Closure of the gate of ijtihad

Authors

  • Maleeha
  • Zahoor Alam
  • Dr.Muammad Ayaz

Abstract

From fifth to eleventh century the division of Ijtihad started. Initially was divided into two main categories. Independent Ijtihad and Limited ijtihad. In the first two and a half century any scholar could find solutions to legal problems. In third to ninth century the idea began that Ijtihad could be practiced only by the great scholars of the past. This was the beginning of the closure of the gate of Ijtihad. Generally the Islamic law can be divided in two spheres .The one is the fixed part of the law and the second is the growing area of the law and changes with the change of time and hence is subjected to Islamization. Similarly the fields like Cyber Laws, Traffic Laws, New Crimes, Income Tax requires fresh Ijtihad. The present day scholars failed to study the evolutionary growth of Islamic Legal system. Islamic Law has never stopped growing and allegation of Taqlid and Closing Gate of Ijtihad against the Jurists are based on superficial understanding of the nature of the law.  Islamic states today ,more than ever ,are in need of discovering and deriving the general principles found in the Quran and Sunnah, in the light of which they can develop their law. The methodology for finding these principles has been described in detail by Imam al-Ghazali. The role of the jurists and that of the rulers was clearly defined from the earliest days of Islamic law. The jurists focused on that part of the law that was derivable directly from the texts, because it was either explicitly stated in the texts or could be derived through strict methods of interpretation .The rulers generally dealt with new situation using the general principles of the shariah available in the Quran and Sunnah. Their were several theories developing the law within the domain of the jurists, and each of such theories was used to develop the law of a certain school. The new theory or ideas ,advocated by Imam Al-Ghazali were for the benefit of the rulers ,who were to derive general principles and apply the law to new situations in the ever –changing sphere.

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Published

2021-06-09

How to Cite

Maleeha, Alam, Z. ., & Ayaz, D. . (2021). Closure of the gate of ijtihad. Al-Azhār, 6(1). Retrieved from https://www.al-azhaar.org/index.php/alazhar/article/view/38

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