Shafii's rejection of istihsan and responses of early hanafi jurists to him

Istihsan, juristic preference, is one of the crucial elements in Islamic legal theories. While a group of Muslim jurists accept this juristic preference as a source of jurisprudence, another group rejects it. This study outlines Shafii's rejection on Istihsan and Hanafi jurists answer and comment on the subject. This study consists of an introduction, three chapters, and a conclusion. In the introduction, we highlighted the significance of the research, its method and references. The first chapter defines the concept of Istihsan including its literal and terminological definition. The study went further to discuss the position of Istihsan and its classification within different schools of legal theories throughout the history. In the second chapter, the study explored the life of Imam Shafi and his expertise in the methodology of fiqh, Islamic law. Moreover, it discusses arguments proposed by Shafii to reject Istihsan. In the third chapter, we outlined the position of early Hanafi jurists -Karhī, Dabusī, Jassās, Pazdawī, and Srakhsī- on Istihsan regarding Shafii's rejection. At the end, we concluded the subject with the finding results. Keywords: Islamic legal theories, Islamic Methodology, Istihsan (juristic preference), Shafii.