AND PERSONAL OPINION 105

Ibrāhīm Nakhaʿī. The main body of decisions ascribed to Ibrāhīm as the eponym of a certain strand of Iraqian doctrine¹ is to a great extent pure raʾy, often expressing systematic thought.

Abū Ḥanīfa. He extends a time limit as a precaution (Muw. Shaib. 274); this is typical raʾy. He often uses the expressions araʾaita and alā tarā (turā), which are etymologically connected with raʾy and mean “what do you think of...”, “do you not think”, in order to introduce systematic reasoning, parallels, extreme and borderline cases, reductio ad absurdum, etc. (Tr. I, passim). But he hardly ever says directly: “This is my opinion (raʾy)”, “I am of the opinion (arā)”, etc.

Abū Yūsuf. An example of his explicit use of raʾy occurs in Tr. I, 169. The same treatise contains numerous examples of araʾayta and alā tarā, which Abū Yūsuf uses for the same purpose as Abū Ḥanīfa, and also in order to introduce strict analogical reasoning.

Shaibānī. In Muw. Shaib. 142, he calls raʾy his gratuitous theory of repeal or, alternatively, his arbitrary interpretation of traditions that do not agree with the common doctrine of his school. In Muw. Shaib. 153, he maintains as his raʾy the systematic reasoning ascribed to Ibrāhīm Nakhaʿī (Athār A.Y. 144; Athār Shaib. 27), as against a tradition from ʿUmar which points to the contrary. This tradition, and another from ʿAlī to the same effect (Tr. II, 3 (m)), obviously did not yet exist when the Iraqian doctrine was attributed to Ibrāhīm. Araʾaita and alā tarā serve to introduce systematic reasoning in Tr. VIII, 19; Muw. Shaib. 289.

The use of raʾy is called ijtihād in the title of Shaibānī’s book, Kitāb ijtihād al-raʾy.² This term occurs also in the later group of Iraqian traditions referred to above (p. 104). But this meaning of ijtihād is secondary, and its original meaning “discretion, estimate” has been preserved in Medinese usage, and even to some extent in Shāfiʿī.³

The main locus probans for ijtihād al-raʾy is a tradition according to which Muʿādh b. Jabal was sent by the Prophet as a judge to Yemen, and in answer to the question of the Prophet about the principles which he intended to follow as a judge, replied that he would use his own discretion (ajtahid raʾyī) if he found no guidance in the Koran or in the sunna of the Prophet, a programme which the Prophet