What is the shafii fiqh?
This era began after the death of the Prophet (pbuh) and continued up to 40 AH (660 CE). It is an era of interpretation and exegesis of the verses and ahadith by the Companions of the Prophet.
The attention catching characteristics of this era in respect to fiqh are:
1- There emerged a need for new rulings for new problems: With the conquest of new lands, non-Arab people embraced Islam and they asked the Companions new questions .
2- They were engaged in fiqh with reference to actual incidents: The Companions were occupied with deducing rulings after the actual occurrence of the incidents rather than before they took place. They did not presume future incidents and try to find out their rulings. They considered such an act as waste of time.
3- They practiced ijtihad based on the principle of shura (consultation): The Companions took the legal matters to a committee and solved issues together in consultation. Rulings through consultation and ijma’ (consensus) emerged in this period. During this era, fiqh was not depended on the administration, but rather the administration was shaped by fiqh. Arising issues were brought to the consultation committee in order to be resolved.
Source: Fiqh1 (According To The Shafi’i School Of Islamic Law), Erkam Publications
