prayer after sa‘y is like recommending it at the Jamrahs or at the standing place at ‘Arafāt, or making Fajr four rak‘ahs by analogy with Zuhr.

Consistently refraining from an act is Sunnah, just as consistently performing an act is Sunnah. This differs from an act omitted because there was no occasion calling for it, a prerequisite was absent, or an impediment existed, when circumstances later arose—an occasion or prerequisite becoming present, or an impediment being removed—under which Islamic law indicated that it should be performed. Examples include compiling the Quran into a single volume, gathering people behind one imam for the Tarāwīh prayers, learning Arabic and the names of those who transmitted religious knowledge, and other things needed in religion without which prescribed obligations or recommended acts cannot be fulfilled. The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, refrained from such things only because a prerequisite was absent or an impediment existed.

As for acts of worship that he omitted, although he would have performed or authorized them had they been prescribed, and the caliphs and Companions after him would have performed them, one must conclude with certainty that performing them is innovation and misguidance. Analogy is inadmissible in such cases, even though it may be permissible in the first category. An example is drawing an analogy between “the two Eid prayers, the prayer for rain, and the eclipse prayer” and the five daily prayers, so as to institute an adhān and an iqāmah for them, as some of the Marwānids did for the two Eid prayers.

Another example is drawing an analogy between his chamber, and other such burial places of prophets, and the House of Allah with regard to touching and kissing. Such analogies resemble that of those whom Allah quoted as saying:

“Trade is only like usury.”

The hadith jurists—such as al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, and others—adopted, together with the jurists of