The jurist who founded the science of legal theory (usul al-fiqh), systematizing the sources of Islamic law — and the eponym of the Shafi'i school.
Life
Born in 767, al-Shafi'i studied under Malik in Madinah and among the Iraqi jurists, synthesizing their approaches. His Risala laid out a theory of the sources of law; he taught in Iraq and finally Egypt, where he died in 820.
Struggles & Trials
He lived amid political danger — briefly suspected of Alid sympathies and brought before Harun al-Rashid — and moved between the great centers of learning, refining his thought against the rival methods of the Iraqi and Madinan schools.
Teachings & Character
Al-Shafi'i is credited with fixing the four sources of Sunni law — the Qur'an, the sunna of the Prophet established through sound hadith, consensus (ijma), and analogy (qiyas) — and with elevating the authority of hadith as binding law. His Risala founded legal theory as a discipline.
Campaigns & Conflicts
A jurist, al-Shafi'i fought no wars, though he was caught up in the political suspicions of his day — once brought in chains before the caliph on a charge of Alid sympathy, and released.
Contested & Debated
His insistence on prophetic hadith over the free reasoning of the Iraqis, and over local practice, reshaped the field and drew debate; his "old" and "new" doctrines, from his Iraqi and Egyptian periods, are themselves studied. Revered across Sunnism, his biography is transmitted with honor.
Legacy
The Shafi'i school spread across Egypt, the Levant, East Africa, and Southeast Asia, and his usul al-fiqh became the framework within which all the Sunni schools articulated their reasoning. He is among the most influential jurists in Islamic history.