Mysore weddings are a celebration of friends and family. Among the Islamic sect-based Karnataka Muslim matrimony, Shafi school of law is a predominant one. The shafi madhab founded by Imam Abdullah Mohammed bin Idris, is one of the four schools of fiqh, or religious law, within Sunni jamaat of Islam. This school of law is named after Imam ash-shafi born in 150 hijri. The Imam shafi was a member of the school of Madina and belong to the Quraish tribe. He worked for combined pragmatism of the madina school with the contemporary pressures of the traditionalists. The traditionalists maintained that jurists could not independently mix or combine the practices of prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) based on íjtihad’ or independent reasoning but should only produce verdicts substantiated by authentic hadith. The school of shafi has right or power to put forward as necessary conditions to four sources of jurisprudence that is known as the usul-al-fiqh. The four sources of jurisprudence are, the Quran, the sunnah of prophet Muhammad, ijma consensus(assembly), qiyas analogy’. Imam shafi approached the imperatives of the Islamic shariah (law)distinctly in his own systematic methodology.
The shafi maslak is predominant in North-east Africa, parts of the Arabian Peninsula and south-east Asia. The shafi school is followed throughout the ummah of Mohammed (S.A. S). In Indian states it is also practiced by large communities like states of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil nadu. The shafi madhab is followed by approximately 29% of Muslims worldwide. There are some notable differences in prayer from other maslak or different schools of law. In the first takbir, shafis raise their hands parallel to their ear lobes and position of folding of the hands during al-qayyam is below the chest. Shafis raise their hands before going to Ruku and shafis raise the index finger of their right hand when reciting the Shahadah and keep it raised until the tasleem. The principle of this school of law is written by imam shafi himself in his own journal called ‘usooliya’. The school based on shafi’s books Ar risala fi usulal-fiqh and kitab al-umm.
