that the consensus which yields only probabilistic knowledge is “that which can be known only through exhaustive investigation and inductive collation. The scholars have differed over whether it can ever be definitively established, and the strongest view in this regard is that of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah, who said in al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah: ‘The consensus that can be precisely identified is the one upon which the righteous early generations agreed, for after them disagreement multiplied and the Ummah became dispersed.’”

Shaykh Muḥammad al-Khuḍarī likewise maintains in his Uṣūl al-Fiqh (p. 329) that knowing a consensus after the time of the Companions is impossible, citing Imām al-Rāzī: “Fairness dictates that we have no means of knowing it except in the era of the Companions.”

In al-Mudhakkirah by al-Shinqīṭī (p. 179) we read: “The author chose the view that the existence of consensus remains conceivable, contrary to those who say it is impossible after the Companions because of the multitude of scholars, their dispersion across the lands, and the inability to ascertain the opinions of them all.”

I say: One must note the difference between the position of the Ẓāhirīs and that of Imām Aḥmad and those who follow him. The Ẓāhirīs deny the binding authority of any consensus reached after the Companions, whereas Imām Aḥmad and his adherents do not deny its authority; they merely hold that proving—or being absolutely certain of—such a consensus is extremely difficult after the Companions’ era.

Ruling on the consensus of the people of Medina

Shaykh al-Islām states in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (20/304): “When discussing the consensus of the people of Medina in those early centuries, the sound conclusion is that part of it is unanimously accepted by the Muslims, part represents the view of the majority of the leading scholars, and part is held by only some of them. The consensus of the people of Medina therefore falls into four levels:

1. The first level is that which amounts to a direct transmission from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—such as their transmission of the measurement of the ṣāʿ and the mudd, or their practice of not levying charity on vegetables and on charitable endowments. This is authoritative proof by agreement of the scholars; for al-Shāfiʿī, Aḥmad, and their followers it is incontrovertible, just as it is proof for