Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist of the Shafi'i school, exegete, reformer, and scholastic theologian known for being the eponymous founder of the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology.

The Shafi'i school or Shafi'ism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionist al-Shafi'i, "the father of Muslim jurisprudence", in the early 9th century.