It is also firmly established that the first three generations—the very generations the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) praised when he said, “The best of my community is the generation in which I was sent, then those who follow them, then those who follow them”—never engaged in this practice. Had there been any virtue in it, the powerful motives that existed among them would have prompted them to do so. Their failure either to command it or to perform it, despite such compelling motives, proves conclusively that the practice carries no merit.
As for those who came after them, the most that can be claimed is that the Ummah differed: many scholars and devout believers adopted it, while others prohibited it. Hence it cannot be said that the entire Ummah has unanimously approved the practice, for two reasons:
- A considerable portion of the Ummah, in both earlier and later times, has disliked and denounced it.
- It is impossible for the whole Ummah to agree on commending a deed that the earliest generations would certainly have performed had it been praiseworthy—yet they did not. To say otherwise would entail contradictory consensuses, and the Ummah’s consensuses do not contradict one another.
When the later generations differ over a matter, the criterion that settles the dispute is the Qur’an and the Sunnah.