PRESERVATION, UPDATING, DA‘WAH

~ 26 ~ which is another name for the politics of powersharing. Changed situations in every age demand that efforts be made towards adaptation of the injunctions of Islam to meet new exigencies. This is the way that the Islamic Shariah continues to be updated. This task of updating is performed through ijtihad, a process which, in any community, requires creative thinking. And the essential condition for creative thinking lies in people having full freedom of expression, including that of criticism. This is why Islam has accorded such freedom to everyone, and only in an atmosphere in which everything and everyone is open to criticism that creativity is developed. Creative minds alone can perform the task of ijtihad at the highest level. Where there is no such open intellectual atmosphere, the process of mental development will come to a halt and that of updating as well. UPDATING: REAPPLICATION OF SHARIAH According to the Qur’an, there are two major parts of Islam—religion (din) and the law (Shariah). Din or