"If al-Gazālī is a Prophet, the Waǧīz is His Miracle": Abū Hāmid al-Gazālī's codification of Šāfi'ī law

The contributions of Abu Hāmid al-Gazālī (d. 505/1111) to philosophy, theology, logic, metaphysics, and Sufism have been widely analysed. However, few scholars have studied his role as a jurist, even though he authored ten works on Šāfi'ī law, works that were celebrated in contemporary and later scholarly circles, and earned him the title "the second al-Šāfi'ī."In this article, I examine his two texts in Islamic law, the Waǧīz and Hulāsa, in an effort to shed light on the history of codification in the Šāfi'ī school. I argue that al-Gazālī wrote these texts following upon his two earlier lengthy commentaries in which he canonised school doctrine. In the Waǧīz and Hulāsa, he tried to standardise school doctrine by presenting concise, structured and authoritative views, and offering straightforward rulings with little discussion of internal disagreement. Al-Gazālī's contributions to substantive law challenge the prevailing wisdom on the early history of legal codification. In fact, al-Gazālī sought to codify Šāfi'ī law, and his efforts had a significant influence on the later trajectories of Islamic law, providing a blueprint for many subsequent codifications.