The General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Scholars responded to the call made by Sheikh Saleh Al-Maghamsi to establish a new Islamic jurisprudence school (as an invitation that lacks objectivity and realism). Islamic jurisprudence, with its considered jurisprudential schools, and its various jurisprudences, responds to all the demands of modern life, and reconciles its needs with Islamic law.
The Islamic schools of thought in general are the foundation on which any doctrinal renewal is based, and from them the starting point is based on interest and need, so that the jurisprudential heritage remains an indispensable pillar for every diligent person to illuminate the path in understanding the teachings of the great religion.
Islamic jurisprudence is the product of the jurisprudence of the scholars of the sects according to their available capabilities at the time, and they concluded with their inferred rulings that may differ and contradict different opinions, and with the passage of time they become incompatible with the requirements of the era due to the difference in today’s environment from the environment of governance that appeared, so it was necessary to renew the existing jurisprudence to match the interest and meet the needs of reality and facilitation In jurisprudential rulings, especially transactions, the need descends into the status of necessity, whether it is public or private, but the rejection of existing jurisprudence, as Sheikh Al-Maghamsi demanded that God establish a new Islamic jurisprudential school on his hands, is an out of place saying, as jurisprudence is not a book to be written, but urgent issues and perplexing questions that are raised .
Another point he cited in his presentation was his saying that “The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was reviewed, and he is the master of creation!
So our honorable Messenger, yes, is reviewing, but in worldly matters, such as the issue of the pollination of palm trees and its descent on the day of Badr, and Hubab Ibn Al-Mundhir’s objection to this site and his saying, “Is it a house revealed to you by God, or is it opinion and intrigue?” He said, “Rather, it is opinion and intrigue.” A human being, so he judged by oath, and he judged by a witness and an oath, and he said, “If I command you with something from your religion, then take it, and if I command you with something from my opinion, then I am only human.”
And the Almighty says: “It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when God and His Messenger have decreed a matter, that they should have any choice in their matter.”
And there is no evidence of the necessity of renewal in a way that suits the need, what Caliph Umar did, who looked at the public interest, so he changed many of the prevailing rulings, such as his prohibition to give alms to those whose hearts are to be reconciled, and he said, “May God honor Islam and make it indispensable for them.” In the year of ashes, and his prohibition of selling the mother of the boy, who is the slave girl who gave birth to her master, and his saying, “Our blood has mixed with their blood and many other things, in which he took into account the priority of the interest and the need of society.”
Jurisprudence went through different evolutionary stages. Al-Shafi’i has the old one in jurisprudence when he was in Iraq and he has the new one when he lived in Egypt, such as his fatwa on water used to impose purity. Camel meat does not invalidate ablution, and the Maliki school has one method for the Iraqis and another for the Moroccans.
The jurist will not be able to infect the truth unless the reality in which he strives is represented in its framework, so one of the reasons for the difference of jurists was the difference in the reality in which they live, so that the difference in the jurisprudence of one jurist is due to the difference in the changing reality in which he lives, whether it is related to place, time or customs.
Jurisprudence is inherited and has no infallibility, as it changes, changes, and adapts the necessary jurisprudential adaptation of the issue according to what people’s lives and livelihoods are going on, and what they settle on in terms of customs, traditions, customs, and what emerges in them from calamities and events.
So the truth of the emerging incident is determined and attached to an existing jurisprudential origin or ijtihad for it, especially since the jurists of the previous schools did not close the door and did not tell us to take our jurisprudence that we extracted and never ijtihad after us.
Jurisprudence believed that the change of reality is from the laws of God in the universe, so he built for himself a rule that stated that he does not deny the change of rulings based on custom and interest by changing times, places and circumstances, so it is (a difference of an era and time, not a difference of argument and proof).
The Sharia is its basis and its building is the interests of the people, so the jurisprudence must harmonize between the constants of the Sharia and the requirements of the times, and this is the advantage of jurisprudence.
Jurisprudence is one of the human sciences that we are indispensable for. The legal texts are fixed, the facts are different, the events are accelerating, and developments that were not known during the era of the Prophethood are seen like a torrential torrent, so it was necessary to refer to the texts and extract their secrets and achieve the goals and objectives of the Lawgiver and the goals of human existence on this earth. Bodies, synagogues and scholars not to the aspirations of individuals.
We must develop and renew our existing jurisprudence to suit the calamities of our time and its developments, and not say that it is the reason for our backwardness or create a new doctrine that is separated from our previous jurisprudence.
The jurists of the schools worked hard according to their capabilities and the tools available at the time, and presented a summary of their knowledge and left the door open for us to strive for the innovations of our time and link renewal to the foundations and tools of our jurisprudence.
Najeeb Yamani