NAME: WAQAS AZIZ

FATHER NAME: ABDUL AZIZ

SECTION-B
SEMESTER=4
MUSLIM POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
SIR WAKEEL

IJTIHAD
MEANING
The word Ijtihad derived from ‘Juhd’ which means employment of effort or endeavor in performing a
certain activity. “Ijtihad”, in fact, is an Islamic term that means “independent reasoning”, which is used
for defining an issue in a way that does not contradict the teachings of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

DEFINITION AND EXPLANATION

While defining Ijtihad Abu Ishaq Al-Shatibi writes, “A process in which one exerts one’s full capacity in
order to acquire exact or probable knowledge or reach judgement in a given case.”

Allama Muhammad Iqbal, in his article “Qaumi Zindagi” which was published in Makhzan, October 1931,
writes that by contemplating on the present situation, we come to the conclusion that in order to
support the fundamentals of religion, we need new theology and great jurists for the reinterpretation of
Islamic law. The jurist must be able to codify Islamic law on a modern pattern but also capable to extend
these principles to cover all the possible situations of the present-day social needs….”

The concept of Ijtihad can easily see in the life of Holy Prophet (SAWW). When Holy Prophet (SAWW)
sending Ma’ad ibn Jabal (RA) to Yemen as its governer then Prophet (SAWW) asked him as to how he
would decide the matters coming up before him. Ma’ad (RA) said, “I will judge matters according to the
book of Allah”. But if the book of Allah contains nothing to guide, then I will act upon the precedents of
Prophet of Allah (SAAW). But what if the precedent fail? “Then I will exert to form my own judgement.”
The Prophet (SAWW) approved. So, from the answer that I will exert to form my own judgement paves
the way for Ijtihad.
QUALITIES OF MUJTAHID
But also remember that Ijtihad cannot be exercised by every Muslim. It is done only by a Mujtahid that
posses certain qualifications. Abul Hasan al-Basri in ‘al Mutamad fi Usul al-Fiqh’ outlined some
qualifications for Mujtahid that Mujtahid should posses the following qualities:

 Faithful and firm in belief and action.

 Justice, piety and fear of Allah.
 Knowledge of the Holy Quran and other necessary matters connected with it.
 Knowledge of Hadith, principles of Hadith and other related issues.
 Knowledge of jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence and other relevant matters.
 Complete grasp of Arabic language and literature.
 Deep understanding of the Islamic laws, commandments, their secrets and mysteries.
 Inference of commandments, interpretation of texts of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.
 Perfect rule of gnosis of analogical and interpretative reasoning.
 Perfect understanding of modern problems and their complications.
 Complete familiarity with the contemporary developments and reasonable appraisal of modern
exigencies.

TRADITIONALIST AND MODERNIST CONCEPT OF IJTIHAD

Traditionalists are those who followed the Quran and Sunnah as a source of guidance without any
further addition to it. On the other hand, modernists are those who make the teachings of the Quran
and Sunnah compatible with the modern-day problems and give new philosophical explanation of Quran
and Sunnah. Here, we will explain philosophical position of traditionalists and modernists on ijtihad for
semantic, ontology.

1. SEMANTICS
Semantics means study of meaning in language. Language and words are seemed as a tool of
communication from one mind to another. Language, text and meaning must be separated in the
analysis of semantics.

 TRADITIONALISTS ON SEMANTICS
Traditionalist school of thought give objectively true semantic meaning to the texts. They think that
meaning exists independently from the human mind. Within the traditionalist philosophical setting,
traditional legal terminology shall be interpreted according to tradition. So, this school for the exact
meaning of the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

 MODERNISTS ON SEMANTICS
Modernist school believe that there is an objective true semantic meaning, but the meaning always has
elements of subjectivity. It means that there is interdependency between the human mind and meaning
of the texts, Quran and Sunnah. In order to solve modern day problems, modernists give new meaning
to the traditional legal terminology without changing the essence of the original text.

2. ONTOLOGY
Ontology defined as metaphysics i.e. it deals with the theories of nature being. In other words, it
answers the questions of what does the world exists, or ought to exist?
  TRADITIONALISTS POSITION
In traditionalist school of thought, the concept of ontology is strongly objectivistic. It means that there is
an objective true answer to what “is” and what “ought to be”. These questions should be answered
normatively means interpretation will be objectively true than other interpretations. Traditionalists give
static view of the world.

 MODERNISTS POSITION
Modernists also analyze the world with an objectivistic ontology means that there are objective truths.
But, modernists answer the questions of what” is” and what “ought to be” in two steps process:

i. Normative perspective
ii. Modern natural and social sciences.

It means that modernists have a weak objectivistic ontology.

ABDUL WAHAB NAJDI

Muhammad ibn Abdal- Wahab born in 1703 and died in 1792 was a religious leader, Islamic scholar and
theologian from Najd in Central Arabia, of the Islamic doctrine and movement known as Wahhabism.
Born to a family of jurists, Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's early education consisted of learning a fairly standard
curriculum of orthodox jurisprudence according to the Hanbali school of law, which was the school of
law most prevalent in his area of birth.

Ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab was a scholar of the Hanbali school of thought, one of the most conservative of the
Sunni school. He was greatly influenced by the fundamentalist works works of an earlier Hanbali scholar,
Taqi al-Din ibn Taymiyya. Ibn Taymiyya preached Hanbali view that the only true Islamic doctrine was
based on two recognized sources of Islamic law

 Qur'an
 Sunna

Therefore, a major precept of Wahhabism was the rejection of any religious belief or practice which is
not based on those two sources, which he considered a heretical “innovation” (bid’a).

Wahhabism is essentially a puritanical, fundamentalist Islamic reform movement calling for renewal of
the faith as originally laid out in the Qur’an and the Sunna, the inspired traditions of the Prophet
Muhammad and his early converts. Therefore, he condemned any action or belief which is not in
similarities to the Qur’an and the Sunna.

DOCTRINE OF TAWHID
The doctrine of Tawhid, or monotheism, is the basic tenet of Islam and therefore of the Wahhabism.

The word Tawhid was derived from the Arabic word 'wahid' which means 'one'. So, because of that
centrality of Tawhid, their followers are also called “Muwahhidin,” or Unitarians.

LAW MAKING
Islamic sources of law include

 Qur’an
  Sunna

Other sources

 Ijma--consensus of the Muslim community,

 analogies (qiyas)
 independent reasoning (ijtihad).

But by ibn Wahab's time, many Sunni scholars abandoned Ijtihad. but the Shaykh himself held the view
that because the Qur’an and the Sunna were the only immutable sources, even the legal interpretations
of the accepted schools of Islamic jurisprudence, including the Hanbali school, were subject to
reexamination based on those sources.

In short, Wahhabism is about the revival of the fundamental doctrines of Islam as set forth in the Qur’an
and Sunna, and about the rejection of heretical innovations that had crept into Islam since the time of
the Prophet Muhammad. Its founder, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, was a religious reformer, not a political
ideologue.

ALI SHARAITI
Ali Shariati was born on 23rd November, 1933 in Mazinan, a suburb of Sabzevar, Iran. He completes his
elementary and high school in Mashhad. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of
Mashhad in 1955. Shariati then managed to get a scholarship for France, where he continued his
graduate studies at University of Paris. He left Paris after earning a PhD in sociology in 1964.

Shariati was one of the most intellectual of the 20 th century who focused on the sociology of religion. He
was also called as an "ideologue of the Iranian Revolution". His articles which were published in the
Mashhad daily newspaper, Khorasan, display his eclecticism and acquaintance with the ideas of
modernist thinkers such as Jamal Uddin Afghani, Allama Iqbal among Muslims and Sigmund Freud and
Alexis Carrel.

SOCIETY
Shariati try to find and offer solution to the problems of Muslim society through the traditional Islamic
principles and in with cooperation of the point of view of modern sociology and philosophy.

Shariati thinks that good society only possible when it is according to the values of Islam. He suggested
that the role of government was to guide society in the best possible manner rather to manage it in the
best possible way.

In order to guide the society, it was the role of learned Muslim ulamas because they understand the
concept of administration which is based on the Islamic values, teachings of the Holy Prophet (SAWW)
and twelve Shia Imams. He also argues that the role of Ulamas to guide the society in accordance with
Islamic values to advance human to their highest potential rather than the hedonistic desires of
individuals in the west.

WHERE SHALL WE BEGAN (IJTIHAD TO NEW UNDERSTANDING OF

ISLAM)
Modern problems need modern solutions. He says that our societies are based on the Islamic values and
in order to protect it from danger, confusion, reactionism, corruption and anachronism we need
enlightenment of the Islam with the modern world. He thinks that enlightenment give new love, faith
and dynamism to the contemporary Muslim societies. He should begin by Islamic Protestantism similar
to that of Christian Protestantism of the Middle ages, destroying all the degenerating factors which, in
the name of Islam, have stymied and stupefied the process of thinking and the fate of the society, and
giving birth to new thoughts and new movements. Islamic Protestantism has various sources and
elements to draw from, unlike Christian Protestantism:

 Extract and refine resources of society and convert degenerating and jamming agents into
energy and motivation.
 Transform existing social and class conflicts into conscious awareness of social responsibility by
using—art, literature and speeches and other possibilities.
 Create bridge between the island of the enlightened person and the shore of the masses by
putting religion between them at the service of the people.
 Make the weapon of religion inaccessible to those who—harm themselves with it and/or who
used religion for personal reason.
 Eliminates the spirit of imitation and obedience, which is the hallmark of the popular religion,
and replaces it with a critical revolutionary, aggressive spirit of independent reasoning (Ijtihad).

Shariati thinks that all of these may be accomplished through a religious reformist movement, which
will extract and refine the enormous accumulation of energy in the society, and will enlighten the era
and will awaken the present generation.

MUHAMMAD ABDUH
Muhammad Abduh (born in 1849 in Egypt and died in 1905 near Alexandria) religious scholar, jurist, and
liberal reformer, who led the late 19th-century movement in Egypt.

Abduh was consider as chief founder of rationalist and reformist movement in Muslim society. In the
west, he is known as Salafist.

Abduh in his book The Theology of Unity argue for the rational and scientific understanding of Islam. He
was influenced from the French historian Goizet and apply his concept of history to the Muslim world.
Abduh looked for an Islamic reformation and renaissance to save Muslim world from dark ages.

Abduh in his writings and fatwas stresses for the value of reason, attack adherence to traditional
precedent (taqlid) and call for new interpretation of Islam. He suggests that the way forward for the
Muslims was not in the conflict with Europe but in the cooperation and even emulation.

He tries to bridge the gap between Islamic heritage and modernity. So, he tries to solve the modern
problems with modern solutions under the teaching of the Quran.

His approach to reform had three objectives:

 Liberate Islamic thinking from taqlid.

 Reform of Arabic literature and language.
 Increasing participation of people in political life in his country.

Because of his work, he called as al-Ustad al-Imam by some Islamic scholars and thinkers in the Muslim
world.
So, in short, Muhammad Abduh was Muslim reformer who try to make Islam compatible with the
modern world and try to avoid traditional approach towards understanding of Islam like taqlid. He try to
make Islam consistence with the science. For doing such that he accepted the principle of borrow. He
says that we must learn from the Europe to modernize our society and to solve modern day problems
with modern solutions under the teachings of the Holy Quran. He says that the cure of ills of the Muslim
societies lay in return to the Quran and sunnah and interpretation of those texts under the modern
times.