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| Ijithad: Applying Islam in the 21st century |
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Indeed, the absence of ijtihad would have been debilitating, positively paralysing, for the progress of the Islamic world historically. And it is exactly why when its use slowly declined from the tenth century and when, in the thirteenth century after the destruction of the seat of learning in Baghdad by the Mongols, it was suggested that its use be discontinued - an event of commonly referred to as 'the closure of the gates of Ijtihad' by Islamic historians - the Islamic world fell into a slow decline. The loss of ijtihad amounted to a denial of oxygen to the bloodstream of the legislative and political processes in the Islamic world, rendering the Caliphate incapacitated in the face of new problems and challenges. For a while, jurists relied on annotating the conclusions of previous jurists, far removed from the primary Islamic legislative texts, a practice that promoted imitation (taqlid) and stifled thinking. But when confronted with a European mindset distinctly more ideological than the one it confronted in its siege of Vienna, having gone through its 'enlightenment', the extent of the decline in the Islamic world became apparent. Unable to respond to the intellectual and technological challenges it now confronted, the Caliphate, due to the absence of ijtihad, failed to clearly evaluate its position on a number of fronts. This produced the bizarre situation during the nineteenth century where, on the one hand, European legislative codes were being introduced in their swathes while on the other, the Caliphate initially rejected inventions as simple as the printing press. The Islamic world, therefore, was in no position to present Islam's alternative political philosophy, and some interpreted events as highlighting deficiencies within Islam itself; indeed numerous individuals set about advocating its reform. But when evaluating reformist thought, whether that of Jamal ad-Din Afghani (1839-1897), Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (1817-1898), Mohammed Abduh (1849-1905), Taha Husayn (1889-1973) or others, one finds that reform did not offer an alternative but was an implicit - often explicit - call to integrate into Europe's intellectual and political culture. Indeed, some even ironically advocated a revival of 'ijtihad'. However, their definition of the word was often more secular than Islamic, using as they did the literal meaning 'jahada' or 'to exert' which was taken to mean a call to exhaust independent intellectual effort as opposed to a juristic process to derive distinctly Islamic solutions to contemporary problems based on its original texts.
Islam is no stranger to foreign or alterative ideas and cultures and the challenges they bring. Western political philosophy presents the current alternative and contemporary events, problems and dilemmas present a spectrum of challenges. The Muslim world is now in need of perspective on issues from globalisation, the free market and liberalism to genetics, stem cell research and cloning. Ijtihad provides the ability to present Islamic perspectives, indeed alternative approaches, for each of these, and is why, for example, Farooq Khan, in his article "Re-defining the Globalisation debate", is able to suggest, "Islam…can be argued as not only the first global political philosophy but the only political philosophy that can capture the forces of globalisation…" A revival in the use of ijtihad marks an important step in presenting a practical Islamic alternative.
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