Nass , which includes the evidences of the Qur'an and the...

Nass , which includes the evidences of the Qur'an and the Sunna, is a main base that cannot be violated because it has offered many verdicts and solutions to many events and cases whether concerning the belief or the obligations and whether concerning the social and economical cases or any other human activity. Ijtihad moves from the main base that comprehends the postulates and rules that lead to conclude a verdict on a case that the nass has generalized or ignored.

This means that ijtihad acts after being armed with its scientific tools and means in accordance with the nass and walking in its ( nass’s ) circle - as the jurisprudents say - otherwise it will be a heresy. In order that an opinion is to be right according to a certain custom, it must be confirmed by the basic systems and principles of that custom.

This is the question that the title of the book raises but as for the motive behind this question, it is the judgments and verdicts the author has collected, through his wide research, which have been innovated by famous companions of the Prophet (S) and by their successors that have contradicted the basic rules of ijtihad . It would be better in this situation to put forth this question: What use is got from reviving an intellectual problem, whose time has elapsed long ago?

Does reviving it not cause a sedition that may delay the progress of the Ummah and may part its unity? The question is notable especially if we permit caution to control our thinking; the caution of the worry of general life, suspicion and illusion but if we try the question out according to the fixed practical criteria, we shall interpret it as the following: what use is got from paying attention to jurisprudence and its principles?

It is a question that if its meaning becomes more than a joke, it will do wrong to the reality and will remove an important intellectual matter from its place that has been deep-rooted in our present life.

Rectifying ijtihad and managing the ways, in which it is used, is a valuable intellectual act and it will have great importance when being applied according to its real bases since it has been founded until now on condition that is to be differentiated between the innovation of ijtihad and the crooked heresies.