the various regions, and he is not to rely on the statements of any single Companion—whether his home be distant or near—unless it is a report conveyed by a group to a group.

357 – He asked, “And if you do say that?”

358 – I replied, “Then go ahead and say it, if you wish!”

359 – He said, “That would make things exceedingly narrow.”

360 – I responded, “And for all its narrowness, it does not in fact exist.”

361 – Another inconsistency arises for you in the matter of analogy: when you allow an individual to reason by analogy, you thereby permit analogy even though it can be prone to error; yet you refuse to accept the Sunnah on the grounds that the transmitter might err. In doing so you have sanctioned the weaker proof and rejected the stronger!

361 – I also said to some of them, “Consider your claim that their consensus is conclusive proof. Suppose someone were to say to you: ‘Woe to you! Of everything on which we have spoken—whether in agreement or in disagreement—we did not accept the report in that matter, even though something comparable had been established for us from those before us. Yet we are unanimously agreed that, where there is neither text nor Sunnah, it is permissible for us to speak on the basis of analogy, even if we end up differing. So do you then nullify the reports of those whose narrations and whose unanimous actions you say are proof in one case, yet accept them in another?’”

363 – What if someone were to say to you, “I follow them in affirming the reports of truthful transmitters, even when such reports are solitary, and I accept from them the resort to analogy in matters that lack explicit guidance, thereby allowing them room to differ. Thus I will have followed them in every circumstance. Would that not constitute stronger evidence, make me more deserving of following them, and be more commendatory of them than your approach?”

364 – He asked, “Is this really what you maintain?”

365 – I answered, “Yes.”

366 – And I added, “Now, regarding your assertion that the consensus of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ…"