Name Shihab al-Qarafi Creed Ash'ari | Jurisprudence Maliki Denomination Sunni Islam | |
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Shihāb al-Dīn Abu ’l-Abbās Aḥmad ibn Abi ’l-ʿAlāʾ Idrīs ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yallīn al-Ṣanhājī al-Ṣaʿīdī al-Bahfashīmī al-Būshī al-Bahnasī al-Miṣrī al-Mālikī (also known as simply known as Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī or al-Qarāfī, 1228–1285), was a Maliki jurist and legal theoretician of Sanhaja Berber origin who lived in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt.
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Biography
He was born in Bahfashīm, a village in the province of Bahnasa in 1228. This village belonged to the district of Būsh, a town just a few miles to the north of Beni Suef. He apparently grew up in al-Qarafa in Old Cairo, whence his sobriquet of al-Qarafi. Of Berber origin, from the Sanhaja tribe.
He is considered by many to be the greatest Maliki legal theoretician of the 13th century; his writings and influence on Islamic legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh) spread throughout the Muslim world. His insistence on the limits of law underscores the importance of non-legal (not to be confused with illegal) considerations in determining the proper course of action, with significant implications for legal reform in the modern Islamic world. His views on the common good (maslahah) and custom provide means to accommodate the space-time differential between modern and premodern realities.
Works
The most important of his many works are Al-dhakhirah (The Stored Treasure), Al-furuq (Differences), Nafais al usul (Gems of Legal Theory), and Kitab al-ihkam fi tamyiz al-fatawa an al-ahkam wa tasarrufat al-qadi wal-imam (The Book of Perfecting the Distinction Between Legal Opinions, Judicial Decisions, and the Discretionary Actions of the Judge and the Caliph).