Reviving Ijtihad

it causes such individuals to fall behind other nations in intellectual and academic fields. In the ever-moving caravan of humanity, they remain behind as mere dust on the road. This imitative mindset is precisely what the famous preIslamic poet Antarah bin Shaddad al-Absi (d. 615 AD) expressed in the opening lines of his Mu’allaqa: Hal ghaadara ash-shu’araau min mutaraddami “Have the poets left any patch unsewn?” In other words, he believed that everything worth saying had already been said, leaving nothing new for others to contribute. This kind of thinking puts a complete stop to intellectual progress, resulting in intellectual stagnation—a state more harmful and dangerous for an individual or community than anything else. To further understand this issue, here are a few examples from the collection of Hadith. Respect for Humanity An incident involving the Prophet Muhammad is narrated by various narrators in different collections of Hadith. In Sahih al-Bukhari, the incident is recorded as follows: “In Medina, a funeral procession passed by the Prophet Muhammad while he was sitting. Upon seeing the procession, he stood up out of respect for it, and his Companions stood up with him. It was mentioned to him that it was a Jewish funeral (not a Muslim one). He responded, ‘Was he not a human being?” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1312).