伊玛目中有一些人提出了若干有争议的原则，并以此作出某些裁决。因此，这些裁决与这些原则都成为了法学家之间分歧的根源。例如，大多数法学家承认圣门弟子之后几代人中的公议（Ijmaa'）的有效性，但伊玛目沙斐仪质疑其是否确实发生过，伊玛目艾哈迈德则断然否定它。同样，大多数法学家也拒绝了伊玛目马立克将麦地那人的习俗作为立法依据的做法。伊玛目艾布·哈尼法的"Istihsaan"（善择）原则，以及马立克的"Istislaah"（公益）原则，都被伊玛目沙斐仪所否定，理由是它们过于脱离《古兰经》、《圣训》和公议。也就是说，在他看来，这些原则过于依赖人的推理。

There were among the Imaams some who developed a number of controversial principles on which they based some of their rulings. As a result, both the rulings and the principles became source of differences among jurists. For example, the majority of jurists recognized the validity of Ijmaa’ among the generations after the Sahaabah, but Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee questioned its occurrence while Imaam Ahmad rejected it outright. Similarly the majority of jurists rejected Imaam Maalikreliance on the customs of the Madeenites as a source of legislation. And Imaam Abu Haneefah’s principle of Istihsaan and Maalik’s Istislaah were both disallowed by Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee as being too independent of the Qur’aan, the Sunnah, and Ijmaa’. That is to say, they relied too much, in his opinion, on human reasoning.

另一方面,伊玛目沙斐仪认为,在教法问题上必须接受圣门弟子(sahaabah)的见解,而另一些学者则认为,那只是他们的个人推理,并不约束后代。181

On the other hand, Imaam ash-Shaafi’ee felt that the opinion of the Sahaabah had to be accepted on legal matters, while others felt that it was only reasoning on their part which was not binding later generations.181