30 TRADITIONS IN THE ANCIENT SCHOOLS OF LAW

We must conclude that the reference to traditions from Companions is the older procedure, and the theory of the over-ruling authority of traditions from the Prophet an innovation, which was as yet imperfectly adopted by the Iraqians and consistently applied only by Shafi'i.

Whereas the method of harmonizing interpretation of traditions is not unknown to the Iraqians, and when no harmonizing is possible, the majority of the Companions is occasionally considered as decisive, they usually choose seemingly arbitrarily one out of several contradictory traditions, even if they could be brought into agreement. Shafi'i states in Tr. III, 13, that they choose 'that one which they find more in keeping with the sunna', and we shall see later¹ what the Iraqians mean by it. This acceptance or rejection of traditions, according to whether they agree or disagree with the previously established doctrine of the school, was later developed into a fine art by Tahawi whose efforts at harmonizing are overshadowed by his tendency to find contradictions, so that he can eliminate those traditions which do not agree with the doctrine of the Hanafi school, by assuming their repeal. The interpretation by the ancient Iraqians of those traditions which they accept, confirms that their decisive criterion is the previously established doctrine.

The Iraqians reject traditions from the Prophet, because the tradition in question disagrees with the Koran (Ikh. 345 ff.); or because the rule expressed in it is not mentioned in the Koran² or in parallel traditions from the Prophet, and nothing similar to it is related from the four Caliphs who carried out the divine commands after the Prophet (Tr. III, 10); or because 'everyone has abandoned it' (Ikh. 336); or because the general opinion is different, and the traditions from the Prophet to the contrary can be explained away or considered as repealed (Muw. Shaib. 142); or simply for systematic reasons, because the tradition in question would make the doctrine inconsistent. Shafi'i is justified in charging the Iraqians with accepting traditions more easily from Companions than from the Prophet (Ikh. 345 ff.). They had, of course, often to disagree with traditions from Companions too, particularly as many mutually contradictory traditions are related from their two main authorities