Issues of Ijtihad

Hamas and the Intifada. Through negative actions, positive outcomes cannot be produced. Movements like Hamas and uprisings like the Intifada are, in actual fact, simply an expression of emotional reaction. And in this world of realities, emotional upheavals cannot produce any meaningful outcomes. The fact of the matter is that the solution to an issue that prevails in the present can never happen on the basis of the past. The solution to a present problem always happens on the basis of the present. This is an irrevocable historical law. No exception to this law is possible for anyone. The Secret of Reform Many people mistakenly think that the root of all problems are those individuals who happen to control the levers of power in their times, and that, therefore, if they are removed from power, all evils will come to an end. This sort of thinking has repeatedly been shown through experience to be completely wrong. Consider the following case: Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group, believed that the government of King Farooq (d.1965) was the root of all evils facing Egypt and that if somehow this government could be toppled, everything in the country would be set aright. In line with this thinking, they joined with some Egyptian army officers, overthrew King Farooq,