Selepas Rasulullah (saw), terdapat banyak dan terperinci ijtihad pada zaman para Sahabat. Malah dalam kalangan orang awam, ijtihad tersebar luas dan itu tidak dianggap pelik kerana mereka adalah orang Arab asal yang bertutur dalam bahasa Arab yang tulen. Pada suatu ketika ketika sedang menyampaikan Khutbah, Umar b. Khattab cuba membataskan mahar, tetapi seorang wanita menjawab dari belakang barisan dengan memetik ayat:

After the Messenger (saw) there are numerous and elaborate Ijtihads in the time of the Sahabah. Even amongst the general masses Ijtihad was widespread and that was not considered strange because they were the original Arabs who spoke pure Arabic. Once while giving a Khutbah Umar b. Khattab tried to limit the dowry (Mahr) but a women responded from behind the lines by quoting the Ayah:

"Tetapi jika kamu hendak mengganti isteri (kamu) dengan isteri yang lain, sedangkan kamu telah memberikan kepada salah seorang dari mereka harta yang banyak (qintar, iaitu jumlah yang besar) sebagai mahar, maka janganlah kamu mengambil kembali sedikit pun daripadanya..." (TMQ An-Nisa: 20)

“But if you intend to replace a wife by another and you have given one of them a Qintar (of gold i.e. a great amount) as Mahr, take not the least bit of it back..” (TMQ An-Nisa: 20)

Dia memberitahunya berdasarkan pemahamannya terhadap perkataan Qintar, yang menunjukkan banyak tanpa had, bahawa tidak dibenarkan baginya untuk membataskan mahar. Beliau (semoga Allah meridhainya) berkata: "Wanita itu benar dan Umar salah." Ijma' (konsensus) para Sahabat telah berlaku mengenai persoalan menghukum dengan pendapat yang disimpulkan daripada dalil-dalil Syar'i, iaitu mereka bersepakat tentang penggunaan Ijtihad bagi setiap peristiwa yang berlaku yang mana tiada nas (yang jelas) ditemui. Ini adalah apa yang sampai kepada kita melalui riwayat-riwayat berturut-turut yang tiada keraguan padanya. Salah satu riwayat tersebut ialah kata-kata Abu Bakar (ra) apabila beliau ditanya tentang Kalalah. Beliau berkata: "Aku akan berkata mengenainya menurut pendapatku. Jika ia betul maka ia daripada Allah. Jika ia salah maka ia daripadaku dan daripada Syaitan, dan Allah tidak ada kaitan dengannya. Kalalah ialah orang yang tidak mempunyai anak atau ibu bapa yang tinggal."36

She told him from her understanding of the word Qintar which denotes many without restriction that it is not allowed for him to restrict the doweries. He (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The woman is right and Umar is wrong.” An Ijma (consensus) of the Sahabah has taken place on the question of judging by an opinion which has been deduced from the Shar‟ai evidence i.e. they agreed on the use of Ijtihad for any incidents that took place for which no (clear) text had been found. This is what reached us in successive reports in which there is no doubt. One such report is the saying of Abu Bakr (ra) when he was asked about the Kalala. He said: “I will speak about it according to my opinion. If it is correct then it is from Allah. If it is a mistake then it is from me and from Shaytan and Allah has nothing to do with it. Kalala is the one who has no children or parents left.”36

Pernyataannya, "Saya akan berbicara tentangnya menurut pendapat saya," tidak bermakna bahawa pendapat ini datangnya daripada beliau. Sebaliknya, ia bermaksud bahawa Abu Bakr akan menyatakan pendapatnya menurut apa yang beliau fahami daripada ungkapan 'Kalala' dalam ayat al-Qur'an:

His statement, “I will speak about it according to my opinion” does not mean this opinion is from him. Rather it meant Abu Bakr would express his opinion according to what he understood from the expression 'Kalala' in the verse of the Qur‟an:

"Jika seorang lelaki atau perempuan yang diwarisi harta pusakanya itu tidak meninggalkan ayah, anak ataupun keturunan…" (TMQ An-Nisa: 12)

“If the man or woman whose inheritance is in question has left neither ascendants nor descendants…” (TMQ An-Nisa:12)

Kalalah dalam bahasa Arab merujuk kepada tiga jenis orang: orang yang tidak meninggalkan anak atau ibu bapa, orang yang tidak mempunyai anak atau ibu bapa (dari segi waris yang ditinggalkan), dan kaum kerabat selain anak atau bapa. Abu Bakr (ra) berijtihad tentang makna yang dimaksudkan di sini.

Kalala in the Arabic language applies to three people; the one who did not leave a child or parent, the one who has neither a child or parent (in terms of the left people), and the relatives from other than the child or father. Abu Bakr (ra) made Ijtihad as to which meaning is referred to here.

Contoh lain ijtihad ialah bahawa Abu Bakr (ra) memberikan bahagian pusaka kepada nenek sebelah ibu dan bukan kepada nenek sebelah bapa. Sebahagian daripada golongan Ansar berkata kepadanya: "Engkau memberikan pusaka kepada seorang wanita daripada seorang wanita yang meninggal dunia, sedangkan wanita itu sendiri tidak akan mewarisi daripadanya jika dia yang meninggal dunia dahulu. Namun engkau mengabaikan seorang wanita yang, jika dia meninggal dunia, akan mewarisi seluruh apa yang ditinggalkannya." Maka Abu Bakr (ra) memberikan bahagian yang sama kepada kedua-dua nenek itu dalam pusaka.

Another example of Ijtihad is that Abu Bakr (ra) gave a share of the inheritance to the mother‟s mother and not the father‟s mother. Some of the Ansar said to him: “You give inheritance to a woman from a deceased woman who would not inherit from her if she died. Yet you ignored a woman, who if she had died, would have inherited everything she left behind.” So Abu Bakr (ra) gave both grandmothers equal share in the inheritance.

Contoh yang terkenal tentang ijtihad ialah apa yang dikatakan oleh Ali (ra) mengenai hukuman hadd bagi kesalahan meminum arak. Beliau berkata: "Sesiapa yang meminumnya akan bercakap merapu, dan sesiapa yang berbuat demikian akan mereka-reka dusta, maka saya berpendapat bahawa dia wajib dihukum seperti pereka dusta." Ali (ra) membuat kiasan antara meminum dan mereka-reka dusta kerana beliau memahami daripada Syara' bahawa sesuatu yang berkemungkinan berlaku dapat dianggap sama dengan sesuatu yang benar-benar berlaku.

A famous example of Ijtihad is what Ali (ra) said regarding punishment (Hadd) for the crime of drinking alcohol. He said: “Whoever drinks it will speak nonsense, and who did so would fabricate lies, so I see that he must be punished like the fabricator of lies.” Ali (ra) made an analogy between drinking and fabrication because he understood from Shar‟a that it could be considered that which is likely to happen to be the same as that which actually happens.

Semua ini adalah contoh ijtihad dari zaman Sahabat dan ijma' as-Sahabah mengenai persoalan ijtihad. Bahawa para Sahabat merujuk kepada ijtihad ketika ketiadaan nas dibuktikan melalui kesaksian yang berterusan (Tawatur).37

All these are examples of Ijtihad from the time of the Sahabah and Ijma as-Sahabah on the issue of Ijtihad. The fact that the Companions resorted to Ijtihad in the absence of a text is established by continuous testimony (Tawatur).37

Al-Qurtubi berkata dalam Tafsirnya: "Para Sahabat senantiasa berbeza pendapat mengenai hukum-hukum peristiwa, walaupun mereka tetap dalam keharmonian." Al-Baghdadi meriwayatkan kata-kata Umar bin „Abdul-„Azeez berikut dalam kitabnya „Al-Faqeeh wal Mutafaqqih": "Aku tidak akan berasa senang jika Ashab (sahabat) Muhammad ﷺ tidak berbeza pendapat, kerana jika mereka tidak berbeza pendapat, tidak akan ada keizinan (bagi kita untuk berbeza pendapat)."

Al-Qurtubi says in his Tafseer: “The Sahabah still continued to differ regarding the rules of the incidents, though they remained in harmony.” Al-Baghdadi reported the following saying of Umar b. „Abdul-‟Azeez in his book „Al-Faqeeh wal Mutafaqqih‟: “I would have not been pleased if the Ashab (companions) of Muhammad did not differ, because if they did not differ, there would not have been a permission (for us to differ).”