:''See
Risala (disambiguation) for other books known as "Ar-Risala".''
The ''Risāla'' by
al-Shafi'i
Al-Shafi'i (; ;767–820 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, muhaddith, traditionist, theologian, ascetic, and eponym of the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence. He is known to be the first to write a book upon the principles ...
( 820), full title (, "The Book of the Treatise on the Principles of Jurisprudence"), is a seminal text on the
principles of Islamic jurisprudence
Principles of Islamic jurisprudence () are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law (''sharia'').
Traditional theory of Islamic jurisprudence elaborates how the scri ...
.
The word ''risāla'' in Arabic means a "message" or "letter". Shafi'i's treatise received its name owing to a traditional, though unverified, story that Shafi'i composed the work in response to a request from a leading
traditionist in
Basra
Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...
, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Mahdī; the story goes that Ibn Mahdī wanted Shafi'i to explain the legal significance of the
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
and the
sunna, and the ''Risāla'' was Shafi'i's response.
[''Islamic Jurisprudence: Shafi'i's Risala'', trans. by ]Majid Khadduri
Majid Khadduri (; September 27, 1909 – January 25, 2007) was an Iraqi academic. He was founder of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies Middle Eastern Studies, Middle East Studies program, a division of Johns Hopkins Uni ...
, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...
, 1961, pp. 19-21 (Translator's Introduction).
In this work, al-Shafi'i is said to have outlined four sources of
Islamic law
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...
,
[ though this division based on four has been attributed to later commentators on the work rather than to Shafi'i himself.
]
Contents
# Introduction
# On al-Bayān (Perspicuous Declaration)
# On Legal Knowledge
# On the Book of God
# On the Obligation of Man to Accept the Authority of the Prophet
# On the Abrogation of Divine Legislation
# On Duties
# On the Nature of God's Orders of Prohibition and the Prophet's Orders of Prohibition
# On Traditions
# On Single-Individual Traditions
# On Consensus (Ijmā‘)
# On Analogy (Qiyās)
# On Personal Reasoning (Ijtihād)
# On Juristic Preference (Istiḥsān)
# On Disagreement (Ikhtilaf
Ikhtilāf () is an Islamic scholarly religious disagreement, and is hence the opposite of ijma.
Direction in Quran
According to Verse of Obedience, disagreements about any religious matter are to be arbitrated by referring to the Quran and Su ...
)
The above list of contents follows Khadduri's translation. However, Khadduri rearranged the treatise in two places. Khadduri's chapters 8 and 3 (in that order) both follow Shafi'i's chapter on Traditions in the original. Khadduri rearranged those chapters because they did "not appear to fit into the logical order of the book." Therefore, if one wishes to read Khadduri's translation while following Shafi'i's original arrangement, one can read the chapters in the following order: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 8, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Sources of law in ''Al-Risāla''
The primary sources of law attributed to Shafi'is book are the Qur'an
The Quran, also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation directly from God ('' Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which consist of individual verses ('). Besides ...
and the prophetic tradition. Most Muslim commentators have also referred to Shafi'is sections on consensus and analogical reason as comprising legal sources.[
On the question of consensus, Shafi'i obligated affirmation of all living Muslims - both the learned and the laymen - in order to declare a true consensus. Later followers of his school considered this to be practically impossible, and thus expanded upon the definition.][Khadduri, pp. 38-39]
Translations
An English translation of the ''Risāla'' by Joseph E. Lowry was published in 2013 by the Library of Arabic Literature, printed alongside an Arabic edition of the text in a facing-page translation, under the title ''The Epistle on Legal Theory.''
References
External links
PDF
of the full text of the ''Risāla'' in Arabic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Risala (Al-Shafi'i)
Islamic jurisprudence
Sunni fiqh
Shafi'i
Books about Islamic jurisprudence
Sunni literature
Sharia