifah's students). He studied under scholars of both traditions and developed a systematic methodology for deriving legal rulings from the sources of Islamic law: the Quran, the Sunnah, ijma (scholarly consensus), and qiyas (analogical reasoning). His masterwork, al-Risalah, is the first book ever written on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence and remains a foundational text in the field.

Ash-Shafii spent time in Mecca, Baghdad, and finally Egypt, where he revised many of his earlier opinions (leading scholars to distinguish between his 'old school' and 'new school'). He was also a poet of considerable skill and was known for his quick wit, eloquence, and generosity. Ahmad ibn Hanbal said of him, 'Ash-Shafii was like the sun for the world and like health for the body.' He died in Cairo in 204 AH (820 CE) and his tomb in the Imam ash-Shafii Mosque remains one of Cairo's most visited sites. His school is predominant in East Africa, Southeast Asia, parts of the Middle East, and southern Arabia.