to him whenever a dispute arose; for that reason Imām al-Shāfiʿī relied on Zayd’s opinions and preferred them to all others.

4. This ḥadīth has been criticised on the grounds of irsāl: although Abū Qilābah did hear several narrations from Anas, he did not hear this particular report from him, so it is classed as mursal (a disconnected chain). The author states in al-Talkhīṣ that al-Tirmidhī, al-Ḥākim, and Ibn Ḥibbān declared it authentic, and that it possesses an additional route from Anas recorded by al-Tirmidhī. Ibn al-Mawwaq and others regarded it as connected, whereas al-Dāraqutnī, al-Bayhaqī, and al-Khaṭīb considered only the portion mentioning Abū ʿUbaydah to be connected, with the remainder remaining mursal.

5. Differences among the scholars concerning the laws of inheritance are few, and those few occur in matters that are not expressly mentioned in the Noble Qur’an. As for the foundational and significant issues, there is unanimous agreement, because Allah—exalted is He—undertook their apportionment Himself in His mighty Book. The subject concerns the division of wealth, and human nature is disposed to love wealth and to keep it to oneself, while an estate is usually shared by both the strong and the weak. Hence the fear that justice might not be observed in its distribution.