In the same period...

In the same period, the Shi'ah, who formed a section of the Islamic society, also encountered the new problems that faced the society. They also considered it essential to find solutions to the new problems.

But due to their particular point of view, they never came across the above-mentioned strains when facing diverse situations, because, during the days of accessibility to an Imam (A) they went to him for solving their problems, and during the days when they could not find an access to him or during his occultation they could solve the problems of daily life by means of the usul and by using them in deriving the ahkam of the Shari'ah.

They never felt the need for having recourse to ijtihad by ray and depending upon conjectural legal sources. According to Ahl al-Sunnah, in instances where the nass of the Quran and the Sunnah was not available, the mujtahid can legislate laws by exerting his own personal judgement and ray and set them forth as divine laws.

But according to the Shi'i point of view, in Islamic law a mujtahid has no right to legislate laws regarding new situations and issues, as there is no need for a mujtahid to resort to tashri` in presence of the general juristic principles which already exist. Different Points of View Among Ahl al-Sunnah It is essential to mention this point here that the practice of ray was not accepted by the Sunni community without any resistance, and the different Sunni sects were not uniform in this regard.

The Ahl al-Hadith (the Hijaz school of fiqh), whose founder was Malik ibn Anas al-'Asbahi (93-179/711-795), were a section of the Sunni community who forbade every kind of ijtihad that crossed the limits of the Quran and the Sunnah. Others who held this outlook were the Hanbalis, the followers of Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Shaybani (164-241/780-855), and the Zahiris, the followers of Da'ud ibn 'Ali al-'Isfahani, knownas Abu Sulayman Zahiri (200 or 202-270/815 or 817-883).

In the beginning, however, Malik did not subscribe to this outlook and approved the practice of ray. Ijtihad, as accepted by the Shi'ah, involves the application of certain essential and fundamental principles (usul) to secondary issues (furu`). This results in expansion of fiqh and the laws of Shari'ah in the sense of development and emergence of new instances and diversity of legal applications, and not through legislation of new laws.