Ijtihad As a Legislative Function: Role of Ijtihad, Ifta and Taqleed in Legislative Process

In Islamic legislation Ijtihad plays an important role and has central position in the whole process. Demands of life change day by day thus it become necessary to take on the structural review of Islamic laws keeping in mind the spirit and discipline of Islamic. Ijtihad thus play as a perfect tool for legislation. Regarding fatawas the jurists followed the methodologies of companions, tabieen, and taba Tabaeen. In cases in which they did not find any legal opinion of their teachers related to a specific problem they themselves tried to find out the solution for that problem from the relevant Texts and formulate their own fatawa. In Pakistan the Judiciary that performs the task of interpretation for law-making, Majlis-e-Shura and various Ulama are exercising the job of Ifta. The Council of Islamic Ideology is the official legislative body of fatawa. Taqleed is also an acceptable mode of legislation whose proofs are evident from Quran and Sunnah. It has been used as a source of legislation in Pakistan as well. In constitution of Pakistan article 189 and 201 are related to Taqlid. Article 189 and 201 makes the decisions of Supreme Court binding on all courts and the High court judgments binding on all subordinate courts. Thus the legislative process in Islam employs the methods of Ijtihad, Ifta and Taqlid as a perfect tool of legislation.

Sufi Literature As a Source of Social History: A Study of 14Th Century Text, Siyar Al-Awliya

The historiographical writings produced by the court writers in medieval north India focused on lives of the sultans and their nobles, rebellions, military campaigns, conquests, and administration. This statist discourse represented elite culture and seems silent on the sociocultural, socio-religious, spiritual and intellectual life of the common people. Resultantly, social history of medieval India remained an ignored area of study. Social history is interested in studying long-run trends and structures in society and culture. It focuses on experience rather than events or actions, while identifying patterns from daily life. Keeping this in view, the historiographical gap on social history of medieval India can be adequately filled by sufi literature and its varied genres. It can help construct a more informed view of social history of medieval India, with a particular focus on its ‘Indo-sufi culture’. The present research aims at emphasizing the significance of sufi literature in the historic literary traditions of South Asian history. It explores the formation and functioning of the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century north Indian society by utilizing tadhkirah literature with a particular focus on Siyar al-awliyā [Biographies of the Sufis] authored by Amir Khurd Kirmānī, a Chishtī adept, in 1361-64. Based on Siyar al-awliyā, the present study offers a vivid account of a diverse range of social, cultural, religious, intellectual, spiritual aspects of medieval India ranging from, but not limited to, the development of vernacular languages and dialects, place of women, Muslim education, food culture, dressing trends, building and construction, prevalent diseases, spiritual life, recognition of female spirituality, question of conversion, Hindu-Muslim relations, ‘ulema-sufi and khanqāh-madrassa dichotomies, curricula and scholarship, transmission of knowledge and methods of teaching, production of sufi and non-sufi literature, and issues, principles and writings on samā‘or devotional sufi music. In addition, it offers an overview of varied forms of state-sufi relationship, such as meditational, symbiotic and conflictual, as well as socio-economic profile of medieval India. In a nut shell, the study argues that sufi tadhkirah writings help provide profound insights into minute details of social realities in medieval India. Modern scholars like Richard M. Eaton, Shehzad Bashir, Nile Green along with others also highlight the importance of xi utilizing sufi literature and urge to use these writings to fill the gaps in socio-historical perspective on history. The present study opens a window to our past and serves as corrective to many of the mistaken assumptions regarding Muslim-Hindus divide, absence of female Sufis, and strict segregation of sexes in sufi khanqahs. The study brings to the fore the dire need to shift our focus of research from state-centred court writings to lesser-studied sources of history like sufi tadhkirahs