- Karen Armstrong
commands and laws of scripture could be understood in the
light of Muhammad's words and actions. But, Shafii insisted,
each hadith had to be reliably supported by a chain (isnad) of
devout Muslims leading directly back to the Prophet himself.
The isnad must be stringently examined, and if the chain was
broken or if any one of its "links" could be shown to be a bad
Muslim, the hadith must be rejected. Al-Shafii tried to medi-
ate between the ahl al-hadith and those jurists, such as Abu
Hanifah, who had insisted upon the necessity of ijtihad. Shafii
agreed that some degree of ijtihad was necessary, but believed
that it should be confined to a strict analogy (qiyas) between
one of the Prophet's customs and contemporary practice.
There were, al-Shafii taught, four "roots" of sacred law (usul
al-fiqh): the Quran, the sunnah of the Prophet, qiyas (analogy)
and ijmah, the "consensus" of the community. God would not
allow the entire u m m a h to be in error, so if a custom was ac-
cepted by all Muslims, it must be recognized as authentic,
even if no Quranic reference or hadith could be found in its
support. Al-Shafii's method was not capable of ensuring the
strict historicity of the Prophet's sunnah, according to modern
standards of accuracy, but it did provide a blueprint for the
creation of a way of life that certainly gave Muslims a pro-
found and satisfying religious experience.
Al-Shafii's groundbreaking work led other scholars to the
study of ahadith, according to his criteria. Two sound and au-
thoritative anthologies were completed by al-Bukhari (d. 870)
and Muslim (d. 878), which stimulated interest in fiqh and led
eventually to the creation of a homogeneous religious life,
based on the sacred law of the Shariah, throughout the vast
Islamic Empire. The inspiration of the law was the person of
the Prophet, the Perfect Man. By imitating the smallest de-
tails of his external life and by reproducing the way he ate,
washed, loved, spoke and prayed, Muslims hoped to be able to
acquire his interior attitude of perfect surrender to God. Re-