Qiyas as will be discussed and as is considered as a valid and authoritative form of reasoning in the inference of the rules of Islamic Shari’a has also become a battlefield of the thoughts and views of Fuqaha’ plural of Faqih, the fully qualified scholar of the Islamic Shari’a.

The scholars of the Imamiah, (followers of the Imams from the family of the holy Prophet) school of law,

keeping in line with the Imams, peace be upon them have considered all practices on the basis of Qiyas invalid. Of the schools of thought and of this opinion are Ahluzzahir, the followers of Dawood Ibn Khalaf, the Imam of these people. Also the Hanbali scholars, followers of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal do not consider Qiyas of any significant value.

The first of those who expanded Qiyas in the second century, Hijri( the Islamic Calendar), was Abu Hanifah, the leader of the believers in the authoritative value of Qiyas. The Shafi’i and Maliki also maintained this belief and practice. Some groups of scholars showed huge interest in the use of Qiyas so much so that they gave preference to it over consensus. In fact other groups become of such enthusiasts in it that they would annul Hadith with it and even some of them would interpret the verses of the holy Quran by means of Qiyas.

It is a well know fact in the school of Ahlul Bayt (Family of the holy Prophet peace be upon them) that they would not consider lawful any of the deeds based on the results of Qiyas. " The religion of God is beyond the abilities of ‘aql, reason to comprehend and that when the Sunnah is subjected to Qiyas religion is destroyed" are some of their popular statements. The exceptions to the above statements will be discussed latter.

In fact, they conducted a relentless (verbal) war against the use of Qiyas and unconditional opinions in the matters of inferring the rules of Shari’a whenever and wherever they could. The debates of Imam Ja’far Al-sadiq (peace be upon him) on the use of Qiyas in the matters of the rules of Shari’a are well known to the Muslim scholars especially the debates with the Imam of the Hanafi school of thought, Abu Hanifah. Such debates are even reported by the scholars of the Sunni Muslims like Ibn Hazm who in his works ‘Invalidation of Qiyas page 71 published by Demascus University 1379 Hijri. Ibn Hazm has mentioned the following expressions of Imam Al-sadiq peace be upon him addressed to Abu Hanifah: "Have fear of God and do not do Qiyas, because tomorrow we will all stand up before God. We will say, "(In our worldly life in the matters of the rules of Shari’a we would say), " This is what God has said and this is what the Prophet of God has said, but you and your friends and associates will say, "We heard and followed our own opinions".

Perhaps the opposite camp who for whatever reasons did not like to benefit from the knowledge of Ahlul Bayt and because they were not so richly filled up with all the knowledge of Sunnah of the holy Prophet and the holy Quran, therefore, they had to have some alternatives. Of such alternatives, it seems, were Ra’y and Ijtihad even beyond the popularly acceptable limits and Istihsan, meaningapparently likable matters, to use as the basis of their Fatwas,(meaning an experts’ opinion in the matters of the rules of Shari’a.) and adjudication.

There are cases wherein even with the availability of clear text of Sunnah Qiyas and Ra’y were given first preference or the use of Qiyas and Ra’y were used to justify opposing or not benefiting from the available text of the Sunnah.

One such case is that of the first Khalifahs’ decision in favor of Khalid Ibn Walid who went to bed with the widow of Malik Ibn Nuwayrah in the first night after his getting killed in the battle field by the army of Khalid Ibn Walid. The decision said that Khalid Ibn Walid has made a mistake in his Ijtihad. This decision was announced when ‘Umar Ibn Al-khattab wanted to subject Khalid Ibn Walid to the penalty for committing adultery.

The use of Qiyas, by the people who lived as contemporary to the holy Prophet and the generation of Muslims next to them, did not have the degree of sophistication that was establish for it at the time of the Imam of Hanafi school, Abu Hanifah.

In the second century with the support of the Abbaside dynasty the enthusiasts of Qiyas became actively involved in establishing Qiyas and the issues related to it so much so that it become an independent mode of inference all by itself.

What is important in our view is to examine what is Hujjah and what is disputed.