268 SHĪ'A LAW

and then abandoned it, which implied repeal.¹ There were also traditions from Companions in favour of qunūt,² but unambiguous traditions from the Prophet in favour of this practice appeared only in Shāfi'ī (Ikh. 285 f.).

One of these traditions has in its very defective isnād two descendants of 'Alī, the fifth and sixth imam of the 'Twelver' Shiites. This does not make its doctrine Shiite, any more than the isnād of the Medinese 'Alī tradition against mut'a (see above) makes its doctrine Shiite. Other traditions from the Prophet to the same effect, quoted by Shāfi'ī, have different isnāds.

As a result, the ancient schools of law are divided on qunūt, Shāfi'ī acknowledges it on principle on account of the traditions from the Prophet, the Zaidīs and the 'Twelver' Shiites are in favour of it.³ The history of this problem shows that a practice which was historically connected with 'Alī failed to develop into a distinctive difference between Sunni and Shiite law:

My final example shows K̅hārijis and Shiites agreeing on a doctrine which has almost disappeared from the Sunni schools of law. The Iraqian opposition movement, at the beginning of the second century, held that unlawful intercourse constituted a permanent impediment to marriage between the guilty parties. This doctrine was inspired by the spirit of rigorism typical of that group,⁴ but it did not fit well into the general background of the Muhammadan law of marriage. It was therefore rejected by the school of Kufa, and only a corollary to it, separated from its context, was adopted in Medina on the authority of a tradition attributed to 'Umar, which was interpreted restrictively; this led to a grave inconsistency in Mālikī doctrine. The essential thesis, however, with different developments of details in each case, was taken over both by the Ibāḍīs and by the 'Twelver' Shiites; both borrowings were made in Iraq.⁵