Issues of Ijtihad

peoples completely unnecessary. But these Muslim leaders, unaware of these changes, ridiculously wasted their time and resources on their useless movements. The modern age opened up a great opportunity in the form of freedom and also of democracy, which was based on the principle of power-sharing among members of the public, rather than the rule of a single individual. But these Muslim leaders neither understood the possibilities that these had made available nor succeeded in using them. Modern changes had opened up another possibility, which can be called ‘The Age of Institutions’. In contrast to the Age of Monarchy, governance had now narrowed down within the restricted political boundaries of administration. Other than this, many new fields (for instance, in the areas of education, economy, and the mass media) had come into being in which individuals and groups could, by establishing institutions, obtain greater distinction than through exercising political power. However, these Muslim leaders were not aware of these modern possibilities. That being the case, how could they avail of them? Lesser Evil There is a saying of the second Muslim Caliph, Umar Farooq: ‘Intelligence is not who knows good from evil, but intelligence is one who knows the lesser of two evils’ (Al-‘Iqd al-Farid, Vol. 2, p. 109-10). From this saying, one learns that if a person possesses theoretical knowledge of