I have just read an essay at the Washington Post website about Project Ijtihad, which is described as “a charitable initiative to promote the spirit of Ijtihad, Islam’s own tradition of critical thinking, debate and dissent”. It's an interesting essay, particularly given the condition of today's world.
Here are a couple of paragraphs from the Project Ijtihad website:
Ijtihad (pronounced “ij-tee-had”) is Islam’s lost tradition of independent thinking. In the early centuries of Islam, thanks to the spirit of ijtihad, 135 schools of thought thrived. Inspired by ijtihad, Muslims gave the world inventions from the astrolabe to the university. So much of what we consider "western" pop culture came from Muslims: the guitar, mocha coffee, even the ultra-Spanish expression "Ole!" (which has its root in the Arabic word for God, "Allah").
Toward the end of the 11th century, the "gates of ijtihad" were closed for entirely political reasons. During this time, the Muslim empire from Iraq in the east to Spain in the west was going through a series of internal upheavals. Dissident denominations were popping up and declaring their own runaway governments, which posed a threat to the main Muslim leader -- the caliph. Based in Baghdad, the caliph cracked down and closed ranks. Remember those 135 schools of thought mentioned above? They were deliberately reduced to four pretty conservative schools of thought. This led to a rigid reading of the Koran as well as to a series of legal opinions -- fatwas -- that scholars could no longer overturn or even question, but could now only imitate. To this very day, imitation of medieval norms has trumped innovation in Islam. It’s time to revive ijtihad to update Islam for the 21st century. That’s why we’ve created Project Ijtihad.
This undertaking is very welcome. I do not know of a single religion, or for that matter any other human institution, that could not benefit from an atmosphere that welcomed and nourished critical thinking, debate and dissent.
I wish Project Ijtihad success and growth, not only in the west, but across the globe.
