Theological foundations of ijtihad in deduction from the Holy Quran

By Muhammad Ali Sultan Moradi

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“The theological foundations of ijtihad in deduction from the Holy Quran” by Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani examines the theological foundations used by Islamic jurists in the process of deduction from the Holy Quran. Foundations of issuance involve beliefs that must be initially acknowledged by the Islamic jurist (Faqih) in the process of ijtihad, namely that the Quran was revealed by God, and that it is free from any distortion and errors. To explain foundations of issuance, the author states that Faqih needs to acknowledge that words used by God in the Quran convey specific meanings and they are expressed in a way that can be generally understood by all. Hence, jurisprudential interpretation is based on the existence of an ultimate meaning of the text that must be discovered through the jurisprudential method. The author rejects many of the views put forward in hermeneutics. Therefore, most of the study is devoted to a discussion of hermeneutics, hermeneutical views, and the relationship between hermeneutics and the theological foundations of Fiqh. Among other issues discussed in the book are the language of religion, the theoretical expansion and contraction of the Sharia law, and the all-inclusive nature of religion. According to Hadavi, theory of expansion and contraction of the Sharia law is partly self-defeating. He also rejects the progression of human knowledge as advocated in the theory of expansion and contraction of sharia law.

Short introduction

“The theological foundations of ijtihad in deduction from the Holy Quran” , is the first volume of a three-volume series on the general theme of theological foundations of ijtihad. According to the author, the second volume deals with the foundations of ijtihad in the understanding of the Sunnah, while Volume 3 deals with the theological foundations of ijtihad in the application of reason. Volumes 2 and 3 were never published. This book is a compilation of lectures of Mahdi Hadavi which was first published in Qom, 1998. It is also the selected book in the first seminary book of the year in Qom.

Author

Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani is a Shia cleric born in 1961 and one of the professors of the Qom Seminary. He studied electronic engineering at Sharif University of Technology before entering the Qom Seminary. Then, he studied advanced level courses of Fiqh and Usul under eminent figures such as Ayatollah Tabrizi, Vahid Khorasani, Makarem Sirazi, Shahroudi and Haeri. Ayatollah Sobhani considers Hadavi to be the founder of new knowledge of the theological foundations of Ijtihad . Hadavi Therani is the author of many books in the fields of Fiqh, law, Rijal and theology. Among his books are: Tahrir al- Maqal Fi Kulliat ‘ilm al- Rijal; Reflections on the Science of principles of Fiqh; Wilayat Fiqhih: Principles, proofs and jurisdiction; Governance and Religion; New Covenants in Islamic Fiqh; The School and the Islamic Economic System, and The Islamic Economic System in General in the Qur'an. He is also the founder of Rawaq Hikmat Institute, Islam Quest and Islampedia Encyclopedia .

Organization of the book

This publication is divided into two main sections: ‘Foundations of issuance’ and evidentiary proofs'. The former section comprises less than a quarter of the work and deals with three foundations:

1. the authenticity of the Quran, i.e. that the Quran with all its content, words and arrangement is revealed by God.
2. That the Quran is free from any distortion, i.e.the Quran is in the same state today as it was at the early Islamic period and is not distorted.
3. The final justification is that the divine revelation is free from any errors. This means that the divine knowledge revealed to Prophet Muhammad was protected against any error during the process of reception and transmission.

The latter section is divided into four parts:

1. Particular meanings are intended by God’s words in the Quran. Accordingly, the claim made by some hermeneutic thinkers that understanding the text of the Quran is related to specific contexts and that its meaning is not unique cannot be accepted. The act of ijtihad is based on the jurists' theological belief that there is a specific and unique meaning behind the words of the Quran that must be discovered through interpretation.
3. The divine intention, at least in case of secondary rules, is expressed using a general method of understanding rather than symbolic or allegorical expressions.
5. When the verses of the Quran were revealed, it was possible for common people to understand them. If a jurist now holds a view contrary to the perception of the people at the time of revelation, he cannot justify his perception by stating that it is relevant to our time and that the previous perception made sense in the old days. Rather, they say that the previous perception was wrong and the new one is correct.
6. Divine decrees are universal and apply to all ages except those proved to be abrogated or changed.

Since the author believes that many fundamentals of hermeneutics contradict the theological foundations of the jurists for deduction from the Quran, he devotes a large part of the book to explaining hermeneutics and views of thinkers such as Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, Gadamer and Hirsch are explained in detail and criticized. It also continues to analyze the theory of expansion and contraction of sharia law and concludes with the analysis of the stability and change in divine commands.

Content Statement

This book is an introduction to the relationship between theology and Fiqh. As such, the author does not attempt to convey his personal views, rather directs his attention to presenting a list of theological foundations commonly found in Shia Fiqh. The book is primarily to explain that two classes of theological proofs underlie the deduction of religious decrees in Fiqh: Foundations of issuance and evidentiary proofs. The focus of the book is primarily on explaining western philosophers’ views on interpretation of a text. Therefore, the author explains and criticizes the theories of hermeneutic thinkers Karl Popper and Abd al-karim Soroush. Below are some of the author's claims and arguments.

Miracles, the best reason for revelation

The author believes that the best way to prove that the Quran was revealed by God is to prove the miraculous nature of the Quran; because proving the revelatory nature of the Quran using its own verses would be a circular and invalid reasoning, and using traditions of the Infallible would require some more intellectual proofs besides being lengthy. Therefore, he moves on to reasons for proving the miraculous nature of the Quran and examines rhetorical and numerical miracles in the Quran, the internal harmony of the content of the Quran, hidden news, new teachings of the Quran compared to the time of its revelation, the fact that the content of the Quran has never been refuted, etc. (48- 59).

Theory of semantic shadows

The author believes that sometimes there is more to what is said than the speaker's intention. For example, we can understand from the tone of the utterance that the speaker is angry. These meanings are not expressed in words and sometimes the speaker does not even intend to express them; and they are ‘implied’. Hadavi calls such implications as the shadows of the meaning and sees them as different from the literal or figurative meaning of words. Thus, if the speaker intends only the literal or figurative meaning, then there will be a contrast between this meaning and the shadows of the meaning of the utterance (pp. 107-109). Now, if the knowledge of interpretation of a text is to discover the literal or figurative meaning of the speaker, then it is called the act of comprehension or interpretation; and if it is to discover the semantic shadows of an utterance, then it is called exegesis or inner aspects (p. 111). In many cases, hermeneutic issues are concerned with semantic shadows, which is different from discovering speaker’s intention.

Hermeneutics and the different role of time in jurisprudence

After examining various schools of phenomenology and hermeneutics, the author notes that while issues in these schools seem to be similar to the debate on the role of time and space in ijtihad (raised by Ayatollah Khomeini), there are in fact many differences between them. The latter issue relates to the fact that upon deducing fixed rulings, mujtahids should consider the temporal and spatial state of the affairs; while they should pay attention to specifics of the situation and circumstances when they are to deduce variable rulings. This does not mean that a mujtahid's understanding is necessarily dependent on tradition or cultural and historical conditions. Moreover, the proposition “a scholar must have knowledge of his time, means that an Islamic jurist must be aware of the social conditions and cultural issues of his time. It is actually about what “should be” not what it “is”; so it has nothing to do with forcing Fiqh to be understood within the culture of a specific time (pp. 227-228).

Sufficiency of the act and the correctness of the Faqih's understanding

Shia jurists believe that if a mujtahid's fatwa is changed, the previous actions of the mujtahid and his followers performed according to the previous fatwa are sufficient (causes exemption from a duty). This does not mean that both deductions of Mujtahid were correct and in accordance with reality; as we are only talking about ijza’ and removal of obligations, not the conformity of the jurist’s perception to reality.

Differences between classical hermeneutics and Islamic Jurisprudence (Fiqh)

After analyzing the views of Eric Hirsch, the author explains that this hermeneutic theory is in many ways similar to the theory of text interpretation in the tradition of Islamic Jurisprudence. However, differences between the two theories, in his opinion, make us not consider them completely the same. For example, Hirsch's theory equates the 'meaning of utterance' with the 'author's intention'. This is despite the fact that the speaker can say that 'my intention’ is different from 'the meaning of my words'. Contrary to Hirsch's view, Usul al-Fiqh solves this problem by distinguishing between 'imagined signified’ and 'serious intention', and even between 'intended meaning of a word' and 'understood meaning of it' (p. 256). The author further explains that these distinctions in Usul al-Fiqh help to resolve the contradictions in Hirsch's definition of understanding and interpretation (pp. 261-286).

More perfect interpretation versus hermeneutics

In his final evaluation of hermeneutics, the author says that a text has final meaning which is intended by the speaker or author. There must also be a connection between the speaker's meaning and the words he uses, the concept for which those words are used, or the implicit meaning intended for those words. A correct interpretation is one that allows us to discover the intended meaning of the speaker, even if it is not fully grasped. Therefore, there are complete interpretations and more complete interpretations and there can be a wide variety of interpretations that are correct but incomplete compared to others, especially in case of the Quran which is the word of the Omniscient God, whose words carry such broad meaning that we can only take advantage according to our own capacity (p. 287).

Contraction and expansion of Sharia law

Following the views of Abd al-Karim Soroush, the author tries to answer the question of whether religious understanding is constantly changing and whether this change is an evolutionary process or not. Hadavi rejects the evolution of human knowledge in the real sense of the word. According to him, knowledge is used in two senses: the first is the sets of propositions that constitute the whole body of science, and the second refers to each proposition or, according to the author's interpretation, each piece of knowledge. He adopts a cumulative approach to knowledge and believes that change is only possible by increasing knowledge within the whole body of science and correcting past mistakes. Therefore, what can be said about the whole body of science cannot be said about its propositions. Science progresses cumulatively, but each piece of 'knowledge' does not evolve itself. Therefore, if the 'evolution of knowledge' means that each piece of knowledge converges to the truth, this is invalid; since knowledge might be either true or false and it is not a matter of doubt. Moreover, if the theory implies a qualitative change in human understanding of things like religion, it is a vague statement that cannot be properly understood or criticized. Therefore, in his view, in addition to its vague wording, the progression of human knowledge in the theory of the contraction and expansion of sharia law is unacceptable (pp. 350-370).

Evaluation

Hadavi Tehrani discusses theological issues carefully in this work. This precision, together with the logical classification of the issues, the detailed explanations in each chapter, and the clear statements of the author, make the work accessible in this field and still accessible 25 years after its first publication (up to the publication of this preface). In any case, Hadavi does not seem to have given an adequate and detailed account of the debates of six Hermeneutic philosophers and phenomenologists, even though almost half of the book discusses about hermeneutics. The references to secondary sources also contribute to this problem. Nevertheless, writing a book on such a topic and numerous references to the works of English scholars is an indication of the great effort made by the author. Thus, at the time of its publication (the 1970s), this book's account of hermeneutics could have served as a window through which many scholars, students and researchers in the fields of Fiqh and theology could have become familiar with these issues. However, with the passage of time and a wide array of research conducted on this issue and many comprehensive Persian works on Hermeneutics, a significant part of this book seems to have lost its scholarly significance. This could largely be compensated for by the publication of new editions.

This work is also introduced in monthly book of Mah-e Din in its May issue of 2009. .