The Shafi’i Madh’hab
The Founder: Muhammed ibn Idrees Ash-Shafi'i (769-820CE)
He was born in Gaza and memorized the entire Qur’an in his youth. He then travelled to Madinah to study Fiqh and Hadith under Imam Malik. He memorized al-Muwatta and recited it back to Imam Malik word perfect. He remained his student all the way until Imam Malik died in 801CE.
He didn’t begin his life as a teacher until after Imam Malik died, as Imam Abu Hanifa did with his teacher. It was their practice to not teach individually until their teacher had died, out of respect.
After Imam Malik passed away, Ash-Shafi’i went to Yemen. He became a teacher for 4 years and absorbed the Fiqh of Imam az-Zayd while he was there.
Yemen was under Shiite control during the time, and because of the debates he had with certain scholars from Iraq, rumour spread that he had come under Shiite influence. Word then came to Harun Ar-Rasheed, who was the Caliph at the time, that Ash-Shafi’i began to lean towards Shiite views.
He was subsequently arrested and taken in chains to Baghdad where he had to defend his positions before the scholars. When they heard his reasoning and evidences they accepted it.
He remained in Baghdad and sat under the student of Abu Hanifa, Muhammed ibn Ash-Shaybani, and combined the Fiqh of Hijaz (Imam Malik) with the Fiqh of Iraq by extracting what he considered to be the most correct rulings.
At that point he wrote a book which he taught called, “Al-Hujja” which then came to be known as “the old Madh'hab”.
Then he went on to Egypt and absorbed the knowledge of Imam Al-Layth, which elevated his knowledge, and thus he was obliged to change a number of his positions. So many so, that he had to write a new text, called “Al-Umm” which came to be known as the new Madh’hab.
He also rejected offers for appointment. He taught independently, and was far enough that his independence didn’t threaten the Baghdad rule.
What he was noted for among the major Imams was that he systematized Fiqh. All the others used the different Usool but they didn’t systematize it. He did so in “Ar-Risalah”.
Among his students who studied under him in Baghdad when he put together his text Al-Hujja was Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, Imam Abu-Thawr (though he was a scholar in his own right, he studied under him – He also had a Madh’hab, a contemporary of Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal).
He exemplified the scholars of his era by travelling and not restricting himself to one source.
His Madh'hab became widespread due to the fact it was adopted by the chief judge in Damascus, who offered a prize to whomever memorized it. However, the fact that he settled in Egypt was enough for his school of thought to overshadow that of Imam Al-Layth.
Sources of the Shafi’i Madh’hab:
1) Qur’an
2) Sunnah
He rejected the position of using only well known Hadith for Islamic law, and took the same position as Imam Malik in that the Hadiths, if they were authentic, were given precedence.
However, he rejected Imam Maliks position on the agreed upon customs of the people of Madinah taking precedence over individually narrated Hadith.
3) Ijmaa
He had doubts about Ijmaa after the time of the Sahabah, and his student Ahmed ibn Hanbal completely rejected it.
4) Individual Opinions of the Sahabah
He accepted them as long as they didn't contradict each other. If the majority of the Sahabah had a position and an individual Sahabi had a different opinon, he would go with the majority. But if an individual companion had an opinion, and no one said anything opposing it, he would give precedence to it over his personal opinion.
5) Qiyas
He used it, promoted it, and taught it, but kept it after the opinion of the Sahabah, whether it was in the form of Ijmaa or individual opinions.
6) Istis’hab
This is similar to the Istislah of Imam Malik and and the Istihsan of Abu Hanifa. What he meant by this was basically trying to find a legal link between the existing Fiqh laws which would not necessarily be the obvious conclusion of Qiyas, but if he found some other links which would not be sufficient to bring about the ruling of Qiyas (if that Qiyas ruling was not practical) he would use the other links as a means of deriving the practical law. The others did not necessarily have to have a link. He was more grounded in the sense that he could relate it to something directly from the Qur’an and Sunnah. Imam Malik, for example, was more prepared to use the custom of the people as sufficient value to override Qiyas.
His main Students:
1) Al-Muzani (791-876CE)
The reason the Al-Awzaai Madh’hab disappeared because the judge in Damascus offered a reward for students who memorized the Mukhtasir of Al-Muzani, which was Shafi’i Fiqh. He elaborated on Ash-Shafi’I’s Umm. This text was later condensed and became known as the Mukhtasir Al-Muzani, and became even more widely read than Al-Umm.
2) Al-Rabee’ Al-Maradi (790-873CE)
He was one of the main narrators of Al-Umm, and he had written it down during Ash-Shafi’is lifetime as well as his book Al-Risalah.
3) Yusuf bin Yahya AlBuwayti
Yusuf bin Yahya became the main teacher to replace Ash-Shafi’i after he died. He was later imprisoned and tortured to death in Baghdad because he had rejected the Mu’tazilite philosophy of the creation of the Qur’an. They had made an inquisition forcing the Ummah to take this point of view.
Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal was also tortured and imprisoned and stood firm, but they couldn’t kill him because he was too popular of a scholar. Eventually the Mu’tazilite idea was repealed and Imam Ahmed was set free.
The Followers of the Shafi'i Madh'hab: It is the main Madh’hab of Egypt, Yemen, Southern India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania), South America (Surinam (Dutch Guyana)- the British brought indentured labour from Indonesia and India, and they became the majority of the population. Because of the rigidity between the Indonesian Shafi’is and Hanafi’s you’ll find in Surinam till today Masjids where across the road from each other, one facing east, and the other facing west. What happened is that when people were brought there, one of them continued facing west, whereas the others made Ijtihad to face east because they were now on the other side of Makkah.)
A comparison of the differences between the Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Maliki Madh’habs:
1) The Qur'an
We don't find a difference in them using the Qur'an as a source of law, as there is no question about the texts authenticity.
There were, however, differences in interpretation.
E.g.
Touch could mean an accidental touch, a deliberate touch, or it could mean sexual intercourse. And the scholars differed with regards to this.
- Imam Ash-Shafi'i took the position that if you accidentally touch a woman, you need to take Wudhoo.
- Imam Malik took the opinion that if you deliberately touch, and get pleasure out of it, your Wudhoo is broken.
- Imam Abu Hanifa ruled that neither of the aforementioned break your Wudhoo, rather touching in this verse referred to intercourse.
So although they all agreed on the text, they derived different rulings on it. Which do we follow?
When we look back at the evidence each one used to support his ruling, we find that the Prophet is authentically reported by more than one of his wives, to have kissed them and then stepped into the Masjid to lead prayer. This rules out the positions of both Imam Ash-Shafi'i and Malik.
In addition to this, Imam Abu Hanifa's ruling is supported by the linguistic implication. The word is metaphorical.
2) The Sunnah
Both Ash-Shafi'i and Malik agreed that if a hadith was authentic it was their Madh'hab. Imam Hanifa put a condition, only accepting a hadith if it was well-known and famous.
3) Ijmaa
They all agreed on the Ijmaa of the Sahabah, but Imam Malik included the Ijmaa of the People of Madinah and gave it precedence over the Ijmaa of the Sahabah, and on occasion Hadith.
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