as referring, as noted earlier, to matters of the caliphate, the dispatch of armies to the provinces, and the like; these objections, every one of them, are weak. Let us therefore begin by explaining the aforementioned hadith, establishing its authenticity, and clarifying the manner in which it proves the point, after which we shall return to the related objections… After verifying the hadith’s soundness, he said:

“The way it serves as evidence is clear—not through the line of reasoning that their agreement constitutes consensus, as was previously claimed, but because the Prophet ﷺ commanded us to hold fast to their Sunnah and to bite onto it with our molars. This figurative expression signifies strict adherence and refraining from departing from it. Moreover, he ﷺ coupled their Sunnah with his own in these commands, giving the two the same probative force.

One might object that this implies their Sunnah is on par with the established Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, so that if the two were to conflict one would weigh them against each other and might even give precedence to their Sunnah over what is authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ. We reply that no such implication follows. That their Sunnah is an authoritative proof does not mean it is absolutely equal to the Prophet’s Sunnah; rather, we are commanded to follow it and act upon it provided there is no Prophetic Sunnah that overrides it—just as analogy is a legitimate legal proof even though it ranks below the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

As for the limitation of this description to the Four Caliphs and not those who came after them, it is because the scholars are unanimously agreed that the quality cited in the hadith applies exclusively to them and is never ascribed to later rulers. Safinah (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said, “The caliphate in my community will last thirty years after me; then it will turn into monarchy,” and its chain is sound. By consensus, the combined tenure of the four imams (may Allah be pleased with them) approximated that period. On this basis al-Bayhaqī and others argued that the Prophet’s ﷺ words “the Sunnah of the rightly guided caliphs” refer specifically to those four, and that the wording is confined to them.

As for the report, “My Companions are like the stars,” its discussion will follow, and it is a weak hadith that cannot stand against the narration from al-ʿIrbāḍ cited earlier so as to place the two in contradiction.” End quote.

I say: The conclusion favored by al-ʿIlāʾī and al-Shinqīṭī—may Allah have mercy on them—that the agreement of the Four Caliphs is a binding proof but not a consensus is the position that reconciles the evidences, and it is one of the reports transmitted from Imām Aḥmad.