After graduating, Shafi went to his home village, the Turkman valley, and joined Sazman Al-Nasr in Jihad against the Soviet Armed Forces during the Soviet–Afghan War.

[2] Shafi, due to his exceptional military tactics, angered multiple of his adversaries, primarily the Sunni mujahideen faction Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin.

He would continuously put himself in danger by standing on top of containers and running towards the opposition, resulting in his enemies calling him "Dewana”, meaning mad in Dari.

[4] On May 1, 1992, he returned to Kabul and formed a six-man unit and started his armed struggle against the remnants of the government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

The Taliban repeatedly confessed to Hezb Wahdat representatives that they had minimal casualties while managing to capturing several provinces.

After the fall of the west Kabul resistance and the death of Abdul Ali Mazari, Shafi went to Peshawar, Pakistan, and from there to Mazar-e-Sharif, where he spent some time buying weapons, regrouping, and gathering his forces.

Karim Khalili and his collaborators assassinated Shafi and coincidentally attacked his Six Bridge post, killing one soldier and wounding many.

He was buried in Bamiyan by the local people but later transferred to his hometown by his soldiers and body rests in the Dahan Khakrez cemetery in Turkman Valley.