and abundant benefit, for its study endows a person with the ability to derive the rulings of the Sharia from their evidences on sound foundations. The first to gather its materials as an independent discipline was Imam al-Shafi‘i, Muhammad ibn Idris—may Allah have mercy upon him. Subsequent scholars followed his lead, composing diverse works on the subject, whether in prose or in verse, concise or expansive, until it grew into a self-standing science with its own identity and distinctive features.