Mujtahid: Difference between revisions

A '''Mujtahid''' (مجتهد‎, ''’muğtahid'') is a Muslim jurist who is sufficiently qualified in [[fiqh]] (Islamic jurisprudence)  in order to interpret the [[Sharia]] (as found in the [[Qur'an]] and [[Hadith]]) such that they can generate [[Islamic Law|Islamic law]]. The practice of a mujtahid is called [[Ijtihad|''ijtihad'']]. Alternative conceptions of the nature of divine authority between the [[Sunni]] and [[Shi'ite]] sects of Islam means that the qualifications and activity (ijtihad) of mujtahids are imagined differently.   

The qualifications for a Sunni mujtahid were set out most famously in the 11^th century by Abul Husayn al-Basri  in ''al Mu’tamad fi Usul al-[[Fiqh]]''. These were accepted by later [[Sunni]] scholars, including [[al-Ghazali]], although al-Ghazali believed that all positive [[Bid'ah|innovation]] had ended, as there was nobody qualified to be a Mujtahid. Such qualifications require proficiency in [[Shariah|Shari'ah]] and its interpretation. This became a common perspective following the 13th and 14th centuries and resulted in what many described as the "closing of the doors of ijtihad", in favor of simply referencing the authority of highly esteemed scholars from the earlier centuries that came to be known as "the golden age of Islamic law".

Eventually, scholars began delineating specific and increasingly astronomical criteria for those who would seek to present independent and novel interpretations of Islamic law. This meant not only that fewer and fewer scholars (and eventually, one might argue, none at all) were empowered to pursue a creative engagement with Islamic scriptures, but also that the overwhelming majority of trained Islamic scholars would be restricted to practicing ''taqlid'', or the "blind" repetition and emulation of esteemed jurists who, in most cases, had been dead for centuries. Eventually, some would argue that the only true mujtahids had been the founders of the four schools of Sunni law alone (all dead within two centuries of [[Muhammad's Death|Muhammad's death]]).<ref>Indira Falk Gesnik (June 2003). ""Chaos on the Earth": Subjective Truths versus Communal Unity in Islamic Law and the Rise of Militant Islam". ''The American Historical Review''. Oxford University Press. '''108''' (3): 710–733. doi:10.1086/529594. JSTOR 10.1086/529594.</ref>

The terms of ''ijtihad'' and ''mujtahid'' in the Shi'ite tradition refer to the practice of extrapolating the rulings of Muhammad and the subsequent Shi'ite imams into times beyond the "occultation" (alleged disappearance) of the last imam. In the late eighteenth century and with the rise of the Shi'ite court system, these two terms would come to be associated with the science of formal jurisprudence, or (Shi'ite) ''fiqh'', as outlined by Shaykh Murtada Ansari.

As with the Sunni experience, most scholars would come to be qualified only as ''muqallidun'' (that is, practitioners of ''taqlid'', or copying the views other more qualified scholars) and only a minority would be able to engage in ijtihad as mujtahids - however, the divide would not be nearly as drastic, and where in the Sunni tradition it could conceivably be said that at one point there were no mujtahids ''whatsoever'' (with some Sunnis arguing this is still the case today and indeed the perennial condition of the [[ummah]] henceforth), there would always be and continue to be a fair number of acknowledged mujtahids in the Shi'ite world.

[[Category:Islamic Law]]

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[[Category:Terms and Definitions]]