for it implies that disagreement can spring from only one source—the lack of a firmly established text—whereas it is well known that many differences did not arise because no text existed, but because the proof never reached the jurist who held the opposing view, or it reached him through a chain that does not constitute legal evidence, or it reached him soundly yet he understood it in a manner other than the way another imam understood it, in addition to other causes of disagreement mentioned by the scholars. Thus, divergence does not proceed from a single cause; rather, as you can see, it has many. Consider how many issues have been contested even though reliable reports from the Prophet ﷺ exist about them, as is obvious to those versed in law and hadith. Let us take a clear example: raising the hands in prayer when bowing and when rising from the bow. Scholars of every school agree on its legitimacy except the Hanafis, even though nearly twenty authentic hadiths speak of it. Some of those narrations mention that Abu Humayd al-Saʿidi (may Allah be pleased with him) described the Prophet’s ﷺ prayer in the presence of… ⦗31⦘