Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Reason, Faith & Authority: a Shiite Perspective Who is a faqih? A faqih or mujtahid or Ayatollah is the one who has the quality of ijtihad. Technically, ijtihad means 'the process of deriving religious rulings from their religious sources'. For example, it is the role of such person to discover Islamic view on banking or politics or international relations.
Of course, the procedure is very sophisticated.32 Sometimes for one single fatwa (edict) to be issued, ijtihad might involve weeks of enquiry and investigation of religious sources. Obviously ijtihad must be based on revelation and reason.33 Previous Next