AND PERSONAL OPINION 119

(c) Tr. III, 36: here we have another exception from strict analogy; this is also projected back to Mujāhid and 'Aṭā' (Zurqānī, ii. 195).¹

D. THE SYRIANS

Ra'y, under the name of naẓar, is acknowledged in a tradition which the isnād shows to be Syrian;² according to it, the Prophet was asked what one was to do with a problem on which there was nothing in Koran or sunna, and he said: 'The pious men among the believers shall consider it' (yanẓur fīh).

Another tradition³ makes Auzā'ī relate that 'Umar b. 'Abdal'azīz wrote in one of his instructions: 'No one has the right to personal ra'y on [points settled in] the Koran; the ra'y of the Caliphs concerns those points on which there is no revelation in the Koran and no valid sunna from the Prophet; no one has the right to personal ra'y on [points settled in] a sunna enacted by the Prophet.' This shows essentially the same acceptance of ra'y, although the emphasis is laid on its limitations. It represents Auzā'ī's attitude correctly, although whether the tradition as such is authentic must remain doubtful, and the reference to 'Umar b. 'Abdal'azīz is in any case spurious.⁴

Auzā'ī uses ra'y, with explicit mention of the term, in Ṭabarī, 97 (p. 148) and elsewhere. He draws a conclusion a minore ad maius in Tr. IX, 12, and other conclusions by analogy, without using the term qiyās, in § 41 (which is crudely reasoned) and repeatedly in § 42. More or less rudimentary systematic reasoning occurs in §§ 34-6 and 44 f. On the other hand he quotes in § 50, without isnād, an alleged saying of Shuraiḥ: 'The sunna came before your qiyās; follow it and do not introduce innovations; you cannot go astray as long as you hold fast to traditions (athar).' ⁵ This picture agrees well with Auzā'ī's attitude to traditions and his concept of sunna.⁶

The statements which are attributed to Auzā'ī himself in late sources, representing him as directly hostile to ra'y, are certainly spurious.