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Shariah, Ijithad and Civil Society |
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The notion that the Shariah is divine and therefore irreversible is not a correct one. The Shariah is partly divine and partly human. It is divine inasmuch as it is based on the Qur’an and it is human because it is the human approach to understanding divine communication, which is why it cannot be treated as exclusively divine. Unfortunately, however, the ulama have given Muslims the impression that it is exclusively divine and immutable. There is the human approach, which depends on a number of factors: first, the way in which we were brought up, perhaps the key factor in our understanding of the Qur’an; secondly, cultural environment; and, thirdly, the age in which we live and the values which are paramount in that age. |
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