TRADITIONS IN THE ANCIENT SCHOOLS OF LAW 23

same themselves (Ikh. 124). Shafi'i boasts that he has better traditions than the Medinese (Tr. III, 53); but Ibn Wahb collects an imposing array of them on the problem in question (Mud. iv. 28). For Shafi'i, however, the Medinese are not serious in the respect they pay to traditions; he calls them 'self-professed followers of traditions', and says of one of them: 'He only affected respect for the traditions in general, and then diverged from their meaning' (Ikh. 323).

Malik and the Medinese in general anticipate Shafi'i's harmonizing interpretation of traditions, both from the Prophet and from Companions. But, compared with Shafi'i, they use this method sparingly, and they generally seem to make an arbitrary choice between conflicting traditions. Malik sometimes expresses this by the words 'I prefer' (ahabb ilaiya).¹

Whereas Shafi'i professes to follow the traditions from the Prophet and to disregard everything else in all circumstances, the Medinese choose freely among the traditions from the Prophet and from others, and even reject both kinds altogether. Rabi' says explicitly: 'Our doctrine is to authenticate only those traditions that are agreed upon by the people of Medina, to the exclusion of other places' (Tr. III, 148, p. 242). In the opinion of the Medinese, sound reason and analogy supersede traditions (Tr. III, 145 (a)). Malik considers it necessary to justify his doctrine not only by a harmonizing interpretation of traditions, but also by legal and moral reasoning,² and he declares himself ignorant of what a particular tradition from the Prophet may mean, in view of the practical difficulties of its application.³

Traditions from the Prophet are often superseded by traditions from Companions, or even disregarded without any apparent reason. They are regularly interpreted in the light of traditions from Companions, on the assumption that the Companions know the sunna of the Prophet best.⁴ Malik therefore reasons: 'There is no evidence that the Prophet gave the command in question after the battle of Hunain;⁵ that he gave it