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2772Consequently, differences arose between the jurists fuqaha of Kufah Iraq and Hijaz culminating in the formation of two distinct camps the traditionalists. Ahl al Hadith and the rationalists ahl al ra i Wael The ahl al-hadith who were located predominantly in Hijaz had an aversion to straying from textual evidence and contempt toward deriving law through the application of legal reasoning. Ra i Some of the reasons put forward for this include the great number of hadith known to them and their inheritance of the fear the Sahaba had for contradicting the letter of the source texts. The ahlul Ra I emanating from Kufa and Basra were inclined toward recourse to reason in extrapolating law in the absence of unambiguous text. Reason would even be accorded legal preference when in conflict with the texts al Alwani 2003. These two groups were not entirely diametrically opposed however as there existed a spectrum of approaches with certain factions within each group allowing for some level of co-existence. With the multiplicity of approaches came the sense that a criteria needed to be set for regulating usul al fiqh.
The climate was ripe for establishing a coherent body of guidelines to which jurists could turn to as a reference Kamali 1991. Imaam Abu Yusuf and Imaam Hasan al Shaybani the students of Imaam Abu Hanifa are reputed to be the first to write books codifying the science of usul al fiqh Nadwi 1999. This is also claimed of the Shi a scholar Imaam Ja afar al Sadiq but none of their books have reached us. It is accepted by the scholars that Imaam shafi was the first to establish an overridingly authoritative framework synthesizing the two dominant approaches in to a coherent system of principles and maxims. Having studied under scholars of both schools he was aptly positioned to offer a critical evaluation of each philosophy.
