الاجتهاد
al-Ijtihād
Independent reasoning by a qualified scholar to derive rulings from the Quran, the Sunna and the other legitimate sources.
What it means
Ijtihād comes from the root j-h-d, meaning to exert effort, and it names the exertion of a qualified jurist to reach a ruling on a matter that the sources do not settle directly. Faruqi calls it creative self-exertion to derive laws from the legitimate sources. It works with the Quran, the Sunna, consensus and analogy, and the person doing it is called a mujtahid. A well-known hadith says that a judge who exerts himself and judges correctly has two rewards, and one who errs has one (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim). The saying shows that sincere effort is valued even when the result is mistaken.
Often misunderstood as
It is mistaken for private opinion or freedom to reinterpret the religion at will, but it is a disciplined method that only trained scholars may use.
What the sources say
Scholars set conditions for the mujtahid: knowledge of Arabic, the Quran, hadith and the principles of jurisprudence. A long-running debate asks whether the “gate” of ijtihad closed in later centuries, and many modern scholars say that it did not.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 52, listed as AL IJTIHĀD. The definition is restated here.