Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,

As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.  (May Allah's Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)

One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:

Assalam-o-Alaikum. Dear Brother Burhan. This time i am here with some matters which are causing much confusion to me.Please give early reply (as soon as possible ):

6. What is Ijma`a , Qayas ,Ijtehaad ??

Please give detailed and xplicit replies to these questions.

Over to you with kind regards. 

(There may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)

Answer:

What is ijma, qiyas, ijtehad ?

In the name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray, none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person, no grave, no prophet, no imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone, and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of His Messengers.

Ijmaa, Ijtehaad and Qiyaas are all terms used in Fiqh, Jurisprudence, Islamic Law or Shariah.

Ref: Ijmaa

Ijmaa is the term used for a opinion or command of Islam where all the good and respected scholars of Islam are unanimous in their ruling.

For example, there is Ijmaa amongst the scholars that there are five obligatory prayers, or that adhaan must be given before the prayers, or that a funeral prayer must be read over a deceased believer, or that swine is prohibited in Islam, etc.

Ref: Ijtehaad

The literal meaning of Ijtehaad is derived from the root word ‘jehad’ or striving, to find a solution in light of the guidance of the Quran and Sunnah.

Ijtehaad is the process where the scholars of Islam strive to find a solution to an issue on which the Quran and Sunnah are silent. For example an issue of the modern times is : ‘is it legal to pull off the life-support system of a brain-dead declared person?’.

Because it is a new development of modern technology, the Quran and Sunnah are obviously silent on the issue. Thus the respected scholars of Islam must do ‘ijtehaad’ and derive a ruling whether such a thing is permissible or impermissible in Islam, in light of the guidance of the Quran and Sunnah.

Ref: Qiyaas

Qiyaas is a term used when determining the ‘root-cause’ of the process to do Ijtehaad. Qiyaas is a process whereby a clear ruling of the permissibility or impermissibility of an act or thing is applied to an issue closest related to it. For example, Allah and His Messenger (saws) have declared ‘khamr’ (wine, alcohol, etc.) haraam. Now if someone were to ask for a ruling on the usage of marijuana, the scholars of Islam would do Qiyaas and determine the root cause of the haraam of ‘khamr’ is its intoxication; thus all things that intoxicate would be considered haraam. Because the usage of marijuana intoxicates, it too would be considered haraam.

Whatever written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance, and whatever of error is of me. Allah Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.

Your Brother in Islam,

Burhan