DOHA: Prominent thinker and Islamic scholar Dr Tariq Ramadan has called for reviving the Islamic concept of Ijtihad — independent reasoning — and linking it with contemporary contexts.
Ramadan currently is director of the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), a member of the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) in Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). He was addressing a public seminar titled ‘Ijtihad and Reform’ organised by the CILE at the new QFIS building in HBKU at Education City.
Ijtihad refers to the independent or original interpretation of problems not precisely covered by the Quran and Hadith (traditions concerning the Prophet’s life and utterances), and Ijmaa (scholarly consensus), and it is recognised as the decision-making process in Islamic law. Ramadan tackled the concept of ijtihad from a philosophical and spiritual perspective where he emphasised the necessity of basing this Ijtihad on the Islamic worldview of man and his relation to life and the entire universe. This ijtihad should consider the higher objectives, consequences, complexities and the overlapping interests in the contemporary contexts.
He concluded his speech by talking about the necessity of having intellectual courage and ability to raise questions and searches for answers. Sheikh Chauki Lazhar deputy director of CILE called for practising ijtihad to resolve the issues that contemporary Islamic thought faces.The Peninsula
