FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Dr. Farida Khanam has been a professor at the Department of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. A Study of World's Major Religions, A Simple Guide to Sufism are two of the books amongst others, of which she is the author. She has also translated many books on Islam authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently, the chairperson of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS International), an organization founded by her father Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, she is a regular contributor of articles to journals, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. Under Maulana Wahiduddin Khan Peace Foundation, along with the CPS team, she has designed a series of courses on peace-building, countering extremism and conflict resolution. AN UNDERSTANDING ABOUT ISLAMIC JURISPRUDENCE FIQH the Arabic equivalent to jurisprudence literally means an understanding and knowledge of something. At more than one place the Quran has used the word fiqh in its general sense of ‘understanding’. In the early days of Islam the terms ilm (knowledge) and fiqh were frequently used to denote an understanding of Islam in general. This shows that in the Prophet’s time the term fiqh was not applied in the legal sense alone. The Prophet blessed one of his Companions in the following words: “Allahumma faqqih ho fiddin,’ which means ‘O God, give him understanding in religion’. By these words the Prophet did not mean exclusively knowledge of law. He meant in fact a deeper understanding of religion. Brief History of Fiqh After the Prophet, the Companions settled in different parts of the vast Islamic empire. Here they were confronted with new problems, and they had no option but to exercise their personal judgement. The Prophet was no longer amidst them to turn to him for the solution of these problems. Therefore whenever any problem arose they first consulted the Quran and Hadith and only if they failed to find the solution there, they resorted, to the exercise of their personal judgement, while observing fully the spirit of the Quran and Hadith.