The Traditional Fiqh is Insufficient

adhering to the belief that the existing corpus of fiqh constituted a complete legal system, saw no reason to seek solutions beyond it. Consequently, they were deprived of many valuable insights present in the Quran and Sunnah that had not been incorporated into the compiled fiqh. This issue can be illustrated with a few examples. In the modern era, the rise of democracy introduced a new political system. The existing fiqh, developed during an age of monarchy, contained no concept of modern democracy. As a result, those confined to the framework of traditional fiqh failed to grasp its significance. Some outrightly dismissed democracy as un-Islamic and declared it haraam (forbidden), while others trivialized it as mere “head counting,” mocking it with statements like: “Democracy is a form of government where people are counted, not measured by their qualities.” In reality, democracy represents a political blessing for Muslims. Unlike the monarchy of old, democracy is founded on the principle of power-sharing. It offers Muslims the opportunity to gain political influence in various countries through strategic participation. However, due to their lack of ijtihadi thinking, Muslims failed to capitalize on this opportunity. Instead, an imitative mindset led to impractical ideas, such as establishing a caliphate in countries like the United States and even imagining converting California into “Khaleefornia.” This mindset blinded them to the more practical and achievable objective of securing political representation through the modern principle of power sharing.