Ijtihad

[2][7] While recent scholarship established that the practice of Ijtihad had never ceased in Islamic history, the extent and mechanisms of legal change in the post-formative period remain a subject of debate.

[2][12] After the victory of the Usulis who based law on principles (usul) over the Akhbaris ("traditionalists") who emphasized on reports or traditions (khabar) by the 19th century, Ijtihad would become a mainstream Shia practice.

Mujtahid is defined as a Muslim scholar that has met certain requirements including a strong knowledge of the Qur'an, Sunna, and Arabic, as well as a deep understanding of legal theory and the precedent; all of which allows them to be considered fully qualified to practice ijtihad.

[22] To validate their points, the scholars of Taqlid camp cited Prophetic hadiths that report the disappearance of knowledge when ignorant leaders "will give judgements" and misguide others.

Muqallids also argued that Ijtihad isn't a communal obligation (fard kifaya) when it is possible to blindly imitate the laws of ancestors received through transmitted chains of narrations.

[23][24] They also raised the question of leadership and interpretive religious authority to vigorously deny the possibility of an age without Mujtahids, a doctrine which they defended using both Scripultural and rational arguments.

[27] Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi (d. 676/1277), a prominent Shafī'i Muhaddith and Jurist, who is a primary reference even for Shafiites of Taqleed camp; advocated that it isn't obligatory for laymen to adhere to a mad'hab, reinforcing the orthodox Shafī'ite pro-Ijtihad position.

Thereafter, the theory of legal minimalism elucidated by Juwayni in his book Ghiyāth al-umam fī iltiyāth al zulam, penned for his Seljuk patron Nizam ul-Mulk, would be popularised.

[31] Most significantly, the influential Islamic theologian Al Ghazzali introduced the notion of closure of Ijtihad since he viewed numerous people with inadequate knowledge of Qur'an as claiming to be Mujtahids.

Ghazzali's emphasis on rigorous asceticism and imitation of traditions practised by Sufi mystics led him to attack rational enquiry and sciences like physics for contradicting religion.

[32][33] Intellectuals like Hasan Hanafi argue that Ghazali had tried to preclude the endeavour of Ijtihad during his era in order to establish a rigid, stable orthodoxy that could effectively challenge external enemies of Islam like the Crusaders.

[39] Around the 15th century, most Sunni jurists argued that all major matters of religious law had been settled, allowing for taqlid (تقليد), "the established legal precedents and traditions," to take priority over ijtihād (اجتهاد).

[42] In a 1964 monograph, which exercised considerable influence on later scholars, Joseph Schacht wrote that "a consensus gradually established itself to the effect that from that time onwards no one could be deemed to have the necessary qualifications for independent reasoning in religious law, and that all future activity would have to be confined to the explanation, application, and, at the most, interpretation of the doctrine as it had been laid down once and for all.

During that era some jurists began to ponder whether practitioners of ijtihad continued to exist and the phrase "closing of the gate of ijtihād" (إغلاق باب الاجتهاد iġlāq bāb al-ijtihād) appeared after the 16th century.

They claimed that instead of looking solely to previous generations for practices developed by religious scholars, there should be an established doctrine and rule of behavior through the interpretation of original foundational texts of Islam—the Qur'an and Sunna.

[21][need quotation to verify] During the 18th century, Islamic revivalists increasingly condemned the Muqallid camp through a mass of writings explaining the evils of Taqlid and advocating Ijtihad as well as defending its status as a Divinely established principle in sharia.

[56][57] In his treatise Usul al-Sittah (Six Foundations), Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab harshly rebuked the Muqallids for raising the description of Mujtahids to humanely unattainable levels.

Demonstrating the perpetual existence of Mujtahids in his works, Shawkani also argued that Ijtihad at later times was far easier due to detailed manuals unavailable for jurists of the past era.

Amongst the eighteenth-century reformers, the most radical condemnation of Taqlid and advocacy of Ijtihad was championed by the Arabian scholar Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, whose uncompromising reformist efforts often turned violent.

Challenging the authority of religious clerics, and a large portion of the classical scholarship, he proclaimed the necessity of directly returning to Qur'an and hadith, rather than relying on medieval interpretations.

According to Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, in order to uphold true monotheism (Tawhid), Muslims should return to the pristine Islam of the early generations (Salaf), stripped of all human additions and speculations.

So this was the biggest principle for all of the disbelievers – the first and last of them"[64][65]In face of the backlash towards Ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab's uncompromising stance in his rejection of taqlid, advocacy of Ijtihad and radical anti-madhab views,[66] the later Wahhabis became more conciliatory towards traditional four schools of Fiqh.

Outlining the conventional Wahhabi legal theory which harmonised the madhhab system with the practice of Ijtihad, Ibn Mu'ammar writes:[71]"Adopting the [revealed] proof [for a position] without considering the statements of [other] ulama is the function of the absolute mujtahid... [Laity are] obligated to practice taqlid and to consult those with knowledge.. [But the idea that one must always follow a single school] is a false view which Satan has cast upon many claimants to knowledge.

[82] Al-Afghani proposed the new use of ijtihad that he believed would enable Muslims to think critically and apply their own individual interpretations of the innovations of modernity in the context of Islam.

They are very much not divine or immutable, and have no more legal justification to be part of the sharia than the adaat of Muslims—Iranians, Uzbeks, Turks, Chinese, Indians and others—living beyond the home of the original Muslim in the Arab Hejaz.

[84] Ahl-i-Hadith revivalist movement of Indian subcontinent highly influenced by the thoughts of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi, Shawkani and Syed Ahmed Barelvi, fully condemn taqlid and advocate for ijtihad based on scriptures.

Sunni Muslims justified practice of Ijtihad with a particular hadith, which cites Muhammad's approval of forming an individual sound legal opinion if the Qur'an and Sunnah contain no explicit text regarding that particular issue.

As Muslims turned to the Quran and Sunnah to solve their legal issues, they began to recognize that these Divine proponents did not deal directly with certain topics of law.

Historical records show that throughout the tenth to nineteenth centuries, legal practitioners had consistently modified law using degrees of Ijtihad, making it flexible and adaptable to change.

[13] In order to produce perceptive mujtahids that could fulfill this important role, Usulis developed the principles of Shia jurisprudence (Usool) to provide a foundation for scholarly deduction of Islamic law.