The paper traces the history of the modernization of Islamic law in Egypt during the early twentieth century through examining the education and authorship at Madrasat al-Qaḍāʾ al-Sharʿī (The College of Sharʿī-Judges). Three main forces contributed to the process of the modernization of Islamic law: Iṣlāḥ (reform) movement, the colonial power and the modern nation-state. The paper argues that the reformist scholars, professors and alumni, of Madrasat al-Qaḍāʾ al-Sharʿī were at the forefront of the modernization process that aimed to make Sharīʿa compatible with modern laws and nation-state values. The research examines two main ways reformist scholars contributed to the reformation process of Islamic law. Firstly, the reinforcement of the comparative approach in studying Islamic law was provided by those scholars through developing al-fiqh al-muqāran (comparative Islamic law) as well as the extensive comparative study of Islamic law with modern Western laws. Secondly, it gave the state the legal authority, through the reinterpretation of al-siyāsah al-sharʿīyah (politics of Islamic governance) based on maṣlaḥah (public benefit), to select the legal opinions that fit its needs and to enact new legal positions that may contradict the views of the premodern legal scholarship. These two projects paved the way for the final stage of the codification of law in Egypt by offering a spectrum of views and by legitimizing the legislative authority that could allow the state to choose the legal opinions that fit its demands. The paper traces and examines these ideas in the writings of some of the scholars affiliated with the college whose impact continued even after the college closed in 1930 as some of them assumed teaching positions at the newly established Sharīʿa and law colleges at Al-Azhar, Cairo University, and Dār al-ʿUlūm.