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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Taqleed & Ijtihad A Look at Al-Risala Since a mention has been made of Al-Risala, a most valuable contribution by the famous faqih, Muhammad Ibn Idris Shafei, it would be a good idea to objectively explore it in greater detail. Many old and new scholars of Sunni Fiqh insist that all the concepts in the Faculty of Principles of Fiqh (Ilm al-Usul al-Fiqh) are the creation of Shafei and Al-Risala is the product of his thought process.

Yet many top intellectuals of the same school of thought have a strong difference of opinion. Some scholars declare Abu Hanifa (died 150 AH) to be the pioneer. Others claim that Muhammad Ibn Hasan Shaibani (died 189 AH) was the first.

And still others hold with great confidence that Abu Yousuf Yaqoob Ibn Ibrahim (died 182 AH) was the originator.[^1] Secondly, let us suppose that the faculty of Principles of Fiqh (Usul al-Fiqh) was the creation of Shafei, would it not be unfair to the heads of other schools of Fiqh and other scholars (fuqaha)?

Some of such people are Abu Hanifa Noman Bin Thabit (died 150 AH) and his famous pupil Abu Yousuf (died 182 AH), Muhammad Ibn Hasan Shaibani (died 189 AH), Hasan Ibn Ziad Lului (died 204 AH) and Ozfar Ibn Huzail (died 158 AH). All these scholars predated Shafei. Can all these well-known learned people be declared ignorant of the philosophy of law or rules and regulations of commands of fiqh?

Did they not know the difference between Amr (decree to do good) and Nahi (decree to stay away from vice); common man and the privileged; and independent and dependent? If the answer is yes, they were unaware of such matters, then why were they called Fuqaha? If the answer is no, these issues were known to them, then we will have to accept that they were knowledgeable of Ijtihad and the individual who has been declared the creator of this faculty came much afterwards.

Now let us review Al-Risala as a book of the “Doctrines of Fiqh”. It is a fine collection of 670 pages. Several scholars have written explanations of this collection. In December 1935 an intellectual and writer Ahmad Muhammad Shakir wrote a 100 page detailed critique and has done a great service. Shafei worked on Al-Risala twice. Once when he was in Baghdad and the second time when he was in Egypt. The story about the Baghdad episode goes like this.