between the two, as held by the majority, including al-Thawrī, Abū Hanīfah, and Abū ʿUbayd. This is also the apparent position of Ahmad’s school, although positions corresponding to the first two have also been transmitted from him.

Among the rulings of the Rightly Guided Caliphs that have most perplexed jurists is that concerning the wife of a missing man. It is established that ʿUmar ibn al-Khattāb prescribed a waiting period of four years for a missing man’s wife and instructed her to remarry thereafter. When the missing man subsequently returned, ʿUmar gave him the choice between his wife and her dowry. Imam Ahmad and others followed him in this ruling.

A group of later scholars of Ahmad’s school, however, said: “This is contrary to analogical reasoning. Analogy dictates that she remains married to the first husband, unless we hold that the separation takes effect both outwardly and in reality, in which case she is the second man’s wife.” The former is al-Shāfiʿī’s position, and the latter is Mālik’s.

Others went to excess in rejecting this ruling, even saying: “If a judge ruled according to ʿUmar’s position, his judgment would be overturned because it departs so far from analogy.”

Still others accepted part of ʿUmar’s ruling and rejected another part, saying: “Once she remarries, she is the second man’s wife; and once the second man consummates the marriage with her, she is his wife and is not returned to the first.”

Those who disagreed with ʿUmar failed to discern what he discerned, and their understanding of sound analogy did not equal his, for this is based on