Shafi'i School

Overview

A school of Sunni jurisprudence founded by Imam Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (767-820 CE). Al-Shafi'i is considered the founder of Islamic legal theory (usul al-fiqh) through his seminal work al-Risalah, which systematized the sources of Islamic law. The Shafi'i school is dominant in East Africa, Southeast Asia, parts of Egypt, Yemen, and the Levant. It occupies a middle position between the Hanafi reliance on reason and the Maliki reliance on Madinan practice.

Key Beliefs

• Systematic hierarchy of legal sources: Quran, Sunnah, ijma, qiyas
• Strict criteria for accepting hadith as legal evidence
• Rejection of istihsan in favor of strict analogical reasoning
• Detailed categorization of legal maxims and principles
• Emphasis on the methodology of deriving rulings (usul) alongside the rulings themselves