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Islamic Religion Assignment

Ijtihad refers to independent reasoning by a qualified Islamic legal scholar to derive a legal ruling where the Quran and Hadith are ambiguous. It requires expertise in Islamic scripture and jurisprudence. By the 10th century, most major Sunni schools held that all key legal issues had been addressed, limiting the scope of ijtihad. Some modern Muslim reformers call for greater emphasis on ijtihad as a return to Islamic origins. Shia scholars did not use the term ijtihad until the 12th century but similarly employed reasoning from early on. Taqlid refers to following the rulings of authoritative early scholars in Sunni Islam or a living expert mujtahid in Shia Islam.

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63 views2 pages

Islamic Religion Assignment

Ijtihad refers to independent reasoning by a qualified Islamic legal scholar to derive a legal ruling where the Quran and Hadith are ambiguous. It requires expertise in Islamic scripture and jurisprudence. By the 10th century, most major Sunni schools held that all key legal issues had been addressed, limiting the scope of ijtihad. Some modern Muslim reformers call for greater emphasis on ijtihad as a return to Islamic origins. Shia scholars did not use the term ijtihad until the 12th century but similarly employed reasoning from early on. Taqlid refers to following the rulings of authoritative early scholars in Sunni Islam or a living expert mujtahid in Shia Islam.

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DEFINATION OF IJTIHAD

Ijtihad (Arabic: ‫ اجتهاد‬ijtihād, [ʔidʒ.tihaːd]; lit. physical or mental effort, expended in a particular activity)
[1] is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning[2] or the thorough exertion of a jurist’s
mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question.[1] It is contrasted with taqlid (imitation,
conformity to legal precedent).[2][3] According to classical Sunni theory, ijtihad requires expertise in the
Arabic language, theology, revealed texts, and principles of jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh),[2] and is not
employed where authentic and authoritative texts (Qur’an and Hadith) are considered unambiguous
with regard to the question, or where there is an existing scholarly consensus (ijma).[1] Ijtihad is
considered to be a religious duty for those qualified to perform it.[2] An Islamic scholar who is qualified
to perform ijtihad is called a mujtahid.[1]

By the beginning of the 10th century, development of Sunni jurisprudence prompted leading Sunni jurists
to state that the main legal questions had been addressed and the scope of ijtihad was gradually
restricted.[1] In the modern era, this gave rise to a perception among Western scholars and lay Muslim
public that the so-called “gate of ijtihad” was closed at the start of the classical era.[1] While recent
scholarship has disproved this notion, the extent and mechanisms of legal change in the post-formative
period remain a subject of debate.

Starting from the 18th century, some Muslim reformers began calling for abandonment of taqlid and
emphasis on ijtihad, which they saw as a return to Islamic origins.[1] Public debates in the Muslim world
surrounding ijtihad continue to the present day.[1] The advocacy of ijtihad has been particularly
associated with Islamic modernists and purist Salafi thinkers. Among contemporary Muslims in the West
there have emerged new visions of ijtihad which emphasize substantive moral values over traditional
juridical methodology.

Shia jurists did not use the term ijtihad until the 12 th century, but they employed a rational mode of legal
reasoning from the early period, and its scope was not narrowed as in the Sunni tradition, with the
exception of Zaydi jurisprudence.

The word derives from the three-letter Arabic verbal root of ‫د‬-‫ه‬-‫ ج‬J-H-D (jahada, ‘struggle’): the “t” is
inserted because the word is a derived stem VIII verb. In its literal meaning, the word refers to effort,
physical or mental, expended in a particular activity.[1] In its technical sense, ijtihad can be defined as a
“process of legal reasoning and hermeneutics through which the jurist-mujtahid derives or rationalizes
law on the basis of the Qur’an and the Sunna”.[5]

The juristic meaning of ijtihād has several definitions according to scholars of Islamic legal theory. Some
define it as the jurist’s action and activity to reach a solution. Al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111) defines it as the
“total expenditure of effort made by a jurist for the purpose of obtaining the religious rulings.” Similarly
the ijtihād is defined as “the effort made by the mujtahid in seeking knowledge of the aḥkām (rulings) of
the sharī‘ah (Islamic canonical law) through interpretation.”[6]
DEFINATION OF TAQLID

From this point of view that ijtihād essentially consists of an inference (istinbāṭ) that extents to a
probability (ẓann)[clarification needed][citation needed]. Thus it excludes the extraction of a ruling from
a clear text as well as rulings made without recourse to independent legal reasoning. A knowledgeable
person who gives a ruling on the sharī‘ah, but is not able to exercise their judgement in the inference of
the rulings from the sources, is not called a mujtahid but rather a muqallid.

Those Sunnis who affirm taqlīd believe that the legal scholars of the early period were uniquely qualified
to derive authoritative legal opinions, binding upon the whole Muslim community, from the source
materials of Islamic law, the Qurʾān and the Hadith (traditions concerning the Prophet’s life and
utterances). In the early period, a series of great legal scholars exercised independent interpretation
(ijtihād) of the sources, carrying out their efforts through the use of such legal tools as analogical
reasoning (qiyās). In the third Islamic century (9 th century CE) and subsequent centuries, with the
emergence of legal schools formed around some of the most significant scholars, it came to be widely
believed that all important questions of law had been dealt with and that the right of independent
interpretation had been withdrawn for future generations. Henceforward, all were to accept the
decisions of the early authorities—i.e., to exercise taqlīd toward them. This doctrine is usually expressed
as “the closing of the gates of ijtihād.”

In its use among the Shiʿah, taqlīd refers to the necessity for a layperson to accept and follow the
opinions of an expert in Islamic law (mujtahid). Individuals who do not possess the qualifications to
interpret the sources of the law must choose a member of the religious class (the ʿulamāʾ) whom they
accept as their marjaʿ al-taqlīd (source of emulation) and whose teachings they observe. When their
chosen mujtahid dies, they must select and obey another, because it is forbidden to follow a dead guide.
In this sense, taqlīd is compulsory for the Shiʿah.

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