Ijtihad

Ijtihad (Arabic اجتهاد) is a technical term of Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the Qur'an and the Sunnah. The opposite of ijtihad is taqlid, Arabic for "imitation". A person who applied ijtihad was called a mujtahid, and traditionally had to be a scholar of Islamic law or alim.

Etymology

The word derives from the Arabic verbal root jahada "struggle", the same root as that of jihad; the <t> is inserted because the word is a derived stem VIII verb. The common etymology is worth noting, as both words touch on the concepts of struggle or effort. In the case of form VIII verbs, this means to "struggle with oneself", as through deep thought. Ijtihadis a method of legal reasoning that does not rely on the traditional schools of jurisprudence, or madhabs.

Ijtihad in Sunni Islam

In early Islam ijtihad was a commonly used legal practice, and was well integrated with the philosophy of kalam, its secular counterpart. It slowly fell out of practice for several reasons, most notably the efforts of the Asharite theologians, who saw it as leading to errors of over-confidence in judgement. Al-Ghazali was the most notable of these, and his "The Incoherence of the Philosophers" was the most celebrated statement of this view.

It is debated whether Al-Ghazali was observing or creating the so-called "closure of the door of ijtihad". Some say this had occurred by the beginning of the 10th century CE, a couple of centuries after the finalizing of the major collections of hadith. In the words of Joseph Schacht: "hence a consensus gradually established itself to the effect that from that time onwards no one could be deemed to have the necessary qualifications for independent reasoning in religious law, and that all future activity would have to be confined to the explanation, application, and, at the most, interpretation of the doctrine as it had been laid down once and for all." This theory has been put in question recently by Wael Hallaq, who writes that there was also always a minority that claimed that the closing of the door is wrong, and a properly qualified scholar must have the right to perform ijtihad, at all times, not only up until the four schools of law were defined.[1]

What is clear is that long after the 10th century the principles of ijtihad continued to be discussed in the Islamic legal literature, and other Asharites continued to argue with their Mutazilite rivals about its applicability to sciences.

Al-Amidi (1233) mentions twelve common controversies about ijtihad in his book about usul al-fiqh (the theory of Islamic law) amongst others the question if the Prophet himself depended on ijtihad and if it should be allowed for a mujtahid to follow taqleed.

In Islamic political theory ijtihad is often counted as one of the essential qualifications of the caliph, e.g. by Al-Baghdadi (1037) or Al-Mawardi (1058). Al-Ghazali dispenses with this qualification in his legal theory and delegates the exercise of ijtihad to the Ulema.

Ironically, the loss of its application in law seems to have also led to its loss in philosophy and the sciences, which most historians think caused Muslim societies to stagnate before the 1492 fall of al-Andalus, after which Muslim works were translated and led in part to The Renaissance revival of classical works, using improved methods, although the Muslims themselves were no longer using these methods in their daily life at all.

Ijtihad in 12er Shi'a Islam.

The following points are presented in order to clarify the purpose of ijtihad:

• God is All-Powerful, All-Knowing.
• God created Laws for humankind and only God has the authority to do so.
• God appointed Messengers to convey the Laws to humankind.
• God appointed Imams to guide humankind about the Laws.
• At present, neither the Messenger (Muhammad), nor the Imams (God-appointed Leaders) are accessible. The current Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, is in occultation.
• Therefore, qualified jurists have the duty to find God's Law, not create God's Laws.
• Therefore, Ijtihad is the process of finding God's Law from the Qur'an and the Hadith using specific methods.

In modern times

Muslims living in the West are subject to secular laws of the state rather than Islamic Law. In this context ijtihad becomes mainly a theoretical and ideological exercise without any legal force.

Conservative Muslims say that most Muslims do not have the training in legal sources to conduct ijtihad. They argue that this role was traditionally given to those who have studied for a number of years under a scholar. However, Liberal movements within Islam generally argue that any Muslim can perform ijtihad, given that Islam has no generally accepted clerical hierarchy or bureaucratic organization.

On March 19, 2004 a meeting on ijtihad took place in Washington D.C., hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace. [2]

See also

• Grand Ayatollahs
• Modern Day Mujtahids
• Islamic Golden Age
• Liberal Islam
• fiqh
• usul al-fiqh
• ijma
• qiyas
• istihsan
• list of Islamic terms in Arabic
• Sola scriptura and the free interpretation of the Bible are similar concepts by which Protestants interpret Christian doctrine themselves.

Bibliography

• Wael Hallaq: "Was the Gate of Ijtihad Closed?", International Journal of Middle East Studies, 16, 1 (1984), pp. 3-41

External links

• Various articles on Ijtihad including - Evidences for Ijtihad, The Mujtahid & about Taqleed
• Ijtihad: A Return to Enlightenment
• A Detailed Q & A on Ijtihad
• Yahoo Group on Ijtihad
• The development of ijtihad and Islamic reform, 1750-1850.
• Ijtihad: Reinterpreting Islamic Principles for the Twenty-first Century U.S. Institute of Peace Report, August 2004
• Ijtihad and the companions
• The Remembrance