`Umar ibn al-Khattab...

`Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, opened extremely wide the doors for giving practical effect to his personal views and opinions, as is clearly shown in the issues of the three-time divorce, the al-Mu’allafah Qulubuhum , the temporary marriage... etc.

FIFTH: In an early period of the age of the official application of the prohibition of recording the Hadith, the concepts of “This is my own opinion” and “As he tried to infer the ruling, he missed the right” came into view and caused the invention of new principles that have been, afterward, widely used in the Sunnite jurisprudence, such as analogy ( Qiyas ), Equitable Preference ( Istihsan ), and the like. SIXTH: The decision of the prohibition and the allowance of personal views (i.e.

Ijtihad) gave rise to the occurrence of serious contradictions and disputes among the verdicts and opinions of the Sahabah or even in the verdicts of a certain Sahabiy.

This phenomenon resulted in the following: The claim of the legality of disputes among the Muslims, the legality of Opinionism and multi-opinionism and thus the acceptability of the divergent opinions of all the Sahabah, and the conception of the ultimate decency of the Sahabah—all these concepts were the first outcomes of the contradictions and disputes among the Sahabah.

Scholars belonging to the School of Ijtihad and Opinionism have argued that Almighty Allah has referred the rulings in the questions about which no sacred text (from the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah) can be found to the mujtahids and thus whatever is decided by these mujtahids should be decided as the law of Almighty Allah. This conception is called Taswib .

In order to find excuses for the flaws of Abu-Bakr and `Umar, it was claimed that the Holy Prophet himself practiced Ijtihad and that he was no more than an ordinary mortal who may be right or wrong and that his sayings were influenced by his manners; that is when he is enraged, he may say things that he does not say when he is pleased! The verbal traditions of the Holy Prophet were interpreted according to personal tastes and interests.

The best example is the false interpretations of the famous Hadith that reads, “The ‘ Ikhtilaf ’ of my ummah is mercy.”[^1] SEVENTH: `Umar ibn al-Khattab presented the idea of his being the most knowledgeable in the religious laws at least. Before that, he used to confess of the existence of personalities that were more knowledgeable than he was.