80 SUNNA, 'PRACTICE' AND 'LIVING TRADITION' 

It is probable that it is the result of the only possible and reasonable systematic consideration; whereas the sunna, as quoted by Ibn Musaiyib, disagrees with analogy and reason, and must therefore stand on a traditional basis, as far as we can see. In a later addition Shāfi'ī says that this was his former opinion, but that he abandoned it because he found no proof that the alleged sunna actually went back to the Prophet, and so he now prefers analogy; also, he says, the tradition from Zaid is even less well attested than that from ‘Alī.¹

We find the old idea of the decisive authority of 'practice' surviving even in Abū Dawūd, the author of one of the classical collections of traditions and in law a follower of Shāfi'ī, who concludes that a tradition from the Prophet has been repealed because the [idealized] practice, which he finds expressed in a tradition from 'Urwa, is different (Bāb man ra'a l-takhfīf fil-qirā'a fil-maghrib; cf. the comment of Zurqānī, i. 149).

F. CONCLUSIONS

The ancient schools of law shared the old concept of sunna or 'living tradition' as the ideal practice of the community, expressed in the accepted doctrine of the school. It was not yet exclusively embodied in traditions from the Prophet, although the Iraqians had been the first to claim for it the authority of the Prophet, by calling it the 'sunna of the Prophet'. The continuous development of doctrine in the ancient schools was outpaced by the development of traditions, particularly those from the Prophet, in the period before Shāfi'ī, and the ancient schools were already on the defensive against the rising tide of traditions when Shāfi'ī appeared. This contrast between doctrine and traditions gave Shāfi'ī his opportunity; he identified the 'sunna of the Prophet' with the contents of traditions from the Prophet to which he gave, not for the first time² but for the first time consistently, overriding authority, thereby cutting himself off from the continuous development of doctrine before him. If the 'living tradition' diverges constantly from traditions, this shows that the traditions are, generally speaking, later.

The generally accepted doctrine of a school merges in the