commenced with the passing away of the Prophet (s.a) and extended till the end of the first century. In this era the Sahabah, (the companions of the holy Prophet) on confronting certain issues for which no explicit solution in the form of a Qur'anic text or prophetic tradition (Hadith) existed they resorted to Ijtihad. But Ijtihad in this era was not exercised in a fully developed form. Hence the text of the Qur'an and Ahadith (the sayings and pronouncements of the holy Prophet (s.a) were the principal sources of the Shar'i injunctions at that time. Differences of views amongst the Sahabah were mostly in the approach to the texts, their interpretation, as well as in applying Qiyas (analogy) and occasionally, exercising Ijtihad bi al-Ra'y, personal opinion from interpreting the text of Shri'ah.

Two different views emerged in this era. The first one was what may be termed literalism, which would not go beyond the words of the texts (al-nusus). The second leaned towards personal judgment and opinion (al-Ra'y) and extended further the practice of Ijtihad based on al-Ra'y. Both of these two views found certain followers who repudiated one another 22.

(c) The era of the formation of different schools of Fiqh, which extended up to the second half of the fourth century of Hijrah, finally resulted in the emergence of various schools of law. In the beginning, these schools came into existence in the form of the following of different companions of the Prophet (s.a) living in different regions.

Such as the Madhhab (the way and methods) of the scholars of Fiqh of Hijaz, 23 the Arabian peninsula, the Madhhab of the scholars of Fiqh of Iraq, 24 the Madhhab of the scholars of Fiqh of Syria 25, and the Madhhab of the scholars of Fiqh of Egypt 26. Later on following the extinction of certain of the Madhahib, schools of law, the Sunni Madhhab of Fiqh reduced and restricted to the four Madhhabs, i.e. the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali. The founders of these four Madhahib did not favor the limiting of Fiqh to the four Madhahib and perhaps rejected such an idea 27.

According to al-Maqrizi the well-known historian, the following of the different Madhahib of Sunni Fiqh was common in the Muslim communities till seventh century. Only since 665 H. did the 'ulama' issued the Fatwas according to which one was bound to follow only one of the four Madhhab mentioned above. As a result, those who followed any school of Fiqh other than these four Madhhab, their testimony (Shahadat) was considered invalid and unacceptable in courts of law and they were also deprived from holding the post of judges 28.