To clarify this point further: whenever a person leaves a ḥadith unapplied, his case cannot escape one of three categories.

1. The first is an abstention that is, by unanimous agreement of the Muslims, perfectly lawful—such as when the report has never reached the individual and he has not been negligent in seeking it, despite his actual need for a ruling or verdict. We cited earlier the like of this from the Rightly Guided Caliphs and others. No Muslim doubts that such a person incurs no reproach whatsoever for his omission.⦗1⦘

2. The second is an abstention that is not lawful. By God’s grace, such a thing hardly ever issues from the great Imams. What one may fear, however, for certain scholars is that a man’s perception of the question is inadequate: he gives an opinion without possessing grounds for it, even though he has reflected and exercised ijtihād; or he falls short in adducing the proofs and speaks before his inquiry has reached its proper end, while still clinging to some argument; or a prevailing habit or personal motive overpowers him and prevents him from completing his examination so that he might weigh what opposes his current position. Even if he has spoken solely on the basis of ijtihād and evidence, the precise limit that ijtihād ought to attain is not always something a mujtahid can pin down.