Kako razumijevamo idžtihad?
How do we understand Ijtihad?

Summary/Abstract: In this text, we intend to present different views on understanding the concept of ijtihad. We discuss the need to fulfill the prerequisites for someone to engage in ijtihad, examples of the ijtihad of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and his encouragement of the companions, may Allah be pleased with them him, to ijtihad. We would especially like to point out the contribution of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian ulema to understanding and solving the life problems of Bosnian Muslims at the end of the 19th and during the 20th centuries, which was reflected in their own ijtihad and interpretation of Islam in the context of Bosnian and Herzegovinian reality. Considering the content of the ideas, their carriers and socio-legal effects, the Bosnian and Herzegovinian ulema and intellectuals who dealt with the idea of ijtihad acted as secular modernists, religious modernists or as traditionalists. The ideas of Islamic modernist reformism in Bosnia and Herzegovina emerged during the Austro-Hungarian occupation, when they first came into direct contact with European political, legal, social and cultural institutions and values. At this time, the most common topics of discussion were the rejection or retention of symbols of the traditional Muslim way of life, the improvement of the legal and social position of women, the modernization of current Sharia law, the attitude towards the abolition of the Caliphate and the idea of pan-Islamism, the attitude of Muslims towards progress, the establishment of modern financial institutions, the emancipation and role of Muslim women in the “modern” world, and the reform of Islamic education. The meaning of modernist ideas in the field of ijtihad was most clearly manifested in their contrast and relationship to traditionalist understandings. Therefore, every discussion about modernism is simultaneously a discussion about traditionalism, and vice versa.

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