In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger ﷺ.
Bayan according to al-Shafi’i:
Imam al-Shafi’i begins by explaining the meaning of bayan (clarification) in the Shariah, saying: “Bayan is a comprehensive name for meanings whose roots are united and whose branches are diverse.” That is, bayan includes many kinds of ways of making the legal rulings clear, which agree in their root, namely making manifest what Allah the Exalted intends, and differ in their branches and methods.
The kinds of bayan:
Imam al-Shafi’i divides bayan into four main kinds:
- What Allah made clear by explicit text in His Book: This is the clearest kind of bayan, such as the command to pray, pay zakah, perform the Hajj, and fast, and the prohibition of indecencies, fornication, wine, and eating carrion, blood, and pork. These rulings are stated in the Qur’an clearly, in a way that does not admit reinterpretation.
- What Allah firmly established as an obligation in His Book and whose manner He explained on the tongue of His Prophet ﷺ: This is what has its basic obligation stated in the Qur’an in summary form, after which the Prophetic Sunnah came to detail its manner, conditions, and pillars. An example is the obligation of prayer in the Qur’an, while the number of its units (rak’ahs) and its times are explained in the Sunnah. Likewise zakah: the basis of its obligation is stated in the Qur’an, while the Sunnah explained its minimum thresholds (nisab), its amounts, and its rulings.
- What the Messenger of Allah ﷺ established as Sunnah concerning which Allah has no explicit ruling in the text: This is the set of rulings that the Sunnah alone clarified, with no specific text about them in the Qur’an. Nevertheless, the Qur’an indicated the obligation of obeying the Messenger ﷺ and following his Sunnah in the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And whatever the Messenger has given you - take; and what he has forbidden you - refrain from” (al-Hashr 59:7). Examples include the prohibition of the domestic donkey, and the prohibition of gold and silk for men. This kind of bayan is denied by some of the people of innovation, namely the deniers of the Sunnah; yet by denying it they are bound to deny the second kind as well, which is mass-transmitted (mutawatir), and denying that is not permissible for any Muslim.
- What Allah obliged His creation to seek through ijtihad: This is what has no decisive text in either the Qur’an or the Sunnah, so Allah obliged those capable of ijtihad to exert their utmost effort to derive the legal ruling from the other legal proofs, such as analogy (qiyas), consensus (ijma’), presumption of continuity (istishab), and others. Al-Shafi’i proved the legitimacy of ijtihad by the saying of Allah the Exalted: “And We will surely test you until We make evident those who strive among you [for the cause of Allah] and the patient, and We will test your affairs” (Muhammad 47:31), His saying: “[It was] so that Allah might test what is in your breasts and purify what is in your hearts” (Al ‘Imran 3:154), and His saying: “Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and grant you succession in the land and see how you will do” (al-A’raf 7:129).
Examples of ijtihad:
Imam al-Shafi’i mentioned three examples of matters in which ijtihad is required:
- The qiblah: When the Sacred Mosque is out of sight of the one praying, he must exert effort to determine its direction, relying on signs and on reason.
- Probity (‘adalah): When the testimony of witnesses is needed, the judge must exert effort to ascertain the probity of the witnesses.
- The compensation for game: When game is killed by mistake, effort must be exerted to determine the equivalent from livestock.
Summary:
In this section Imam al-Shafi’i explains the kinds of bayan in the Shariah. He stresses that the Qur’an and the Sunnah are the two fundamental sources of legislation, that ijtihad is legitimate where there is no decisive text, and that all of this is part of Allah’s mercy, His wisdom, and His testing of His servants. He emphasises the obligation of returning to the language of the Arabs in order to understand what Allah intends by His Book, and that the various kinds of bayan are close to one another in clarity to those who know the tongue of the Arabs, even if some are clearer than others. He also explains that ijtihad does not mean following one’s whims; rather, it is exerting effort to arrive at the truth through sound inference.
All parts of Summary of the Explanation of al-Shafi'i's al-Risala by Dr. Yasir Burhami