Viewing the fact that chaos and disintegration were deteriorating and aggravating the people of his time, especially the Muslim Ummah, Shah Wali Allah made strong efforts for reforms.
In line with his conviction that Shari'ah which allegorically is illustrated as a physician who recommends different medicines and different diseases of different persons, and of course of different places and times as well, is aimed at the reform of human society, he then made several efforts to find out a panacea of his society's diseases.
One of the main diseases of the society of his time was, according to him, their ignorance of their own religious tenets.
IN RELATION TO THIS HAFEEZ MALIK REMARKS:
"Shah Wali Allah thought that the fundamental cause of the moral decline of the Muslims of the subcontinent was their ignorance of Islam itself. The basic teachings of Islam are contained in the Quran and the Sunnah, the authority of which have been recognised by all the Muslims.
An emphasis upon the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah would, therefore, tend to reduce sectarian differences and create feelings of solidarity, because the differences are mostly a matter of interpretation. Hence, it was necessary to popularise the Quran itself".
It is, therefore, he seems to pay his attention to solve such immediate problems. Though, most Muslims of India, in his time belonged to the Hanafi school, the followers of three other schools cannot be neglected.
In fact, the conflicts arose among these four schools. In addition, conflicts among the sufi-sects and Sunnis-Shi'ites also existed. He also endeavoured to reconcile them as well.
By suggesting reconciliation among the followers of the confronting Sunni schools, Shah Wali Allah did not aim at initiating a new school of law at all, but confined his scheme to the four recognised Sunni schools. He really intended to foster a tolerant attitude among of the followers of different schools and to prepare them not only to accommodate their differences in fiqh, but also to make good use of them. Henceforth, he laid down the principles and conditions to which one should be bound in practising takhayyur and talfiq as well as scheme of legal eclecticism avoiding rigid and unbending conformity to one school only. In his own words a combination of these principles is termed as tatbiq.
However, Shah Wali Allah does not appear to have taken further than his predecessors and developed tatabiq or an inter-juristic eclecticism recommending that on any point of doctrine or ritual a Muslim could follow the ruling of anyone of the four principal juristic schools.
Another effort that he made to cure his people from blindness of their main sources of religion, ie Qur'an was his deliberate translation of the Qur'an into the popular literary language of his people ie, Persian. Though this effort is now considered as the most important contribution of Shah Wali Allah, but he had to suffer many sharp and 'unfair' criticism directed at him by contemporary Muslim scholars of his time. About Wali Allah's practical ijtihad, an Indian Muslim scholar, Malik points out:
He exhorted the Muslims to free themselves from the blind acceptance of the four school of law and advised them to go back to the Qur'an and the Apostolic traditions and on this basis formulate legal system which would be more in harmony with the spirit and the needs of their times and cultural background. During 1737-1738, in pursuance of this object he translated the Qur'an into Persian the literary language of this day. This was considered detrimental to the economic interest of the orthodox 'ulama', they heaped all kinds of abuse on him and even threatened him with death.
In the history of Islam, with the exception of Ibn Tumart's (1080-1130) translation, there had never been a translation of the Qur'an into any foreign language. Generally Muslims believed that the sanctity and authenticity of the Qur'an containing God's massage can be preserved only if it is studied in the original Arabic. The sensitivity of the problem can be judged from the fact that as late as 1928 when the well-known Muslim convert Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthal undertook the English translation of the Qur'an he sought the advice of the 'ulama' of Al-Azhar. The oldest Muslim university in Egypt. Instead of encouraging such an undertaking, the 'ulama' declared that the translator, the readers and all those who approved of this "were condemned to ever-lasting perdition".
The most important purpose behind Wali Allah's translation of the Holy Qur'an was to make the most basic source of Islamic teaching directly accessible to the literate and thus bypass the 'ulama's whom he regarded as hidebound, blind imitators of the scholastic text of earlier jurists. Collaterally, he argued for the revival of the legal principle of ijtihad. (Later his sons translated the Qur'an into Urdu, the language of common men).
MUHAMMAD IQBAL'S IDEAS ON IJTIHAD:
Muhammad Iqbal, in the recent religious and political history of Islam of Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, is undoubtedly among the greatest advocates of ijtihad. Moreover, Amir Shakib Arsalan once exaggerated when he remarked that Iqbal is the greatest thinker that the Muslim world has produced during the last thousand years. He was, however, according to Muhammad Natsir, a poet educationist, a lawyer by profession, an art critic, a politician and a philosopher - all combined into one.
Muhammd Iqbal wrote many books that touch several subjects on Islam, most of which were in poetical form. One of his works where he conveyed his ideas on ijtihad is The Reconstruction of Religious Thought of Islam, especially in the sixth chapter. In this book he defines ijtihad as 'the principle of movement in Islam'. The word ijtihad itself, according to him, literally means to exert. "In the terminology of Islamic law," he explains, "it means to exert with a view to from an independent judgement on a legal question."
The exercise of human judgement is, therefore, not to negate the fundamental of the Shari'ah, its main purpose is none other than to make the area of the individual and social conduct extensive enough so that the community's affairs are not starved off their dynamism and progress. Iqbal argued that: "As a cultural movement Islam rejects the old static view of the universe, and reaches a dynamic view." He further argued that: "The claim of present generation of Muslim Liberals to reinterpret the foundation of legal principles, in the light of their own experience and the altered conditions of modern life is, in my opinion, perfectly justified.
The teaching of the Qur'an that life is a process of progressive creation necessitates that each generation, guided but unhampered by the work of its predecessor, should be permitted to solve its own problems."
Thus, in line with this point of view, carrying out ijtihad is necessary for Muslim scholars so as to answer the problems of their time which may vary from one place to another.
When the Prophet (Peace be upon him) spoke of ijtihad as said earlier, and how one who performed it correctly received double reward, and how one who made a mistake received one reward, he was addressing the Muslim Ummah that understood that only a few people could undertake it. However, Iqbal warned against the application of unrestricted liberalism because of its inherent potentiality for disintegration.
Like Shah Wali Allah, Iqbal was of the opinion that whoever exercises ijtihad he should refer to the basic source of the Islamic teaching, ie the Qur'an and the hadith. He traced the origin of calling to perform the ijtihad in both of these sources. From the former he quoted: "And those who strive (jahadu) in us (our cause) we surely guide them in our path" (al-Qur'an, al- Ankabut, xxix: 69), whereas from the latter he put down:
"While appointing Mu'adh b. Jabal as Governor of Yemen, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) asked: 'How would you decide the matters that would come before you?' 'I would decide in the light of the Qur'anic injunctions', replied Mu'adh. 'In case you do not find any guidance in the Qur'an, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said. Mu'adh told 'I would seek guidance in the precedent of the Prophet of God (Peace be upon him). The Prophet (Peace be upon him) again asked, 'if you fail to get any precedent!' 'I will apply my own reason' was Mu'adh answer. And the Prophet (Peace be upon him) then raised his hand (patted him on his chest and) said, 'praise be to God who guides the Messenger, His Aposties, as He pleases."
Iqbal is also of the opinion that theoretically if we observe from the history of the development of Islamic law, the independent judgement is possible. He even views that human affairs cannot be conducted by eternally rigid principles. According to him, there should be certain permanent values, but at the same time there ought to be a provision for change, so that life does not stagnate. Thus, independent judgement is allowed, even encouraged in order to meet the demand of present day progress.
But, it seems that this principle is not really realised in our lives. Thus, the stagnation inevitably clouds the Muslim world. And several causes of the stagnation, according to Iqbal, are as follows: Firstly, the sudden rise of rationalism created considerable fears in the orthodox circles, that unrestricted use of reason in matters of faith would disintegrate the stability of Islam as a social polity. Secondly, the rise of mysticism whose preaching of renunciation and asceticism did a great harm to Islam.
Finally, the sack of Baghdad marked the destruction of the center of Muslim intellectual life. Nevertheless, it is high time to reassert that there is no such closure of ijtihad, Muslim scholars are encouraged to exercise ijtihad instead of blindly and strictly following the rigid interpretation of the Islamic law of previous scholars. Taqlid, in his view, is an antithesis to religion.
On the contrary, ijtihad is an integral part of the principle of movement. It gives Islamic doctrine its dynamic nature and universal application. In line with these circumstances, he wrote:
The 'ulama' have always been a source of great strength to Islam. But during the course of centuries, especially since the destruction of Baghdad, they became extremely conservative and would not allow any freedom of ijtihad, ie, the forming of independent judgement in matters of law. The Wahabi movement which was a source of inspiration to the nineteenth century Muslim reformers was really a revolt against this rigidity of the 'ulama'. Thus the first objective of the nineteenth century Muslim reformers was a fresh orientation of the faith and a freedom to reinterpret the law in the light of advancing experience.
Although Iqbal himself recognised the three degrees of ijtihad such as: a) Complete authority in legislation which is practically confined to the founders for schools, b) relative authority which is to be exercised within the limits of a particular school, and c) special authority which relates to the determining of the law applicable to a particular case left undetermined by the founders. But, he was primarily concerned with the first degree of ijtihad only, ie complete authority in legislation.
He did not disagree with the other Muslim jurists' qualification of a mujtahid, like those of Shah Wali Allah and other Muslim jurists. But since none of the resent day Muslim scholars can meet the requirements of Mujtahid al-Mutlaq, he was of the opinion that ijtihad could be exercised collectively instead individually. This point of view can be seen clearly when he said:
Let us now see how the Grand National Assembly has exercised this power of ijtihad in regard to the institution of Khilafat. According to Sunni Law the appointment of an Imam or Khalifa is absolutely indispensable. The first question that arises in this connection is this: Should the Caliphate be vested in a single person? Turkey's ijtihad is that according to the spirit of Islam the Caliphate or Imamate can be vested in a body of persons or an elected Assembly. The religious doctors of Islam in Egypt and India so far as I know, have not yet expressed themselves on this point. Personally I believe the Turkish view is perfectly sound.
He concluded his remarks about the Turkish ijtihad which represented collective ijtihad by saying that the truth is that among the Muslim nations of today, Turkey alone has shaken off its dogmatic slumber, and attained to self-consciousness.
PRACTICAL SIDE OF HIS IJTIHAD:
Later on, inspired by this Iqbal's idea, the tendency from individual to collective ijtihad was taken up by the ijtihad session of the International Islamic Colloquium in 1858. It is worth noting that in the session 'it was suggested that an academy for Islamic jurisprudence should be established. It should include the most competent jurists from every Muslim country, whose minds were open to matters of economics, sociology, law, medicine, etc.
An academy of this type staffed by full time paid scholars, with up to date facilities for research should be given the power to interpret the law in accordance with the demands of modern times. And another interesting suggestion given in the session was that the progressive elements for all schools of Muslim jurisprudence should be codified into a compact code of legal principles which are workable in modern times.
In relation to the form of government which is more suitable for present day Muslims, in Iqbal's point of view, is not monarchy nor Caliphate, but republican like that of Turkey. In his book, Iqbal asserted that "The Republican form of government is not only thoroughly consistent with the spirit of Islam, but also has become a necessity in view of the new forces that are set free in the world of Islam. About Turkey's effort in transforming the caliphate to republican form, Iqbal highly appreciated it by stating that, "the truth is that among the Muslim nations of today, Turkey alone has shaken its dogmatic slumber, and attained to self-consciousness. She alone has claimed her right of intellectual freedom; she alone has passed from the ideal to the real - a transition which entails keen intellectual and moral struggle.
Although Iqbal agreed with and even greeted the exhaustive effort of Turklish scholars, however, he did not agree with Kemal Ataturk in the case of separating the state affairs from religious affairs, say, in rather general terms, the separation of religion from politics. For Iqbal, 'in Islam the spiritual and the temporal are not two distinct domains'. Moreover, he believed that 'Islam is a single unanalysed quality. Henceforth, politics as well as other aspects of human life cannot be separated from religion. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in his Traditional Islam in the Modern World, illustrates the unity of life in this world and the next world as two curves which are connected to form one circle. Thus, nothing can be separated from religious dimension.
When Iqbal wrote this book, Muslims of India were struggling to set up a separate state where they could apply the Shari'ah in every aspects of their life. Although great Muslim scholars such as Sayyid Abu'l A'la Mawdudi and Abul Kalam Azad did not agree with any effort leading to the establishment of a separate state for Muslims, Iqbal insisted to do ijtihad-i siyasi by stating that Muslims really needed their own state and this state should be none other than the republican form. He believed that: "The enforcement and development of the Shari'ah of Islam is impossible in this country without a free Muslim state or states".
Therefore, he asserted (in 1930) that a 'consolidated North West Indian Muslim State appears to be the final destiny of Muslims, at least in North West India'. This idea of ijtihad of Iqbal, later on, was realised by the Muslim community of the subcontinent when they established a separate country named the Republic of Pakistan on August 14, 1947 and then in the subsequent year in 1956 it became the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Unfortunately, Iqbal did not live long enough to see that his ijtihad is applicable. However, the people of this newly born country always remember him as the spiritual founder of their state.
In the middle of the eighteenth century Shah Wali Allah started a movement towards the reinstatement of reason and individual judgement in the affairs of the religion and politics of the Muslim community in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.
His aim was none other than to make Muslim Ummah religiously and politically strong by asking it to come to the Qur'an and the Sunnah, not to blindly stick to the established four schools without considering the change and the demands of the people's need.
However, almost two centuries later, because not many Muslim scholars responded to Wali Allah's call for ijtihad seriously, consequently the condition of the Muslims of the subcontinent relatively remained unchanged intellectually, economically and politically.
However, Iqbal, in the early twentieth century, reasserted the call for ijtihad which he termed as the 'principle of movement'. Since the world is never unchanged, the call of ijtihad to the Muslim scholars should be voiced over and over again. The call of ijtihad itself should be in accordance with the demand of time. However, according to him, this is not enough until those scholars transform the call into action and until they can draw ideals with practical aspects in mind.
Both scholars considered taqlid retrograde to the true nature of Islamic teachings. For them creative interpretation or ijtihad is integral part of Islam. Both of them, therefore, encouraged Muslim scholars to exercise ijtihad in accordance with their respective demands.
In this modern era, ijtihad should be carried out collectively as Iqbal suggested instead of individual ijtihad as suggested by Wali Allah. For life of dynamism of modern era places complicated problems before the Muslim Ummah. The problems require the full attention of Muslim scholars of various disciplines from social sciences to exact sciences. These scholars, in turn, should sit together to discuss the problems and think a way out or solution comprehensively.
As far as the idea of ijtihad is concerned, both the scholars did not think that it can be used unrestrictively to legitimate everything done by Muslim scholars. Ijtihad should not contradict the al-Nusus (the Qur'an and Sunnah). Therefore, they were of the opinion that since ijtihad means exerting individual judgement in order to formulate a legal opinion on issues not explicitly defined in al-Nusus, its connection with the principles of Islamic jurisprudence should be viewed in terms of compatibility with and conformity to the principles themselves.
In short, it seems that both of these great scholars from the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent could think broadly but unfortunately they fell short of suggesting practical reforms or practical ijtihad for their respective communities. They did give the practical aspects of the ijtihad, but only in a general way, as noted earlier.
It is, therefore, the duty of Muslim scholars who come latter to endeavour to make use of their theoretical ideas in practical application for solving problems. In other words, their duty is, to borrow one of the Indonesia's most well-known mufassir's M. Quraish Shihab's words, "to pull the Qur'an down the earth." Because as a member of the ummah, in the words of Iqbal, 'if he (a Muslim) does not take initiative, if he does not involve the richness of his being, if he ceases to feel the inward push of advancing life, then spirit within him hardens into stone and he is reduced to the level of dead matter."
(Concluded)
(Courtesy Pakistan Historical Society Journal.)