اجتماعی اجتہاد بذریعہ پارلیمنٹ

Abstract

Ijtihād refers to one’s exertion in determining the Islamic legal ruling from the vastness and depths of Islamic texts, or to the application of such ruling on the subject matter. This form of Ijtihād differs from the conventional form where such activity is carried out by an individual rather than a group of reputable academics of the relevant field collectively. In the subcontinent of Indo-Pak, Dr. Mūḥammad Iqbāl was the first one to present the idea of delegating or accrediting the responsibility of ‘Ijtihād’ to the parliament of the Islamic state and as a result, giving such Ijtihād the status of a statute. However, because of the parliamentarians’ lacking of credibility and capability of carrying out such research and academic activity, their application of it seems implausible. Therefore, to delegate the responsibility of Collective Ijtihād to the people who are elected merely on democratic grounds is against the very spirit of Islam. Nonetheless, the delegation of such responsibility to the committee of relevant scholarly people is appropriate; whether they operate privately or are supervised by government institutions.