Al-Risala (al-Shafi'i book)

The Risāla by ash-Shafi'i (d. 820), full title Kitab ar-Risāla fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Arabic: كتاب الرسالة في أصول الفقه "book of the communication on the foundations of comprehension (i.e. Islamic jurisprudence)") is a seminal text on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence.

Not to be confused with Al-Risalah (Ibn Abi Zayd).
See Risala (disambiguation) for other books known as "Ar-Risala".

The word risāla in Arabic means a "message" or "letter, communication". Shafi'i's treatise received its name owing to a traditional, though unverified, story that Shafi'i composed the work in response to a request from a leading traditionist in Basra, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Mahdī; the story goes that Ibn Mahdī wanted Shafi'i to explain the legal significance of the Quran and the sunna, and the Risāla was Shafi'i's response.

In this work, al-Shafi'i is said to have outlined four sources of Islamic law, though this division based on four has been attributed to later commentators on the work rather than to Shafi'i himself.

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