RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society ~ 401 ~ legal or theological question by a religious scholar. This does not involve digression from the basic principles and, as a method of attaining to a certain degree of authority for the purpose of inquiring into the principles of jurisprudence, it has been sanctioned by the Traditions. The word Ijtihad literally means ‘extortion’ and it is interesting to see how it applied to an actual situation in the time of the Prophet. When Mauz bin Jabal was on the point of leaving for Yemen to take over as a governor of that province, the Prophet asked him how he would judge matters. “With the help of the Quran.” was his reply. The Prophet then asked him what he would do if guidelines were not to be found in the Quran. Muaz replied that he would consult the Sunnah, or sayings and deeds of the Prophet. “And what,” the Prophet asked,” if you do not find the necessary guidelines in the Sunnah?” “Then,” said Muaz, “I will exercise my own judgement to the best of my ability. I am prepared to admit that making claims about the effectiveness of Qiyas and Ijtihad is, from the academic point of view, a matter of great complexity. But I must stress that the reason for this