Imam Syafii

INTRODUCTION

          In the name Allah, The Most Gracious and The Most Merciful, all praises to Him because finally we managed to complete this assignment successfully with the help and guidance of our lecturer, Madam Maznah binti Mazlan. Without the encouragement and support from our friends and classmates also, we may not be able to finish this assignment within the time given.

          We were given a task on the biography of Islamic scholars and we had chosen Imam Shafi’i because we were mesmerized by his amazing personality quality. We are really eager to know about the journey of his life, his educational background and how he overcome all the challenges that he had to face in order to become one of the great scholars in Islam. We were impressed by the multi talent possess by Imam Shafi’i which had become an inspiration towards the Muslims to achieve the excellence in this life.

          We had divided this assignment into several parts, starting from his historical background, his educational background and his contributions for the ummah. We also shared some of the stories behind his special features especially on his wisdom, generosity, piousity and others. Last but not least, we hope this assignment will be beneficial and inspirational to the community of Muslim nowadays in order to achieve the eternal victory in this world and in the Hereafter.

1. BACKGROUND

          Muhammad ibn Idris Al-Shafi’i bin Al-‘Abbas bin Uthman bin Shafi’i bin As-Saib bin ‘Ubaid bin ‘Abdu Yazid bin Hisyam bin Al-Muthallib bin ‘Abdi Manaf was born in 767 in Gaza, Palestine. He was the founder of Mazhab Shafi’i. Imam Shafi’i lineage coming from Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. Imam Shafi’i’s mother reports of an incident before the birth of Imam Shafi’i where in her dream she sighted the star emerging from her womb and embarking in the province of Egypt. She distinguished a radiant light emitting from this star illuminating the entire city. She questioned the wise men of the city to interpret this dream, who told her that in the near future she was due to give birth to a learned scholar whose knowledge would be beneficial far and wide. It had been stated by Allah that Imam Shafi’i will be a great Islamic scholar even before his birth to the world. Imam Shafi’i had passed away on 19th January 820 at the age of fifty four and was buried in Cairo, Egypt.

1. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

          He grew up in a poor environment and was not pampered with luxury life and not spoiled by wealth. After his father’s death, his mother decided to move to Mecca. In Mecca his mother directed him to the circle of knowledge. He managed to memorize the whole Quran at the age of seven. He also memorized Muwatta’ of Imam Malik at the age of ten. Imam Shafi’i used to love hadith and he will memorize hadith just from hearing it. He had a great passion towards knowledge that he will write all the hadith he memorized on the pieces of broken pottery or on old pieces of leather or parchment. He got those materials by asking people around the diwan of the governor due to his poverty life. This shown us the effort of Imam Shafi’i in preserving the knowledge that he had gained. By the age of thirteen, Imam Shafi’i was urged by the Mecca governor to travel to Medina and study under the well-known scholar Imam Malik bin Anas himself. Imam Malik was very impressed with the intelligence and analytical mind of Imam Shafi’i and provided him with financial assistance to ensure that he remains in the study of fiqh. Imam Shafi’i lived with the purest and chaste Arabic tribe, Hudayl for about ten years and as the result, he became the master of Arabic language. At the age of fifteen, he was given the authority from his teacher, Muslim bin Khalid Az-Zinji to give fatwas or legal rulings. He was completely immersed in academic matters that he had travelled to Yemen, Kufa, Basra, Mecca, Baghdad and Egypt solely for seeking knowledge. Imam Shafi’i had a great respect towards his teachers that he never skipped the classes and he has an impressive manner towards his teachers that he never argued with them because of his respect unless he was permitted to do so. He always get involved in many discussion with the experts of theology, philosophers, jurists, experts and other scholars of hadith in order to broaden his field of knowledge.