The last session of “Free Thinking Chair” entitled “Islamic Humanities” was held today in the University of Tehran with the attendance of Ayatollah Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani who discussed dynamic ijtehad[1] and development in humanities.
In the inception, Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani explained about the background of discussions concerning dynamic ijtehad or dynamism in ijtehad saying that it was first propounded in the middle of the last century by some scholars who were considered to be pioneers of Islamic thought. “In order to answer the present-day questions, it is necessary to give attention to the subject of ijtehad which is deeply rooted in the history of Islam,” he stressed.
Member of the supreme council of Ahlul-Bait Worldly Assembly further added, “Islam continued its existence, following prophethood, in the form of Imamate and then ijtehad because Islam is the religion of finality. Thus, it continued thereafter with imamate and then it showed itself in the form of ijtehad.”
He said that ijtehad is a special method for getting special results. “Ijtehad in a special period of time related to religious laws only. It signified the application by a jurist of all his faculties to the consideration of the authorities of law with a view to finding out what in all probability is the law. That is to say, the scholars of legal theories maintained that ijtehad did not end up in certain knowledge and that it is necessary to suffice to what is probable. However, given the dynamism of ijtehad, this definition should be modified,” he added.
He further said, “When it comes to a dynamic ijtehad, we are faced with two points, one is the domain or the scope of ijtehad and the other is the methods of ijtehad. It is for the same reason that we can and need to broaden ijtehad because the Islamic sciences and Islamization prompt us to further develop ijtehad.”
Head of Porch of Wisdom (Ravaq-e Hikmat) asked if Islam had theorized Islamic sciences, and he himself addressed the question as such, “Apparently, Islam has provided some theorization in the area of Islamic thought but no action has been taken towards the methods and the ways through which one can attain Islamic human sciences.”
He said that as many as twenty years ago a theory named Codified Thought in Islam was raised with the intention to find out what Islam could present in the area of human sciences and what methods would it apply to attain this objective. Generally speaking, this theory seeks a system or a systematized structure for the Islamic concepts.
Stressing on the theological preliminaries within the Codified-Thought-in-Islam theory, he said, “It can be concluded from these preliminaries that Islam, being the last of the religions, delievers God’s message about all issues which mankind is in need of. Moreover, Islamic truths are not restricted to a special time and geography, although they emerged at a special time and a fixed place and in a specific circumstance.”
“Now-a-days, the Islamic intellectuals should take the temporal and geographical elements into consideration while studying the Islamic texts. Hence, we must change the particularist attitude to a systemic and universalist perspective because most of our religious laws are flexible and subject to time, place and circumstances,” he added.
To further explain Codified Thought theory, he said, “We must establish a logical relationship with the elements with which we are faced in the religion of Islam. For instance, economics and management each have their own philosophical foundations in whose core we have an ‘is’ as well as an ‘ought to’ premise. The ‘is’ premise signifies the actuality and the ‘ought to’ premise signifies the value.”
“Besides these two philosophical principles, we have two other rules e.g. the ‘indisputable principles’ and ‘objectives’ through which we must attain a school or a system. And then through the school or the system we can attain an unchanging law which is the very rulings that originate in ijtehad,” Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani added.
Member of the supreme council of Ahlul-Bait Worldly Assembly concluded, “These elements each take their specific colors consistent with their situations. Thus, through those situational elements and system, we will reach a mechanism which incorporates a dynamic law. Eventually, the jurisprudence is developed and a relationship is set up between jurisprudence, philosophy and theology. It is through the relationship between jurisprudence, philosophy and human sciences that we can find Islamic humanities.”
Ayatollah Hadavi Tehran, member of the supreme council of Ahlul-Bait Worldly Assembly said, “In the area of Islamic thought, Islam has made some theorization but when it comes to the methods and ways of reaching Islamic humanities, no concrete action has been taken.
Office of Ayatollah Hadavi Tehrani
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Related links:
- IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency)
[1] - Practice of religious jurisprudence.