አልዩ አባተ ይማም, አመክንዮኣዊ የሸሪዓ ሕግ ምርምር (ኢጅቲሓድ)፡- ዘዴው፣ እርከኖቹ እና ዘመነኛ እድገቶቹ

Abstract

Sharia has three main sources: the first two, Quran and Sunnah, constitute a transmitted or revealed sources of knowledge whose rules and principles are deduced from traditions. The third source of Sharia is rational thinking referred to in the Sharia literature as Ijtihad. The first two revealed sources of the Sharia have a generalist feature whereby their content is dominated by broad principles of law and objectives of law, leaving the wider corpus of specific rules to be covered by independent reasoning of scholars. This approach of the Sharia aims at enabling the Sharia to be amenable to changing realities of a society through the instrumentality of Ijtihad. While the introductory literature of Ijtihad provides basic explanation of its meaning and characteristics as a source of Sharia, this paper, perhaps being the first Amharic work on the topic, delves into technical aspects of independent Sharia reasoning, which includes governing principles, methodology and requirements for the proper practices of Ijtihad as developed by Sharia jurists (Mujtahids) of early and contemporary periods. In relation to the interpretation and application of Sharia in Ethiopia on personal matters and, recently, on interest free financial transactions, it is definitely very important for Sharia courts, practitioners and regulators of Islamic finances to acquaint themselves with the methodology of Ijtihad to ensure flexibility in the understanding and application of relevant Sharia laws and realize that all juristic and scholarly exercises of Ijtihad is directed towards the fulfillment of Sharia objectives (Maqasid) at all levels.