About this Book

The "Ris?la" of al-Sh?fi (d. 204/820), the earliest preserved work of Islamic legal theory, has been understood in previous scholarship as either the elaboration of a hierarchy of sources of law (Qur n, Sunna, consensus, and analogical reasoning) or an extended defense of the Sunna. Through a careful rereading of this celebrated text, this book offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of the "Ris?la," in which Sh?fi formulated an all-encompassing hermeneutic that portrays the law as a tightly interlocking structure organized around defined interactions of the Qur n and the Sunna. Topics covered include Sh?fi 's creative account of the law's architectonics, hermeneutical techniques, legal epistemology, relationship to "kal?m," and the role of consensus ("ijm ").