Ijtihād and Taqlīd

Ijtihād is the effort of a qualified scholar to derive a ruling directly from the sources; taqlīd is the reliance of others on that scholarship. How, and by whom, ijtihād may be exercised is one of the enduring questions of Islamic law.

At a glance

A mujtahid is a jurist judged to possess the learning — in Arabic, the Qurʾān, hadith, legal theory and much else — to derive rulings from the sources. Most Muslims are not mujtahids and instead practise taqlīd, following a qualified authority; the schools of law are, in part, the institutional form this takes. A long-discussed thesis holds that Sunni Islam saw a "closing of the gate of ijtihād" after the formative schools matured, later scholarship working within them; modern historians and many contemporary jurists contest how real or complete that closure ever was.

The traditions differ sharply in emphasis. Twelver Shiʿism developed the institution of the marjaʿ al-taqlīd, in which lay believers follow a living, most-learned jurist (and, in the dominant Uṣūlī approach, must follow one who is alive) — a system that gives contemporary jurists standing authority. Sunni practice more typically follows the accumulated doctrine of a madhhab, though calls to return to direct ijtihād have recurred, prominently among reformist and Salafī currents in the modern era.

The stakes of the debate are practical: they concern who may speak for the law, how it adapts to new circumstances, and how change is legitimated. Reformers appeal to ijtihād to argue for renewal; traditionalists appeal to taqlīd and consensus to guard continuity and guard against untrained innovation. Chronicle records the positions and their reasoning without endorsing a side.

Related in Chronicle

Curated reference on Islamic belief and thought. On matters where traditions differ, positions are attributed rather than adjudicated; verify points of doctrine with qualified scholars.