Jima al-Ilm
- Author died
- 204 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Āthār
Jima al-Ilm (The Totality of Knowledge) is a legal theoretical treatise by al-Shafi'i (d. 204 AH / 820 CE) dedicated to establishing the authoritative status of prophetic reports (akhbar) and defending their necessity as a primary source of Islamic law .
Composition and Context
Al-Shafi'i composed Jima al-Ilm after his primary legal treatise, al-Risalah, to which he refers within Jima al-Ilm as "the Book" (al-Kitab) . It was written prior to his work Ikhtilaf al-Hadith (The Disagreement of Hadith) . Classical bibliographers, including Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi, classify it among al-Shafi'i's foundational works on legal theory (usul al-fiqh) . In certain passages of Kitab al-Umm, the work is cited under the fuller title Kitab Jima al-Ilm min al-Kitab wa al-Sunnah (The Totality of Knowledge from the Book and the Sunnah) , while Ibn al-Salah notes references to both a larger treatise (Jima al-Ilm al-Kabir) and a smaller one (Jima al-Ilm al-Saghir) .
Structure and Content
Transmitted through al-Shafi'i's student al-Rabi ibn Sulayman, the treatise opens with an assertion that God made following the commands of the Prophet obligatory and that authoritative legal rulings derive solely from the Quran and the Sunnah, with all other considerations subordinate to them . The book is structured around dialectical disputations (munazarat) between al-Shafi'i and contemporary theoretical opponents concerning the legal validity of reports, consensus (ijma), and command and prohibition (al-amr wa al-nahy) .
The text is organized around two principal debates:
- The Group that Rejects All Reports (Bab Hikayat Qawl al-Ta'ifah allati Raddat al-Akhbar Kullaha): A recorded debate with an interlocutor who argued that legal obligations must derive solely from the unambiguous text of the Quran because the Quran describes itself as تِبْيَانًا لِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ ("an explanation of all things") . Al-Shafi'i refutes this stance by demonstrating that core obligations, specific legal details, and cases of abrogation (such as inheritance shares replacing bequests to parents) cannot be determined without prophetic reports, prompting his dialogue partner to concede and accept the necessity of accepting hadith .
- Those who Reject Solitary Reports (Bab Hikayat Qawl man Radda Khabar al-Khassah): A systematic polemic against those who accepted only widely transmitted (mutawatir) traditions or explicit textual provisions while dismissing solitary reports (khabar al-wahid), in which al-Shafi'i establishes the obligation to act upon authentic solitary narrations .
Transmission and Editions
Jima al-Ilm is preserved within the seventh volume of al-Shafi'i's comprehensive legal compilation Kitab al-Umm, first published by al-Matba'ah al-Amiriyyah in 1326 AH . It was later edited as an independent monograph by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, who corrected the text against the Amiriyyah edition and appended al-Shafi'i's short treatise Kitab Sifat Nahy al-Nabi to it . Later scholars have noted that in standard printed editions of Kitab al-Umm, the text printed under the name of Jima al-Ilm encompasses three originally distinct short books: Jima al-Ilm itself, Bayan Fara'id Allah, and Sifat al-Amr wa al-Nahy .
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