Al-Shafiî was the author of the first book on Islamic legal theory: al-Risâla. He not only established a school of law, but he also made many crucial contributions to Islamic legal theory.

The interchangeable use of qiyas and ijtihad in the theoretical statements of Al-Shafiî has caused legal authorities to arrive at different interpretations.

This study aims to show that the meaning of qiyas in both al-Shafiî's theoretical statements and practices has a wider meaning than that presented in the literature of legal theory. Fundamentally, his usage of qiyas includes the analogical reasoning that is found in the literature of legal theory (al-qiyasu'l-usulî), some interpretation activities, and the general principles of ijtihad.

In this book, the usage of qiyas, both in practical examples and in theoretical statements, is used in order to eliminate any questions that might arise in people’s minds about the productivity of qiyas due to its limited usage in the literature. This study also demonstrates that al-Shafiî established a successful balance between the “revelation” and “reason”, that is, qiyas and ijtihad.

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