Minniakhmetov R.A. Shafi ’i school of thought in the Islamic law

Abstract: The subject of research is the Shafi’i law school, which is known to be formed in the framework of classical Sunni Islam in the early medieval period. By the level of influence and popularity in the Islamic school of law, Shafiizm is second after Hanafizm. The value of this doctrine in the evolution of Islamic justice system was so great that in varying degrees, Shafiizm can be traced in the laws of some countries of the modern East. In the early medieval period, Shafiizm penetrated the territory of modern Russia. The paper investigates the creative path of the founder of Shafi’i law school – a famous thinker of the early Middle Ages ash-Shafi’i (767-820); his views are analyzed in the current system of justice. Particular attention is paid to the sources of law, the appeal to which was allowed within Shafiizm. This is explained by the fact that this classification of sources of law and their methods determines the agenda of legal science in a given time. In this article, for the first time in Russian jurisprudence, the author considers the Shafi’ites approach to the problem of the sources of law in sufficient detail. The study analyzes the features that were inherent to Shafi’i school of law when appealing to both the main and auxiliary sources. Besides, the author focuses on the compromise nature of Shafiizm, which managed to synthesize the most promising provisions of more “liberal” Hanafizm and conservative Malikizm using scientific methods. The importance of domestic experts studying Shafi’i law school is particularly emphasized due to the fact that this doctrine is sufficiently represented in the traditions and practices of some Russian peoples.

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