Damascus 1307/1889) made a collection of Dawud's Fiqh...

Damascus 1307/1889) made a collection of Dawud's Fiqh gleaned from the various works of his followers.'[^18] It was related that Dawud ibn 'Ali admitted analogy where the cases in question were obvious,[^19] but it is more probable that he rejected analogy wholly, whether the cases were ambiguous or obvious.[^20] As for consensus ( ijma' ), his position was totally different: he admitted the ijma ` of the of the Prophet only,[^21] on the ground that these were in constant contact with the Prophet and fully aware of his intentions.

In his theology in particular he maintains, for example, that God is hearing, seeing, etc. But he says: “I do not say that He is seeing with the agency of sight …”[^22] Dawud ibn 'Ali re‑examined all aspects of Fiqh on the basis of his Zahirite attitude. The following are three examples illustrating his trend of thought and argumentation in this respect.

Prayer on a Journey ‑ God has said in the Qur'an: “And when you journey in the earth, there is no blame on you if you shorten the prayer.”[^23] This led the Muslims to reduce prayer on a journey from four rak`ahs to only two.[^24] Muslim jurists generally assert that…