Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i

Life and ideas

Al-Shafi'i was born in Gaza, grew up in Mecca and studied with leading scholars in Mecca and Medina, among them Malik ibn Anas, before working in Yemen, Iraq and finally Egypt, where he died. In Iraq he met the rationalist scholars of the school of Abu Hanifa, and in Medina the traditionalists, and he tried to bring the two approaches together. His book al-Risala is generally taken as the first systematic work on the sources and methods of Islamic law. It argues that the Quran and the authenticated sayings and practice of the Prophet are the primary sources, that the consensus of the community and reasoning by analogy come next, and that arbitrary personal preference has no place. The school that bears his name became one of the four main Sunni schools.