Ijtihad-Reinterpreting Islamic Principles for the Twenty-fir

[Arnold Yasin Mol]

Ijtihad-Reinterpreting Islamic Principles for the Twenty-first Century

Essay on the concept of Ijtihad, the Islamic concept of free interpretation by any human:

http://deenrc.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/ijtihad-reinterpreting-islamic-principles-for-the-twenty-first-century.pdf

Summary of the article:

• Many Muslims believe that they must choose between Islam and modernity or between Islam and democracy, but these are false choices. To reinterpret Islam for the twenty-first century, the practice of ijtihad (interpretation and reasoning based on the sacred texts) must be revived.

• Religious scholars effectively terminated the practice of ijtihad five hundred years ago. But the principles of interpretation are well established and the need for contemporary interpretation is compelling.

• New interpretations of the texts are particularly important in relation to the status of women, relations between Sunnis and Shiites, relations between Muslims and non-
Muslims, the role of Muslims in non-Muslim societies, and Islamic economic theories.

• Most scholars would limit the practice of ijtihad to specialists who have not only knowledge of the Qur’an and the hadiths but also broad familiarity with a wide range
of modern scholarship in Arabic grammar, logic, philosophy, economics, and sociology.

• Other scholars assert that interpretation of the texts should not be confined to legal scholars but should be open to those with creative imagination.

• Restrictions on the contemporary practice of ijtihad are imposed both by religious establishments and by repressive governments in Muslim countries. Democracy and freedom of inquiry and expression are essential to the practice of ijtihad and to the successful reconciliation of Islam and modernity. Reform of Muslim educational systems is also essential.

• Muslim scholars and leaders in the United States and other Western societies have particular opportunities as well as a responsibility to lead a revival of ijtihad. Muslim
scholars in the West have the freedom to think creatively while still being faithful to the texts, and their new interpretations could stimulate new thinking among the
more traditional religious establishments in Muslim countries.

[bkanwar2]

Dear Brother Arnold Salamun Alikum,
Please see this if you have not.

http://www.ourbeacon.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=785&highlight=

Badar Kanwar

[Dr. Shabbir]

I am fully aware that I am addressing two great minds here: Arnold Yasin and Dr. Badar Kanwar.

To me, IJTIHAAD seems to be a term of defeatism and desperation. Some Muslims take it to mean "Reforming Islam", while the others think of it as "Renewed thinking".

The Qur'an is, and always will be, so much ahead of human thought that the question of reforming Islam must not arise. Continued study of, and reflection on, the Qur'an should obviate the need of 'Renewed thinking'. The Book lays open its dynamic meanings at every new reading.

Allah has not ordered us to do "Ijtihaad" in Islam. Yes, we are pulling out the weeds sown by man in the form of fabricated Ahadith, the conjecture of Shaan-e-Nuzool and false history.

How right was that greatest German thinker: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe! - Letter to Eckermann 1830, Sir Henry Elliott’s collection, 1865: "... as a matter of fact, no human mind can go beyond the Koran."

Only last evening, while translating the Qur'an into Urdu, I was struck by a verse, so much so that it appeared to me as if I had never read it before! Then, I had to make some amendment in the QXP as well.

2:121 Those to whom We have given the Book, they do full justice to its reading. They fulfill the right of studying it as it should be studied. They are the ones who truly believe in it. As for those who disbelieve, it is those who are the losers (of a great treasure.)

[What a great laurel on the first recipients of the Book, the Sahaba Kiraam! The latter read it without understanding, merely for ‘pleasing God’ or themselves, instead of reflecting on it. Tilawah = Reciting and studying with reflection]

SHURA is only mutual consultation on some worldly challenge facing the society or the Ummah. Seeking Qur'anic guidance must always be an integral part of SHURA.

Respectfully,

[Arnold Yasin Mol]

Peace,

We have 2 different sides here.

For traditional Muslims, Ijtiihad is an escapegoat to get away from the clutches of the clergy, so for the vast majority it is an important right they can use against the clergy. It is their only way in their thinking to use a free mind.

So it is a traditional right they can use to fight the mullah clergy's power with their own weapons.

When persons like us are not bound to clergy shackles, the concept of Ijtihad has no real function as we are already applying it without a need to use the term, and we already had enough freedom to discover the rules the Qur'an itself gives on how to study the Message.

Traditional Muslims are mostly ignorant when it comes to the Quranic rules of interpretation, and one of the only ways to have the time and freethought to discover these, they must fight for free thought using the concept of Ijtihad.

So we can say Ijtihad is a non-Quranic term, and it is, but for many Muslims who are bound by clergy shackles, it is a traditional key which they can use to free themselves so they finally have breathing space to discover the Qur'an again.