يسر الاجتهاد في ميزان الأصول

الملخص EN

Ijtihad (i.e.

independent juristic reasoning) is a lofty rank attained in each generation only by elite scholars.

However, there have recently been some voices calling for its facilitation and encouraging engagement in it on the pretext that it has become within the reach of many of those who tread the path of knowledge.

These voices base their claim on two arguments: First: The easiness of becoming eligible for ijtihad by studying a few books in some Islamic sciences.

Second: The easiness of the process of ijtihad in itself for the people of recent times due to the availability of an abundance of the references needed by the mujtahid (i.e.

one who is qualified for ijtihad ) when deriving rulings.

Both arguments have been refuted through several citations from the scholars of Usul al-Fiqh (i.e.

principles of Islamic jurisprudence), who stated that a scholar becomes a mujtahid only after he develops the faculty of deriving rulings of jurisprudence, which in order to be possessed requires a thorough examination of the sciences of ijtihad by a sharply intelligent person capable of capturing subtleties.

The second argument has been responded to from several aspects, most notably that the availability of an abundance of the references needed by the mujtahid does not contribute to the facilitation of his work, but rather complicates it more, because he is then required to do his utmost, for the greater the number of these references, the more the effort and time he will need to be able to go through them.