Ijtihad

The Muslims were then a rational community, employing

all their faculties of mind, doing a scientific errand on the

globe.

Open,

refined,

humanizing,

creative,

productive,

promoting

man!s

stature

round

the

earth,

they

went

everywhere and lit the lamps of reasoning, logic, scientific

method and love and dignity of mankind. History pays them

homage.

But then it so happened that the law of nature wrapped

their day into the night and the lamp of reason was put out;

they slipped into a dreadful slumber and lost their contact

with reality. Now they were rigid misologists reposing in the

idea of the bygone glory.

Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal felt the misery and strived to

enlighten them:

“The‘ultimate‘spiritual‘basis‘of‘all‘life,‘as‘conceived

by Islam, is eternal and reveals itself in variety and

change. A society based on such a conception of

Reality, must reconcile in its life, the categories of

permanence and change. It must possess eternal

principles to regulate its collective life; for the eternal

gives us a foothold in the world of perpetual change.

But eternal principles, when they are understood to

exclude all possibilities of change which, according to

the Qur!an, is one of the greatest signs of God, tend to

immobilize what is essentially mobile in its nature.#

2

2

.

Dr M. Iqbal, ReconstructionofReligious‘ThoughtinIslam, p. 140.

Preface

9

But the things had taken a calamitous shape. They are not

ready even today to reconcile the changed realities with the

permanent divine law and have thus failed in regulating their

life in the world of perpetual change in accordance with the

revealed eternal principles % their main foothold. This process

of reconciling the ever-changing realities with the intentions

of the permanent laws is what is called ijtihad.

The Muslims have been exercising  ijtihad‘in every age.

They rose to the pinnacle of glory through this scientific

method of reasoning. And they suffered when they stopped

doing

it.

It

is

nothing

but

fulfilling

the

day-to-day

requirements of life within the framework of permanent

principles.

Within

this framework

change

is

not

only

permissible but advisable. The conditions of life are always

changing and the constitution of the state and machinery of

the government have got to be revised and brought up-to-date

from time to time. Without this sound legislative exercise we

simply cannot cope up with the ever-growing and ever-

changing demands of life. We must bear in mind that progress

is a change that brings the system nearer to perfection. It is

change which, while preserving the values achieved, adds to

them and raises themto a higher level.

But we are so heavily fettered in shackles of rigidity and

misology (hatred for reason, logic and enlightenment) that

even butchery has failed to bring us to our senses although the

idea is so easy to grasp. Take up the concept of  tauba

(repentance). One commits a sin and then feels guilty

conscious. Where does this sense of guilt come from? There is

a permanent principle which he departed from and then

compared his action against it. He could only return to it to

attain to the feeling of contentment. That is what we call

tauba .‘It‘generates‘from‘reasoning.‘The‘sinner‘introspects‘and

finds his error. If his heart is imbued with a firm faith in the

Commands of Allah, he will fall back upon it and through

Ijtihad:‘meanings,‘application‘&‘scope

10

reasoning and private meditations will seek forgiveness from

Allah which He will award him mercifully for his come-back.

Likewise, there is hardly any aspect of din‘in which devoid of

the process

of

reasoning.

The

misology,

therefore,

is

unintelligible.

Shaikh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri is blessed

with the vision that pierces through the mysteries of age and

discerns the hidden realities of time. He is born with the pang

to bring to the Umma the awareness of these realities and

unveil to them the secret of their survival. He has devoted his

entire life to make us see the Holy footsteps of the Beloved

Messenger of Allah and kindle in our heart the flame of love

for the Holy Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace).

He is doing it for the sole reason that this way the Umma will

wake up soon and start seeking the same legislative reasoning

-

ijtihad‘ afresh‘which‘will‘open‘to‘them‘the‘doors‘of‘logic,

wisdom and intellect which the Holy Prophet was sent to

disseminate to mankind. Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri wants the Muslim

community to behave moderate, flexible and stable and shun

rigidity, irrationality and extremism and all its forms so that

they once again regain the glory which is their due. The path

of  ijtihad‘will take them to that because what

seems

apparently an individual behaviour is in fact the collective

behaviour as it is designed by the culture and designs the

culture as well. Ijtihad‘has its roots in the teachings of the

Qur!an and Sunna and in the Qur!anic society shaped by the

Holy Prophet 1400 years ago. And our thoughts are not our

thoughts; the remotest past has gone to the building of them.

Read any of the books written by

Shaikh-ul-Islam Dr

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, or listen to any of his recorded

lectures, you will find him making an all-out endeavour to

make us believe that it is only the love of the Holy Prophet

and following his  sirah‘that can open our eyes and minds,

equip us with the revitalizing reasoning called  ijtihad‘and

Preface

11

elevate us to that exalted station which Allah has promised to

bestow upon those who make use of all the faculties of their

mind in complying with the Prophetic teachings.

This treatise is one of his most scholarly discourses on the

subject which serves you many cues to the Islamic way of

reasoning and makes solid contributions to the mental milieu

of the Muslim Community.

Shaykh Abdul Aziz Dabbagh

Beyond Description

His Eminence Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri

is a theologian, theosophist, scientist and spiritualist of

modern times. A preacher, reformer and philosopher, he is

also a political thinker of world renown. He is the animating

heartbeat of hundreds of thousands of Muslims around the

globe. It has layers of meanings whatever he writes and

speaks about, addressing simultaneously the whole mankind

in general, the whole Muslim Umma in particular as the

immediate focus of his magical rhetoric and fascinating pen.

He talks about and proves the relevance of Islam to the

modern age. Diagnosing the maladies that have afflicted

mankind he prescribes Islam as the sole remedy to the entire

syndrome. He has authored some 450 published works in

Arabic, English and Urdu and delivered over 5,500 lectures in

various languages all over the world. His capabilities, God-

gifted

qualities,

achievements

and

high

ideals

beggar

description.

Leading the Umma out of its ordeal

His teachings are deep, definite and sublime leading one s

soul to the divine chambers. Galvanizing and inspiring, his

oratory leaves us spell-bound, enlightening vividly as to what

we are doing on earth and what, in fact, we are supposed to

do; what troubles we are suffering from and how in a

scientific fashion can we cure and convalesce. Speaking in

terms of modern logic, he pricks one s inner core and clears

one s vision on the compatibility of Islam with the scientific

realities of the universe which have so far been discovered

Ijtihad:‘meanings,‘application‘&‘scope

14

and which the scientists may explore in the times to come. He

is really an embodiment of all knowledge and wisdom that is

required to lead the Umma out of its current ordeal.

Restoring man s status in the universe

Falling prey to stray ideologies and burdened by the stresses

and strains of modern life, the modern man has become

thoroughly materialistic, consigning all moral, spiritual and

human values to oblivion. It seems as if the Hereafter, the

Last Day and the Final Accountability during life after death

have no more been his concerns. This has added enormous

miseries to his daily chores leaving little chances of his

survival from the quagmire of material pursuits and base

nature. In this context, Shaikh-ul-Islam Dr Qadri has emerged

as a saviour to salvage and rescue the human society from the

evils of the earthly existence and lead them to man s real

status Allah Almighty has blessed him with. This restoration

of real spiritual as well as worldly status of man in this world

is, in nutshell, all what Dr Qadri is up to.

Minhaj-ul-Quran International ! a message of

global peace

To achieve his objectives Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri launched his

struggle in

1977

with

the establishment

of  !Mahaz-e-

Hurriyyat", an intellectual forum for the ideological training

of the youth. He advanced dynamically in the right direction

and established Minhaj-ul-Quran International in 1981.

His

voice received warm welcome; people would sit around their

TV sets and

wait

for

his  Fahm-ul-Qur‘an

programme

impatiently. The MQI soon became the heartbeat of the

masses. Shaikh-ul-Islam then planned to take his message to

the entire globe. It was in 1982 that he visited Iran, met the

Iranian leadership and put forth his message which was given

a hearty welcome. He then visited Europe in 1984 to extend

Beyond‘Description

15

the range of his missionary services and to introduce the

Europeans to the true essence of Islam. The tour was a great

success. The Muslims of Denmark were highly impressed and

invited Dr Qadri to establish an institute in Denmark under his

supervision. Consequently, an Islamic Centre was established

in Copenhagen, Denmark on 25 January 1986. Dr Qadri

himself performed its inauguration.

He toured Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharja and other Gulf States

in 1984 and 1985 where people accorded him rousing

receptions. As a result of his energizing tours, a huge branch

of the Institute of Minhaj-ul-Quran was established in the

United Emirates.

Dr Qadri visited England to further widen the scope of his

missionary campaign: He visited the country first in May

1985

and then in January 1986. During his tour of England he

addressed

huge

gatherings

in

London,

Manchester,

Birmingham and Boston etc. He visited United States in

April, 1986 in order to extend and promote his mission. He

delivered lectures in many seminars and symposia on various

Islamic topics specifically pertaining to Islamic revival in the

West, at New York, Washington, Chicago and others states.

This visit laid the foundation of the MQI in the United States.

The late 80s and the early 90s then saw a wave spreading

through entire Europe, the US, Canada and the Middle East,

and in only a decade s time the MQI Centres were established

in more than 80 countries of the world. That is howthe magic

of true Islam

works.

Shaikh-ul-Islam Dr

Qadri worked

sleeplessly to spread his mission and it is now a globally

welcome mission to spread Islam as the most moderate,

tolerant, realistic, scientific and practicable way of life and

religion for the entire mankind.

The quest forknowledge

The modern scientific thought has undergone metamorphic

changes over

ages.

Its spirit,

however,

has constantly

Ijtihad:‘meanings,‘application‘&‘scope

16

remained to justify the existing fact on rational grounds.

Eventually,

the

twentieth

century

has

witnessed

an

unimaginable scientific advancement that has assigned a vital

role to man on the globe in conquest of universe. In the quest

for knowledge, the modern man has also discovered that the

centuries old concepts about religion are contrary to the

scientific thought and, therefore, need to be either discarded

or made compatible with the scientific method. This is the

challenge that the religious scholars and theologians have

failed to face. Instead of analyzing the problem on scientific

basis, they have adhered to their timeworn ideologies with a

practical surrender to the materialistic values in vogue. Even

the torchbearers,

the so-called intellectuals and modern

scholars of Islam who pretend to be abreast with the modern

scientific thought have given in to the onslaught of modern

sciences and in secret depths of their hearts feel nervous how

to defend their position. They are doing more harms than

good by defending their post with archaic weapons.

However, at the dawn of new millennium, Shaikh-ul-

Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has risen like a guiding

star on the intellectual horizon and has showered rays of his

effulgent wisdom on the modern mind. Equipped adequately

with the scientific and religious knowledge, he has given the

call to modern man that Islam is the religion that, ever since

its revelation, has the scientific bases which the modern

scientific thought is now claiming to discover and further

needs to explore in itstotality.

On Islam

The contributions made by Shaikh-ul-Islam to the modern

Islamic thought and its reconstruction are colossal rather

incredible. Nor can we measure his achievements in clearing

and purifying Islamic ideology from muddling of various

‘isms’wrought’over’centuries.’A’huge’reservoir’of’literature,

Beyond‘Description

17

for

instance,

exists

on

Mysticism,

Islamic

Mysticism,

Pantheism

and

Transcendentalism,

nature

of

Mystic

Experience, its variety, allied philosophies and schools of

thought. The antagonists too have generated colossal works

proving it contrary to the $true Islam

and labeling it as an

impious innovation in the approved Islamic code of life. This

controversy has inflicted serious damage to the modern

Muslim mind leading the young educated Muslims all over

the world to desperation and abhorrence from Islam. They are

confused and blatantly question the intellectual validity and

logical well-being of Islamic thought. The Muslim scholars

engaged in this unfortunate controversy, however, ill afford

any attempt to recover from the $spin . They drastically lack

in advanced knowledge and are unaware of the $phenomena

of modern scientific mind. Being the odd ones, they now stay

out of this war of wits, which has spread over East and West.

How to satisfy the modern scientific mind on the question of

Islamic Spiritualism, its nature and significance? Shaikh-ul-

Islam Dr Qadri has performed this uphill task with absolute

facility, authority and command.

Knowledge of modern logic

Simultaneously, endowed with a vividly historic insight, he

educates the modern Muslim mind how, centuries ago, the

Muslim scholars defeated their rival thinkers employing the

then contemporary logic against

them. He emphatically

exhorts all educated Muslims of the world to acquire perfect

knowledge of modern logic and defeat the antagonists of

Islam who have joined hands against the Umma with an

intention to shake the solid spiritual realities which are the

bases of Islamic thought and ideology. Shaikh-ul-Islam Dr

Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri has a sagacious eye on the rise

and fall of the Muslim and non-Muslim empires. He possesses

a vision that penetrates into future and clearly discerns the

Ijtihad:‘meanings,‘application‘&‘scope

18

impending

dangers

and

their

remedies.

He

bases

his

arguments on the Holy Qur an, attracts and convinces the

modern reader and deletes his disbelief in permanent human

values revealed by the Qur an

The primary mission of his life is to drag the Muslims out

of the mire and to elevate them to heights of unprecedented

glory. His creative interpretation of Islam has pulled it out of

its strait-jacket in which its strait-laced critics have robed it.

He has broadened the area of its meaning and application to

make it conform to the rapidly changing imperatives of the

contemporary world and assert its universality, which has

been

muffled

by

centuries of

narrow and conservative

attitudes. Shaikh-ul-Islam Dr Qadri is the most auspicious star

on the murky and cloud-capped galaxy of the Islamic world

whom

God has

blessed with

knowledge,

guidance and

eloquence to steer the rocking world of Islam through the

tempestuous billows of strife and dissension and to put it back

on the rollers to make it self-reliant and self-sustaining.

He has dedicated all his energies and sources to promote

and spread the message of peace, moderation, and tolerance

not only in South Asia but also round the globe. Universally,

he has earned reputation as ambassador of peace. His dynamic

and galvanizing endeavours for ecumenism and inter-faith

harmony in particular, have produced inspiring and concrete

results.

As such Shaikh-ul-Islam emerges as a person of destiny

with his learned instruction and creative interpretation of

Islam providing refreshing perspectives of the role of Islam in

the contemporary World.

Unfortunately, in the past several

decades, the universality of Islam has been obscured by

stereotyped

conservatism

and

Shaikh-ul-Islam

with

his

progressive ideas and better contemporary world vision is

performing an important role in the renaissance of Islam.

Beyond‘Description

19

A glimpse of his intellectual works

We find a vivid manifestation of his depth of learning, all-

embracing insight and far-reaching vision in his intellectual

works of historic import. This short introduction simply

cannot encompass his works. Some of the most significant of

them include Irfan‘al-Qur‘an, a scientific, exegetic, modern,

lucid and comprehensive translation of the Holy Qur an;

Jami’‘as-Sunna ,‘a‘compendium‘(in‘25‘volumes)‘of‘30,000

fair, fine and sound traditions of the Holy Prophet (Allah

bless him and give him peace) that validate the mainstream

Islamic doctrine; al-Minhaj‘as-Sawi, a collection of 1100 fair,

fine and sound traditions; Sirat‘ar-Rasul, (in 12 volumes) a

detailed account of all the phases of the Holy Prophet s life

which the Qur an has called Uswa‘Hasana‘% the best pattern;

Kitab‘at-Tawhid ,‘ Kitab‘al-Bid’ah and‘dozens‘of‘books‘on‘the

true Islamic doctrines which dispel the existing disagreement

among Muslims on various doctrinal issues and present to the

non-Muslim world Islam in its right, true and scientific form

and spirit, precisely delineating what Islam is and what it is

not. His books particularly on the subject of beliefs are

numerous and voluminous. A list of these books has been

produced in the end of this treatise for the benefit of our

readers. His works have received global appreciation fromthe

leading authorities, traditionists, jurists and scholars of the

Muslim world. Shaikh al-Islam has already been awarded

numerous internationaltitles in this regard.

Amanat AliChaudhry