ruling being sought and asked about. Where he does not know which carries greater weight, he suspends judgment and expresses no opinion. If he is told, “Yet He has said:
‘Do not hold on to marriage bonds with disbelieving women,’”
he replies: “This was revealed in the year of al-Hudaybiyyah, and it refers to polytheist women, for the circumstances of its revelation establish with certainty that they are intended. Sūrat al-Mā’idah was revealed afterward. Its text is therefore specific and later, whereas the other is general and earlier; a later, specific text carries greater weight than an earlier, general text.”
Thus, when His words were revealed:
“Do not hold on to marriage bonds with disbelieving women,”
ʿUmar parted from a polytheist wife, as did others. This shows that they remained married to polytheist women until this verse was revealed. Had the verse in Sūrat al-Baqarah been revealed before this one, that would not have been the case. This therefore shows that the verse in Sūrat al-Baqarah came after the verse in Sūrat al-Mumtahanah, and that the verse in Sūrat al-Mā’idah came after the verse in Sūrat al-Baqarah. This reasoning, and others like it, is the reasoning of the jurist who knows that a particular piece of evidence, and the conjecture it yields, carry greater weight than opposing evidence. This is knowledge, not conjecture.
It has thus become clear that conjecture rests on evidence that gives rise to it, and that the scholar derives his knowledge only from what establishes knowledge of preponderance, not from conjecture itself—unless he knows that it carries greater weight. As for conjecture whose preponderance is not known, it is impermissible to follow it. This is what Allah condemned in those of whom He said:
“They follow nothing but conjecture.”
They follow nothing but conjecture and possess no knowledge. Had they known that their conjecture carried greater weight, they would have been following knowledge and would not have been among those who follow nothing but conjecture. And Allah knows best.