M. A. Muqtedar Khan
3.21.06
As tensions between the Muslim and Western worlds
continue to grow, there is one largely overlooked area
of activity that may play a role in building bridges:
ijtihad. While ijtihad can be a tool for understanding
Islamic principles in a way that fits the needs and
challenges of individuals and societies, there is no
universal agreement on its proper role.
The Islamic tradition has two conceptions of ijtihad.
One is a very narrow, legalistic notion of it as a
process of juristic reasoning employed to determine
the permissibility of an action when primary sources,
namely the Koran and Sunnah (Tradition of the
Prophet), are silent and earlier scholars of shari'a
(Islamic law) had not ruled on the matter. For those
who hold this view of ijtihad, who can perform ijtihad
is often more important than the need for ijtihad.
In reality, this view is designed to stifle
independent thought among Muslims and to confine the
right to understand and explain Islam to Muslim
jurists. It is also opposed to reasoning, because it
essentially says that reason shall be employed only
when the texts are silent and no medieval scholar has
addressed the issue under scrutiny. Reason, according
to this viewpoint, is the last resort for
understanding the will of God. For those who hold this
view, opening the doors of ijtihad would make no
difference, since their very conception of it is
impoverished and limited.
The second view, often espoused by non-jurists and
particularly by those who advocate some form of
Islamic modernism and liberalism, envisions ijtihad
more broadly. For modernist Muslims -- and I believe
that Islamic modernism deeply influences all
"moderate" Muslim thinking -- ijtihad is about freedom
of thought, rational thinking and the quest for truth
through an epistemology covering science, rationalism,
human experience, critical thinking and so on.
When modernist Muslims claim that the door of ijtihad
has been closed, they are lamenting the loss of the
spirit of inquiry that was so spectacularly
demonstrated by classical Islamic civilization at its
peak. They are, in a sense, nostalgic for Ibn Sina'
(Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), for al-Farabi,
al-Biruni and al-Haytham -- scientists, philosophers
and jurists of Islam's "Golden Age". Thus, modernist
Muslims see ijtihad as the spirit of inquiry and
desire for all forms of knowledge, not just religious
and juristic, that needs to be revived to revitalize
and restore Islamic civilization.
As long as a majority of Muslims equates Islam with
shari'a, Islamic scholarship with fiqh (jurisprudence)
and real knowledge with juristic knowledge, ijtihad
will remain a limited jurisprudential tool and closed
minds will never open. Islamic modernists have been
trying, since the time of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the
great Muslim reformer of the 19th century, to
re-instill a sense of the value of knowledge and an
appreciation for science and philosophical inquiry.
Yet, as a Muslim, I acknowledge that there is no
research institution worthy of recognition in this way
in the entire Muslim world.
Muslims must go back and read Ibn Rushd (Fasl
al-Maqaal, The Decisive Treatise), and learn how he
bridged science and religion, in order to understand
that Islam has nothing to fear from reason and so to
open their hearts and minds to rational thought. This
is the goal that Ibn Khaldun, the great 14th century
Arab historian and philosopher, would have called the
"engine of civilization." Modernist Muslims subscribe
to and advocate this spirit of Islam.
Islamic reformation can be understood in two different
ways. It can mean the reform of society to bring it
back to what have been considered Islamic norms and
values: most Islamic and Islamist reformers are
pursuing this type of reform. The other reform
strategy is to question the existing understanding of
Islam and seek to articulate a reformed understanding
of Islam: this is where Islamic modernists and
rationalists have always plied their trade.
Here, ijtihad is employed as an instrument to critique
prevalent understanding and articulate a more
compassionate, more modern and, perhaps, even a more
liberal understanding (which some would call the
truly-traditional understanding). The rethinking of
Islam vis-à-vis democracy is an area in which Islamic
reformist thinking is taking place.
In my opinion, Muslims can modernize without
de-Islamizing or de-traditionalizing. India and Japan
have shown that societies can modernize without losing
their traditional cultures. Muslim societies today
have to distinguish between Islam and culture, retain
their Islamic essence and reform dysfunctional
cultural habits that hinder development, progress,
equality and prosperity.
Without holding fast to revelation, Muslims will lose
their connection with the divine, which would cause
life to lose meaning and purpose for many. The
challenge for Muslims today is to latch on to the
currents of democracy, modernity and globalization
without cutting the umbilical cord to the heavens. I
believe that we can do it. American Muslims are
demonstrating this in their lives.
When it comes to the modern practice of ijtihad,
American Muslims are miles ahead of other Muslim
communities. Not only are there a large number of
scholars pushing for ijtihad in the U.S., but there
are also national organizations and prominent Islamic
centers that are, in principle, willing to put
initiatives advanced by ijtihad into practice.
An excellent practical example of this is the adoption
of guidelines for women-friendly mosques by many
Islamic centers. An outstanding theoretical example is
the now widespread acceptance in the U.S., and to some
extent in Europe, of the idea of Fiqh al Aqliyaat
(minority jurisprudence), which is the idea that
Muslims who live as minorities need to revisit and
rearticulate Islamic legal positions, keeping in mind
their minority status. We can see the product of
American ijtihad in the progressive role that women
play in the American-Muslim community and in Islamic
scholarship. Another important indicator is the
absence of embedded radicalism in American Islam and
the enormous appetite that American Muslims and their
organizations express for democracy, civil rights,
pluralism and civic engagement.
Thus, a broad vision of ijtihad ensures that Islam and
Muslim communities continue to reform in positive ways
without losing the connection to Divine revelation and
traditional culture. Muslims must continue to embrace
this spirit of inquiry and desire for all forms of
knowledge in order to revitalize and restore Islamic
civilization.
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