—jurist of the faith community, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qurashī, then al-Muṭṭalibī, al-Shāfiʿī, the Meccan, Gazan by birth (1), a kinsman of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and his cousin—for al-Muṭṭalib was the brother of Hāshim, the father of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.

It is unanimously agreed that the Imām was born in Gaza. His father Idrīs died while still a young man, so Muḥammad was raised an orphan in the care of his mother. Fearing that he might fall into neglect, she moved with him to his ancestral homeland when he was two years old. He therefore grew up in Mecca and took up archery until he surpassed his peers, hitting nine arrows out of ten. He then turned to Arabic and the revealed law, in which he excelled and advanced.

Jurisprudence was thereafter made dear to him, and he became the leading authority of his time.

He acquired knowledge in his own city from Muslim ibn Khālid al-Zanjī (2)—the mufti of Mecca—Dāwūd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-ʿAṭṭār, his paternal uncle (3) Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Shāfiʿ (a cousin of al-ʿAbbās, the grandfather of al-Shāfiʿī), Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr al-Mulaykī, Saʿīd ibn Sālim, Fuḍayl ibn ʿIyāḍ, and several others.

I have found no narration of his from Nāfiʿ ibn ʿUmar al-Jumaḥī or the like, even though he was with him in Mecca.

He then set out—being a little over twenty years old, having already issued legal verdicts and qualified for leadership— to