Abu al-Qasim al-Rafi'i

Abd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad Ibn 'Abd al-Karīm b. al-Faḍl b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Ḥasan Imām al-Din Abū al-Qāsim al-Rāfi'i al-Qazwini, who was better known as Abū al-Qāsim al-Rāfi'i (Arabic: أبو القاسم الرافعي) was a Sunni Muslim scholar based in Qazvin. He was a well-known jurisconsult, legal theoretician, hadith scholar, Qur'anic exegete, historian, ascetic, and muhaqqiq (researcher). Shah Waliullah Dehlawi categorized al-Rafi'i as one of the scholars who attained mujtahid mutlaq (absolute/autonomous ijtihad). Al-Rāfi'i, along with al-Nawawi, are leading jurists of the earlier classical age, known by the Shafi'i school as the Two Shaykhs (al-Shaykhayn). As per Taj al-Din al-Subki, the purpose of this title is to indicate their superior standing within the school, as al-Rāfi'i and al-Nawawi were the primary sources for the later school's legal doctrines. Furthermore, al-Rafi'i was chosen by a host of scholars to be the mujaddid of the sixth/twelfth century.