Life and Teachings of the Prophet Muhammad
8. The Concept of Ijtihaad in Islam
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According to the prevailing custom, the movable and
immovable spoils of war were divided among the soldiers after the
conquest, for in those days there was generally no regular or
standing army. People used to join the army voluntarily, and it was
in the form of booty that they were given remuneration.
But the caliph Umar refused to give away the land of Iraq to
the soldiers as booty. A meeting of the senior knowledgeable
companions was called to deliberate over this matter. Finally the
consensus emerged that the land should be the property of the
State. This was a case of Ijtihaad, a decision arrived at by the
consensus of the companions, keeping in view the spirit and long-
term aims of the Islamic shariah. (
Tarikh Umar ibn Khattab
, Ibn
Jawzi).
Similarly, during the Abbasid caliphate, when the Hadith was
collected and compiled and also the fiqh (Islamic law) was
compiled, this whole method was based on Ijtihaad. For there was
no precedent of this type of task in the Prophet’s time. This
process of collection and compilation was approved of by all the
scholars of Islam.
But in later periods of Islamic history when the political
institution of Islam weakened, some scholars declared that now the
door of Ijtihaad must be closed lest it lead to anarchy. In this way,
the process of Ijtihaad has been almost entirely in abeyance for the
last several hundred years.
