Issues of Ijtihad

RELIGION AND SCIENCE B. Similarly, when it comes to religion and political rule, the Quran states that political power belongs to God. He grants it to whomever He wills (Quran 3:26). It also says that political authority is a form of test, just like wealth and children are tests (Quran, 10:14). This means that fighting to gain political power is not part of Islam’s teachings. Islam teaches that those whom history naturally favors with political authority should be accepted by others, and others should see it as a test for themselves. They should not try to take this God-given test away through conflict. A Preserved Religion: A Divine Blessing If the science of chemistry had stuck to the old, assumption-based practice of alchemy, it would never have advanced. Similarly, if modern astronomy had relied on the superstitions of ancient astrology, it could not have progressed. This principle applies across all fields of knowledge. Today, progress in various areas of study has only been possible after removing unscientific assumptions and building each subject solely on facts. We need to follow the same approach with religion. By studying religion scientifically, we need to determine which religions still exist today in their original form and which ones have changed so much that they’ve lost their practical reliability. From this objective perspective, it