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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Ijtihad: Its Meaning, Sources, Beginnings and the Practice of Ra'y Critique of the Second Riwayah The second riwayah is also infirm with respect to its chain of transmission. As Abu Muhammad `Ali ibn Hazm al-Zahiri points out in his book al-'Ihkam li usul al- ahkam (vol. 5, p.1003), there are two chains of transmission through which this Riwayahhas been reported; none of them is trustworthy.

In one sanad, one of the narrators is `Abd al-Malik ibn al-Walid ibn Ma'dan. He has not been considered as trust­worthy by the experts of the science of rijal, and no hadith narrated by him has been acted upon. And as for the second sanad, it contains names of persons of unknown identity, thus technically making the riwayahone whose chain of transmission is broken (maqtu` al-sanad).

Critique of the Third Riwayah This riwayahhas no relation with the issue under discussion, as it is about judgement and adjudication, and not concerned with the privi­lege and right of a jurisprudent to legislate ahkam of the Shari'ah by means of ray and by employing conjectural instruments.

Critique of the Fourth Riwayah Firstly the fourth Riwayah is mursal (one whose first narrator (S) is not mentioned in the chain of transmission), which deprives it of the requirements for being legally relevant. Secondly, apart from its being mursal, such a riwayahhas no strength to resist the force of the arguments based on definite proofs (adillah) of the Book and the Sunnah, which do not permit tashri` and legislation by means of ray and through instruments for deriving conjec­tures.

Thus, we reach the conclusion that these ahadith are not adequate for vindicating the practice of ijtihad by means of ray and subjective opinion; they lack the requirements of validity and the probability of their being fabricated is strong. The Emergence of Ijtihad bi al-Ray The beginnings of the emergence of ijtihad and its general outlines can be traced back to the migration of the Prophet (S) from Makkah to Madinah.

But the emergence of ijtihad in the sense of exercising ray was after the conclusion of the era of tashri` with the demise of the Prophet (S). For, as long as the Prophet (S) was alive, with the continuity of the revelation of the Quran and wahy, there was no ground for exercising ra'y; as mentioned earlier, the ahkam could be understood and known easily by referring to the Prophet (S).