The Neo- Ijtihadist Phenomenon

Abstract This chapter evaluates and reconsiders some of the interpretive strategies and epistemological foundations of the current form of ijtihad. The basic thesis is that the moral rationalist presuppositions of Muslim reformers are diametrically opposed to the traditional jurists’ text-centered epistemological assumptions. The chapter contends that the current form of inferential jurisprudence (al-fiqh al-istidlali) should be replaced by …