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Fiqh al-Ijtihad wa-al-Taqlid — The Right to Legal Independent Reasoning and the Obligation of Following: Who May Derive Rulings, Who Must Follow, and Why the Gate of Ijtihad Question Still Divides Islamic Jurisprudence

فِقهُ الاجتِهَادِ وَالتَّقلِيد — حَقُّ الاستِنبَاطِ القَانُونِيِّ المُستَقِلِّ وَوَاجِبُ الاتِّبَاع: مَن يَحِقُّ لَهُ استِنبَاطُ الأَحكَامِ وَمَن يَجِبُ عَلَيهِ الاتِّبَاعُ وَلِمَاذَا لَا يَزَالُ سُؤَالُ إِغلَاقِ بَابِ الاجتِهَادِ يُفَرِّقُ فِقهَ الإِسلَام
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Fiqh al-Ijtihad wa-al-Taqlid (فِقهُ الاجتِهَادِ وَالتَّقلِيد — Jurisprudence of Independent Reasoning and Following; ijtihad means: the maximum effort a qualified jurist exerts to derive a shari'a ruling from primary sources [Quran, Sunna, consensus, analogy] when no explicit text resolves the case; taqlid means: accepting the ruling of a qualified jurist [mujtahid] without demanding his evidential chain — the ordinary Muslim's obligation; the classical categories of mujtahid: [1] mujtahid mutlaq [absolute mujtahid: independent of any school, e.g. the four Imams themselves], [2] mujtahid fi al-madhab [within-school mujtahid: derives rulings within the school's framework], [3] mujtahid fi al-masa'il [case-by-case: limited to specific novel questions]; the contested claim that 'the gate of ijtihad was closed' [insidad bab al-ijtihad] after the 4th century AH) is the meta-jurisprudential question that underlies all fiqh discourse.

Why Ijtihad Is Necessary

The Quran and Sunna do not explicitly address every question that arises as Muslim societies evolve. The early jurists recognized this: ijtihad is the mechanism by which the law extends from its revealed core to new cases. The Prophet’s hadith: “When a judge makes ijtihad and reaches the correct ruling, he gets two rewards. When he errs, he gets one.” This establishes that good-faith legal reasoning, even when mistaken, is meritorious.

The Qualifications for Mujtahid Mutlaq

Classical scholarship set demanding prerequisites:

By the 4th-5th centuries AH, the view emerged that no one alive met all these qualifications and that the accumulated rulings of the four schools covered virtually all cases. This became the “closure of the gate” doctrine.

The Modern Reopening Debate

19th-20th century reformers (al-Afghani, Abduh, Iqbal) contested the closure doctrine as historically contingent and intellectually limiting. They argued:

Contemporary fiqh councils (OIC Fiqh Academy, AAOIFI) function as collective ijtihad bodies, effectively reopening ijtihad through institutional mechanism rather than individual mujtahid mutlaq.

Taqlid in Practice

The ordinary Muslim who does not have scholarly training follows (yaqallid) a mujtahid — practically, a school or a contemporary scholar. This is not intellectual abdication but rational deference: a doctor defers to a physicist on nuclear physics; a layperson defers to a qualified jurist on complex fiqh questions.

See also: Fiqh Al Qiyas, Fiqh Al Ijma, Usul Al Fiqh, Fiqh Al Madhab Al Shafii, Maqasid Al Shariah

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