and he finds no one to inform him, then his obligation is to pray toward the direction to which his ijtihad (legal reasoning) leads him. If the proofs are obscured from him due to clouds or darkness, he shall perform taharri (deliberate investigation) and pray, and the prayer is valid; because of the hadiths we shall mention, and because he has exerted his effort in knowing the truth, along with his knowledge of its proofs, so he is like a judge or a scholar when the texts are obscured from him.

Section: If he prays based on ijtihad toward a direction, then desires another prayer, he is obligated to repeat the ijtihad, just like a judge when he exercises ijtihad regarding an incident, then a similar one occurs, he is obligated to repeat the ijtihad. This is the school of al-Shafi'i. If his ijtihad changes, he acts according to the second [conclusion] and does not repeat what he prayed based on the first, [just as if a judge's ijtihad were to change], he would act according to the second in the second incident and would not overturn his first ruling. We know of no disagreement regarding this. If his ijtihad changes during the prayer, he turns to the second direction and builds upon what has passed of his prayer. Ahmad explicitly stated this in a narration by the group. Ibn Abi Musa and al-Amidi said: He does not shift, and he proceeds based on his first ijtihad, so as not to overturn one ijtihad with another. Our position is that he is a mujtahid whose ijtihad has led him to a direction, so it is not permissible for him to pray toward other than it, just as if he intended another prayer. Furthermore, his ijtihad has led him to other than this direction, so it is not permissible for him to pray toward it, like all other points of agreement. This is not an overturning of ijtihad; rather, he acts according to it in the future, just as with the other prayer. It would only be an overturning of ijtihad if we required him to repeat what has passed of his prayer and we did not count it for him. If his ijtihad and opinion regarding the first direction remain, and his ijtihad has not led him to the second direction, then he builds upon what has passed of his prayer because no other direction toward which to turn has become apparent to him. If the certainty of error becomes clear to him during the prayer, through observation or certain information, he turns toward the direction of correctness and builds [upon his prayer], like the people of Quba who, when they were informed of the change of the Qibla, turned toward it and built [upon their prayer]. If he doubts his ijtihad, he does not depart from his direction because the ijtihad is apparent, so it is not removed by doubt. If the error becomes clear to him, and he does not know the direction of the Qibla, like a man who was praying toward a direction and then saw some of the moon's phases in his Qibla, and he did not know whether it was in the East or the West, and he needed to exercise ijtihad, his prayer is void because it is impossible for him to continue it toward other than the Qibla, and he has no direction toward which to turn, so it is void due to the impossibility of completing it.