As a result...

As a result, discrepancies occurred to the Sahabah’s personal opinions and practices of Ijtihad and even to the opinions of a certain Sahabiy. Because they had not agreed to depend upon the view of a certain individual among them, the Tabi`un who came after the Sahabah were badly influenced by such discrepancies. Moreover, as the rulers recorded the sayings of the Sahabah alongside the Hadith of the Holy Prophet, they contributed largely in deepening such discrepancies.

Although repeated, it seems appropriate to cite the following narration Salih ibn Kaysan: “I, once, met with al-Zuhriy for seeking religious knowledge and then we both decided to write down the traditions. We therefore wrote down whatever was reported from the Prophet. When he suggested that he would write down the traditions of the Sahabah considering them with the Sunnah, I objected and declared the Sahabah’s traditions having not been within the Sunnah.

Hence, al-Zuhriy wrote down the traditions of the Sahabah while I did not and thus I lost.”[^1] Shaykh Muhammad Abu-Zuhrah says, “We found Malik ibn Anas depending upon the verdicts of the Sahabah as if they were part of the Sunnah.”[^2] Thus, discrepancy crept into the fundaments of the Muslim jurisprudence and became untouchable law.

It is also noticed that discrepancy occurred even to the opinions of the same Sahabiy;[^3] therefore, one adopts the first opinion of that Sahabiy and another adopts the second. The aforesaid introduction has revealed the fact that the Holy Sunnah for the Sunnite Muslims passed through two stages; (1) the prohibition of reporting and recording the Hadith, and (2) the recordation of the Holy Sunnah.

During the first stage of the prohibition, personal views were deemed legal and the Holy Sunnah was intentionally confused with the decisions of the Sahabah. During the second stage of the recordation, these different opinions and views were written down; therefore, they have become within the Islamic laws that must be obeyed.

On the other hand, the school of the through compliance with the sacred texts has passed through one stage only, which is the taking from the Holy Prophet and the adoption of his dictations that were handwritten by Imam `Ali ibn Abi-Talib. For this reason, no substantial disagreement can be noticed in the questions discussed by the jurisprudential method of this school.