on the obligation of the five daily prayers and the prohibition of adultery. No one denies the existence of this type of consensus or its probative force, and whoever rejects it—when he is not excusably ignorant—is deemed an unbeliever.

2 - Presumptive consensus is that which can be ascertained only through exhaustive investigation and inductive survey. The scholars have disagreed about whether such a consensus can in fact be established. The strongest view is that of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, who said in al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah (1): “The consensus that can be precisely circumscribed is that of the righteous predecessors, for after them disagreement became widespread and the community dispersed.” End quote.

Know that the Ummah can never unite upon anything that contradicts an authentic, explicit, and unabrogated proof; it will only agree upon the truth. If you encounter a consensus that you think conflicts with such a proof, examine the matter: either the evidence is not authentic, not explicit, or it has been abrogated, or there is a dissenting view in the issue that you were unaware of.

Conditions for consensus:
Consensus has certain conditions, among them:
1 - It must be established by a sound avenue, either because it is well known among the scholars or because it is transmitted by a trustworthy authority of broad learning.
2 - It must not have been preceded by a firmly rooted disagreement; if such disagreement already existed, no consensus can be claimed, for opinions do not lapse with the death of those who held them.

Thus consensus does not erase a prior difference; it merely prevents a new one from arising. This is the preferred view because of the strength of its basis. Others have said that this condition is not required, allowing a consensus to be concluded in a later generation in favour of one of the earlier opinions,