The Islamic values have been obscured centuries ago when the...

The Islamic values have been obscured centuries ago when the Caliphates began to symbolize monarchies rather than typify any sustained human qualitative excellence (conducive to the divine vicegerancy on the earth of man), such as exemplified and sought by the Holy Prophet (May God's Peace and Benediction be upon him) and the pious Imams (May God's peace be upon them). Iqbal, too, realizes the paramount importance of the principle of "Tauheed".

He considers it to be "the foundation of world-unity."3 For, he points out, the principle "demands loyalty to God, not to thrones."4 He commends its retrieval from the long-accumulated heathenist encrustment of Islam due to the loss of the religion's "universal and impersonal character...

through a process of localization", so as to rediscover the original verities of freedom, equality and solidarity with a view to rebuild our moral, social and political ideals out of their original simplicity and universality"5. Iqbal considers that eternal principles, such as "Tauheed", are necessary for regulating a society's collective life "for the eternal gives us a foothold in the world of perpetual change"6.

He attributes the failure of Europe in political and social sciences to what appears to be their renunciation of eternal principles. Further, he points out that the Islamic principles should not be "understood to exclude all possibilities of change, which, according to the Qur'an is one of the greatest 'signs' of God"7. He cites "the immobility of Islam during the last 500 years"8 as a case in point.

Then, he proceeds to identify "the principle of movement" inherent in Islam as that of "Ijtihad".9 "Ijtihad" literally means a "painstaking effort" of a positive kind, carried out to the utmost of one's capability. In the context of Islamic Fiqh, it refers to any extraordinary attempt at discerning the meaning and practical significance of the Shari'a Laws and Commandments for the purpose of inferring their applicability to changing situations.

In the year 665 AH/1245 AD, it was formally announced in Egypt that no school of jurisprudence ('Fiqh') other than that of the Hanafi, Shafe'i, Maliki and Hanbali (Sunni sub-sects) could be officially recognized. This has had the effect of "closing the gate of Ijtihad" for Sunni Muslims.