issues and individual cases without first exercising scholarly judgment concerning that particular category or case: is there any scriptural evidence that entails prohibition, or not?

If the evidentiary basis is the presumption of continuity and the absence of scriptural evidence, Muslims are unanimously agreed—and it is an essential, necessarily known teaching of Islam—that no one may adopt a position or issue a fatwa on this basis without first searching for evidence specific to the matter, provided that he is qualified to do so. Everything that Allah and His Messenger have made obligatory or forbidden overrides this presumption of continuity. A qualified person may therefore rely on it only after examining the scriptural evidence.

If, however, the evidentiary basis consists of general scriptural texts, then a general text whose scope has been restricted by numerous, widely scattered exceptions likewise cannot be invoked without first investigating whether the case in question is among those excluded or those remaining within its scope. There is no disagreement about this either.

The scholars disagree only concerning a general text whose scope is not known to have been restricted, or from which certain specific cases are known to have been excluded: may it be applied to other cases before searching for contrary evidence that restricts its scope? The followers of al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad and others have differed on this.

Two positions have been reported from Ahmad on this question. Most of his statements indicate that people of his time and others like them may not apply the apparent meanings of the Quran before searching for what explains them in the Sunnah and in the statements of the Companions, the Successors and others. This is the correct position, adopted by Abū al-Khattāb and others. For an apparent meaning regarding which it is not considered likely that