In the early centuries of Islam, Muslim scholars developed countless scientific disciplines in attempting to classify, investigate, and utilize the ḥadīths and the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. As none of these sciences evolved into a fully-fledged hadīth science, scholars began to implement the methodology of fiqh in examining the ḥadīths. After Imam al-Shafi‘i in the ninth century, ḥadīths were almost exclusively confined to the realm of legal studies. This new legalistic and literalist appr ...