claimed such a consensus and still considered it impermissible to place it above an authenticated ḥadīth; al-Shāfiʿī held the very same view. The statements of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were, in the eyes of Imām Aḥmad and the rest of the ḥadīth masters, far too exalted to be outweighed by a presumed consensus whose whole substance is nothing but ignorance of any opposing opinion. Were that allowed, the revealed texts would be rendered inoperative, and anyone unaware of a dissenting view on a given ruling could elevate his own ignorance over the texts.¹

I say: This is exactly what some people have done here—they have advanced what they allege to be a consensus over the preceding texts, even though no consensus exists on the matter, as will be shown in the next discussion.

Third: The alleged consensus is actually refuted by a report that has reached us with sound transmission. ʿAbd al-Razzāq records it in his Muṣannaf 11 / 70 / 19935, Ibn Ṣāʿid relates it in his Ḥadīth 35 / 1—copied in the handwriting of the ḥadīth master Ibn ʿAsākir—and Ibn Ḥazm cites it in 10 / 82, all with an authentic chain, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, who heard Abū Hurayrah say to his daughter: