Comments on: The false contest between taqlid and ijtihad http://higher-criticism.com/2009/03/the-false-contest-between-taqlid-and-ijtihad.html ...exposing the evils and deviancy of modern-day extremist movements that operate under the guise of religion... Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:13:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: dawood http://higher-criticism.com/2009/03/the-false-contest-between-taqlid-and-ijtihad.html/comment-page-1#comment-745 dawood Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:18:41 +0000 http://higher-criticism.com/?p=471#comment-745 Hi Shelia! One other interesting work discussing this issue is Sherman Jackson's "Islamic Law and the State". In it, he discusses how taqlid became a necessity - not because the ability to make ijtihad died out - but because the formation of schools or guilds of law meant that the methodology of the school was applied by hundreds (if not thousands!) of scholars to derive law, even law for previously unseen or unknown cases. Furthermore, that the issue of the madhhab became important because it was from the ranks of the madhahib that the qadi's were drawn, and indeed, the judges relied upon the books of law from the various schools. He sees ijtihad as continuing, but through the lens of takhrij - which meant either sifting through previous opinions and picking the most appropriate one, or developing a synthesis where applicable. This was done always in deference to the legal school and the communal edifice that these jurists and scholars worked within. Hi Shelia! One other interesting work discussing this issue is Sherman Jackson’s “Islamic Law and the State”. In it, he discusses how taqlid became a necessity – not because the ability to make ijtihad died out – but because the formation of schools or guilds of law meant that the methodology of the school was applied by hundreds (if not thousands!) of scholars to derive law, even law for previously unseen or unknown cases. Furthermore, that the issue of the madhhab became important because it was from the ranks of the madhahib that the qadi’s were drawn, and indeed, the judges relied upon the books of law from the various schools.

He sees ijtihad as continuing, but through the lens of takhrij – which meant either sifting through previous opinions and picking the most appropriate one, or developing a synthesis where applicable. This was done always in deference to the legal school and the communal edifice that these jurists and scholars worked within.

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