Description

Much of the actual definition of fiqh, the usul al-fiqh, is from Abu Abdullah ash-Shafi'i, the founder of the Shafi'i legal school. He laid out the technique in his work "Risala."
Shafi'i defined two techniques to develop laws: Analogical reasoning, qiyas, and consensus on new judgements, ijma.
Over the first half century after the death of Muhammad (632) there had been a rivalry between the historical and the rationalist schools. The latter employed the technique of ra'y, but this would come to lose to the method of Shafi'i.
The above-mentioned ra'y and ijtihad were early on popular methods, but would never be admitted into the usul al-fiqh.
By the force of mainly ijma, but actually also qiyas, many elements from external law systems were worked into the Sharia, like Roman law and possibly also Persian law.
A person trained in fiqh, is called a faqīh.
Fiqh and Sharia appears to be mixed in many writings, and although closely linked, they represent two distinct disciplines.