Getting closer to Imam Shafi'i
Friday, April 20, 2007
WHEN it declared its independence in 1984, Brunei Darussalam stated right away that its affiliation in the tradition of knowledge and Islamic laws was with the school of Shafi'i.
This is reflected in, amongst others, the school curriculum which obligates Bruneian students to learn about Imam Shafi'i. However, if we ask any Muslims on the streets or even at university classrooms, chances are not many of them will be able to tell much about the imam - whose scientific and personal influence remains strong despite the passage of centuries.
His complete name is Muhammad ibn Idris ibn al-'Abbas, al-Imam al-Shafi'i, Abu 'Abd Allah al-Shafi'i al-Hijazi al-Qurashi al-Hashimi al-Muttalibi (d. 204 Hijriyah). He was the offspring of the House of the Prophet, the peerless one of the great mujtahid imams and jurisprudent par excellence, the scrupulously pious ascetic and Friend of Allah, he laid down the foundations of fiqh in his Risala, which he said he revised and re-read four hundred times, then said, "Only Alla{aci}h's Book is perfect and free from error."
He is the cousin of the Prophet - Alla{aci}h's blessings and peace upon him -descending from al-Muttalib who is the brother of Hashim, 'Abd al-Muttalib's father. Someone praised the Banu Hashim in front of the Prophet, whereby he interlaced the fingers of his two hands and said: "We and they are but one and the same thing."
Imam Al-Nawawi listed three peculiar merits of al-Shafi'i, his sharing the Prophet's lineage at the level of their common ancestor 'Abd Manaf; his birth in the Holy Land of Palestine and upbringing in Mekah; and his education at the hands of superlative scholars together with his own superlative intelligence and knowledge of the Arabic language.
To this Ibn Hajar Al-'Asqalani added two more, the hadith of the Prophet, "O Alla{aci}h! Guide Quraysh, for the science of the scholar that comes from them will encompass the earth. O Alla{aci}h! You have let the first of them taste bitterness, so let the latter of them taste reward."
Another hadith of the Prophet says, "Truly, Alla{aci}h shall send forth for this Community, at the onset of every hundred years, someone who will renew their Religion for them."
The scholars agreed, among them Abu Qilaba (d. 276) and Imam Ahmad, that the first narration signified al-Shafi'i, and the second signified 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz and then al-Shafi'i.
Imam Shafi'i was born in Ghazza or 'Asqalan in 150, the year of Abu Hanifa's death, and moved to Mekah at the age of two, following his father's death, where he grew up.
He was early a skillful archer, before taking to learning languages and poetry until he gave himself to fiqh, beginning with hadith.
He memorised the Quran at age seven, then Imam Malik's Muwatta' at age 10, at which time his teacher would deputise him to teach in his absence. At age 13 he went to see Imam Malik, who was impressed by his memory and intelligence.
Imam Malik or Malik ibn Anas and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani were among his most prominent teachers and he took position against both of them in fiqh.
Like Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam al-Bukhari, he recited the entire Quran each day at prayer, and twice a day in the month of Ramadan.
Imam Al-Muzani said, "I never saw anyone more handsome than al-Shafi'i. If he grasped his beard it would not exceed his fist." Ibn Rahuyah described him in Mekah as wearing bright white clothes with an intensely black beard. Al-Za'farani said that when he was in Baghdad in the year 195 he dyed his beard with henna.
Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam said, "If the intelligence of an entire nation was brought together he would have encompassed it." Similarly, al-Muzani said, "I have been looking into al-Shafi'i's Risala for 50 years, and I do not recall a single time I looked at it without learning some new benefit."
Al-Sakhawi in the introduction to his al-Jawahir wa al-Durar and others narrate that someone criticised Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal for attending the fiqh sessions of al-Shafi'i and leaving the hadith sessions of Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna.
Ahmad replied, "Keep quiet! If you miss a hadith with a shorter chain you can find it elsewhere with a longer chain and it will not harm you. But if you do not have the reasoning of this man (al-Shafi'i), I fear you will never be able to find it elsewhere."
Ahmad is also related by his students Abu Talib and Humayd ibn Zanjuyah to say, "I never saw anyone adhering more to hadith than al-Shafi'i. No-one preceded him in writing down the hadith in a book."
The meaning of this is that al-Shafi'i possessed the understanding of hadith after which Ahmad sought, as evidenced by the latter's statement, "How rare is fiqh among the scholars of hadith!" This is a reference to the hadith, "It may be one that carries understanding (fiqh) without being a person of understanding (faqîh)."
Sufyan himself would defer to al-Shafi'i in matters of tafsîr and fatwa. Yunus ibn Abi Ya'la said, "Whenever al-Shafi'i went into tafsîr, it was as if he had witnessed the revelation." Ahmad ibn Hanbal also said, "Not one of the scholars of hadith touched an inkwell nor a pen except he owed a huge debt to al-Shafi'i."
Imam Shafi'i was known for his peculiar strength in Arabic language, poetry, and philology. Imam Bayhaqi narrated, "(From Ibn Hisham) I was al-Shafi'i's sitting-companion for a long time, and I never heard him use except a word which, carefully considered, one would not find (in its context) a better word in the entire Arabic language. . . . Al-Shafi'i's discourse, in relation to language, is a proof in itself.
(From al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Za'farani) A group of Bedouins used to frequent Imam Shafi'i's gathering with us and sit in a corner. One day I asked their leader, 'You are not interested in scholarship; why do you keep coming to sit with us?' They said, 'We come to hear al-Shafi'i's language'."
Imam Shafi'i trod the path of the Salaf in avoiding any interpretation of the verses and narrations pertaining to the divine attributes. He practised "relegation of the meaning" (tafwîd al-mi'na) to a higher source, as established in his saying, "I leave the meaning of the verses of the Attributes to Alla{aci}h, and I leave the meaning of the hadiths of the attributes to Alla{aci}h's Messenger (peace be upon him)."
Only by developing the learning spirit and tradition of knowledge which Imam Shafi'i had embodied during his lifetime, will we truly live in the state of the Shafi'i school. Otherwise, we are like logging wood at night — eventually harming ourselves or others.
The Brunei Times
This is reflected in, amongst others, the school curriculum which obligates Bruneian students to learn about Imam Shafi'i. However, if we ask any Muslims on the streets or even at university classrooms, chances are not many of them will be able to tell much about the imam - whose scientific and personal influence remains strong despite the passage of centuries.
His complete name is Muhammad ibn Idris ibn al-'Abbas, al-Imam al-Shafi'i, Abu 'Abd Allah al-Shafi'i al-Hijazi al-Qurashi al-Hashimi al-Muttalibi (d. 204 Hijriyah). He was the offspring of the House of the Prophet, the peerless one of the great mujtahid imams and jurisprudent par excellence, the scrupulously pious ascetic and Friend of Allah, he laid down the foundations of fiqh in his Risala, which he said he revised and re-read four hundred times, then said, "Only Alla{aci}h's Book is perfect and free from error."
He is the cousin of the Prophet - Alla{aci}h's blessings and peace upon him -descending from al-Muttalib who is the brother of Hashim, 'Abd al-Muttalib's father. Someone praised the Banu Hashim in front of the Prophet, whereby he interlaced the fingers of his two hands and said: "We and they are but one and the same thing."
Imam Al-Nawawi listed three peculiar merits of al-Shafi'i, his sharing the Prophet's lineage at the level of their common ancestor 'Abd Manaf; his birth in the Holy Land of Palestine and upbringing in Mekah; and his education at the hands of superlative scholars together with his own superlative intelligence and knowledge of the Arabic language.
To this Ibn Hajar Al-'Asqalani added two more, the hadith of the Prophet, "O Alla{aci}h! Guide Quraysh, for the science of the scholar that comes from them will encompass the earth. O Alla{aci}h! You have let the first of them taste bitterness, so let the latter of them taste reward."
Another hadith of the Prophet says, "Truly, Alla{aci}h shall send forth for this Community, at the onset of every hundred years, someone who will renew their Religion for them."
The scholars agreed, among them Abu Qilaba (d. 276) and Imam Ahmad, that the first narration signified al-Shafi'i, and the second signified 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz and then al-Shafi'i.
Imam Shafi'i was born in Ghazza or 'Asqalan in 150, the year of Abu Hanifa's death, and moved to Mekah at the age of two, following his father's death, where he grew up.
He was early a skillful archer, before taking to learning languages and poetry until he gave himself to fiqh, beginning with hadith.
He memorised the Quran at age seven, then Imam Malik's Muwatta' at age 10, at which time his teacher would deputise him to teach in his absence. At age 13 he went to see Imam Malik, who was impressed by his memory and intelligence.
Imam Malik or Malik ibn Anas and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani were among his most prominent teachers and he took position against both of them in fiqh.
Like Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam al-Bukhari, he recited the entire Quran each day at prayer, and twice a day in the month of Ramadan.
Imam Al-Muzani said, "I never saw anyone more handsome than al-Shafi'i. If he grasped his beard it would not exceed his fist." Ibn Rahuyah described him in Mekah as wearing bright white clothes with an intensely black beard. Al-Za'farani said that when he was in Baghdad in the year 195 he dyed his beard with henna.
Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam said, "If the intelligence of an entire nation was brought together he would have encompassed it." Similarly, al-Muzani said, "I have been looking into al-Shafi'i's Risala for 50 years, and I do not recall a single time I looked at it without learning some new benefit."
Al-Sakhawi in the introduction to his al-Jawahir wa al-Durar and others narrate that someone criticised Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal for attending the fiqh sessions of al-Shafi'i and leaving the hadith sessions of Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna.
Ahmad replied, "Keep quiet! If you miss a hadith with a shorter chain you can find it elsewhere with a longer chain and it will not harm you. But if you do not have the reasoning of this man (al-Shafi'i), I fear you will never be able to find it elsewhere."
Ahmad is also related by his students Abu Talib and Humayd ibn Zanjuyah to say, "I never saw anyone adhering more to hadith than al-Shafi'i. No-one preceded him in writing down the hadith in a book."
The meaning of this is that al-Shafi'i possessed the understanding of hadith after which Ahmad sought, as evidenced by the latter's statement, "How rare is fiqh among the scholars of hadith!" This is a reference to the hadith, "It may be one that carries understanding (fiqh) without being a person of understanding (faqîh)."
Sufyan himself would defer to al-Shafi'i in matters of tafsîr and fatwa. Yunus ibn Abi Ya'la said, "Whenever al-Shafi'i went into tafsîr, it was as if he had witnessed the revelation." Ahmad ibn Hanbal also said, "Not one of the scholars of hadith touched an inkwell nor a pen except he owed a huge debt to al-Shafi'i."
Imam Shafi'i was known for his peculiar strength in Arabic language, poetry, and philology. Imam Bayhaqi narrated, "(From Ibn Hisham) I was al-Shafi'i's sitting-companion for a long time, and I never heard him use except a word which, carefully considered, one would not find (in its context) a better word in the entire Arabic language. . . . Al-Shafi'i's discourse, in relation to language, is a proof in itself.
(From al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Za'farani) A group of Bedouins used to frequent Imam Shafi'i's gathering with us and sit in a corner. One day I asked their leader, 'You are not interested in scholarship; why do you keep coming to sit with us?' They said, 'We come to hear al-Shafi'i's language'."
Imam Shafi'i trod the path of the Salaf in avoiding any interpretation of the verses and narrations pertaining to the divine attributes. He practised "relegation of the meaning" (tafwîd al-mi'na) to a higher source, as established in his saying, "I leave the meaning of the verses of the Attributes to Alla{aci}h, and I leave the meaning of the hadiths of the attributes to Alla{aci}h's Messenger (peace be upon him)."
Only by developing the learning spirit and tradition of knowledge which Imam Shafi'i had embodied during his lifetime, will we truly live in the state of the Shafi'i school. Otherwise, we are like logging wood at night — eventually harming ourselves or others.
The Brunei Times
Business Besides Oil
