Article 9

*Ijtihad* is a duty of sufficiency and every Muslim reserves the right to perform *Ijtihad* provided he meets all its prerequisites.

The Islamic *Shari’ah* has made *Ijtihad* to deduce the *Shari’ah* rules from the address of the Legislator – i.e. from the *Shari’ah* texts which are revealed by Allah (swt) to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ - an obligation upon the Muslims. The fact that *Ijtihad* is an obligation has been confirmed through several narrations. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:

«إِذَا حَكَمَ الْحَاكِمُ فَاجْتَهَدَ ثُمَّ أَصَابَ فَلَهُ أَجْرَانِ، وَإِذَا حَكَمَ فَاجْتَهَدَ ثُمَّ أَخْطَأَ فَلَهُ أَجْرٌ»

*“When a judge utilizes his skill of judgement and comes to a right decision, he will have a double reward, but when he uses his judgement and commits a mistake, he will have a single reward.”* (agreed upon through Amru Bin Al-Aas). He ﷺ also said:

«وَرَجُلٌ قَضَى لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى جَهْلِ فَهُوَ فِي النَّارِ»

*“and a man judged people without knowledge, he is in Hell fire”* (transmitted by the compilers of the *Sunan* and Al-Hakim and Al-Tabarani with a *Sahih* chain). This confirms that the judge must be acquainted with what he judges on. It is also reported that he ﷺ said to Ibn Mas’ud:

«افْضِ بِالْكِتَابِ وَالسُّنَّةِ إِذَا وَجَدْتَهُمَا، فَإِذَا لَمْ تَجِدْ الْحُكْمَ فِيهِمَا فَاجْتَهِدْ رَأْيَكَ»

*“Judge by the Book and the Sunnah wherever you find (the ruling) in them, and if you don’t find the ruling in them, then do Ijtihad (use your judgement)”* as mentioned by Al-Amidi in *Al-Ahkam* and Al-Razi in *Al-Mahsul*. He ﷺ said to Mu’ath and Abu Moussa Al-Ash’ari when he was about to dispatch them to Yemen:

«بِمَ تَقْضِيَانِ؟ فَقَالَ: إِنَّ لَمْ نَجِدْ الْحُكْمَ فِي الْكِتَابِ وَالسُّنَّةِ قَسَنَّا الْأَمْرَ بِالْأَمْرِ، فَمَا كَانَ أَقْرَبَ إِلَى الْحَقِّ عَمَلُنَا بِهِ»

*“What will you judge by?” They said: “If we don’t find the rule in the Book or in the Sunnah, we will make analogy (Qiyas) between things; whichever (according to our judgement)*

*is closer to the right is adopted.* (mentioned by Al-Amidi in *Al-Ahkam* and Abu Al-Husain in *Al-Mu’tamad*). This analogy is in itself an *Ijtihad* to deduce the rule, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ approved it. It is also reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Mu’ath when he appointed him as governor to Yemen:

« كَيْفَ تَقْضِي إِنْ عَرَضَ لَكَ قَضَاءٌ ؟ قَالَ : أَقْضِي بِكِتَابِ اللَّهِ، قَالَ : فَإِنَّ لَمْ يَكُنْ فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ ؟ قَالَ : فَسُنَّةُ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ ، قَالَ : فَإِنَّ لَمْ يَكُنْ فِي سُنَّةِ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ ﷺ ؟ قَالَ : أَجْتَهَدُ رَأْيِي وَلَا أُلُو. قَالَ : فَصَرَبَ صَدْرِي فَقَالَ : الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي وَفَّقَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ لِمَا يُرْضِي رَسُولَهُ »

*“What will you rule by?” He said: “By the Book of Allah.” He ﷺ said: “What if you do not find the rule?” He said: “By the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah.” He said: “What if you do not find the rule?” He said: “I will exert my own opinion.” Upon this the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Praise be to Allah Who guided the envoy of the Messenger of Allah to what satisfies His Messenger”* (transmitted by Ahmad and Al-Tirmidhi and Al-Darimi and Abu Dawud and was authenticated by Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir Al-Basrawi who said that the narration is *Hasan Mashur* and relied upon by the scholars of Islam).

This clearly indicates the approval of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ with regard to Mu’ath’s performance of *Ijtihad*. Furthermore, the knowledge of the rules is linked and is related to *Ijtihad* since the realisation and the comprehension of the rules could not be established without it. Hence, *Ijtihad* becomes obligatory because the *Shari’ah* principle stipulates:

(ما لا يتم الواجب إلا به فهو واجب)

*“That, without which the obligation cannot be accomplished, is itself an obligation”.*

In origin, the deduction of the rules is performed by *Mujtahideen* (those capable of *Ijtihad*) because the knowledge of

Allah’s rule in a given matter cannot be reached except through *Ijtihad*, and *Ijtihad* ,therefore, becomes indispensable. The scholars of *Usul Al Fiqh* (the principles of jurisprudence) have indicated that *Ijtihad* is a duty of sufficiency upon the Muslims and that it is forbidden for Muslims to be without a single *Mujtahid* at any given time, and that if they all agreed upon forsaking *Ijtihad*, they would be sinful because the only way to know the *Shari’ah* rules is through *Ijtihad*. Therefore, if an era were devoid of at least one *Mujtahid* upon whom it could be relied in perceiving the rules, it would lead to the paralysis of the *Shari’ah* and this is forbidden. Besides, the *Shari’ah* texts make it incumbent upon Muslims to perform *Ijtihad* because these *Shari’ah* texts (i.e. the Book and the Sunnah and nothing else) have not come in a detailed manner but rather in a general manner that can be applied to every reality faced by humanity. Their understanding and the deduction of the rule of Allah require the exhausting of efforts in order to obtain the *Shari’ah* rule from them for every matter. This *Ijtihad* is not an impossible task nor is it extremely difficult; rather, it is the process of exhausting one’s effort in order to acquire the *Shari’ah* rules with the least amount of doubt. In other words, it is the understanding of the *Shari’ah* texts with the exhausting of one’s utmost effort in order to attain this understanding and to perceive the *Shari’ah* rule. This is in fact within everyone’s reach. *Ijtihad* was natural and evident to the Muslims in the early times and it had no prerequisites. However, since the understanding of the classical Arabic language started to weaken and since people started to devote less attention to discerning the *Deen*, it has become incumbent upon the *Mujtahid* to know the narrated evidences (*Adillah Sam’iyyah*) from which the principles and the rules are deduced. It has also become incumbent upon him to discern the meaning of expressions which are commonly used in the classical Arabic language and in the usage of rhetoric. There are no other conditions apart from these two to performing *Ijtihad*. Therefore, in addition to being a duty of sufficiency upon the Muslims,

*Ijtihad* is within the reach of all the Muslims. These are all the evidences for this article.

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