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.

Exploring Grade 10 Students’ Conceptions About the Nature of Science

Students’ conceptions of the Nature of Science (NOS) greatly influence their understanding of science and scientific knowledge. Therefore, an understanding of NOS is considered to be important in order to develop informed conceptions about science among the learners. Thus, by exploring the learners’ current understanding of NOS will help the teachers and educators of science to make their interventions in right direction. This study aimed to explore Grade 10 students’ conceptions about the four selected aspects of NOS that are the empirical nature of science, tentativeness, scientific method and scientific theories and laws. This study was conducted under the qualitative research paradigm. A sample of 28 students participated in this study and among them six were selected for semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling. Two types of research tools, Views of Nature of Science (VoNOS) and Nature Of Science Research Protocol (NOSRP) were used to collect data. Both the tools were modified to suit the purpose of the study. The interview data was audio-taped and transcribed. The data was analyzed by coding and categorizing it under the four predetermined themes. The findings revealed that participants in this study held adequate views about the empirical nature of science. Most of the participants held adequate views and some of them possessed mixed-views about the tentative Nature of Science. Regarding the scientific method most of the students’ possessed inadequate views and few of them held mixed views. All participants demonstrated inadequate views about laws and theories. The findings of the study revealed that, most of the students have inadequate views about NOS. Thus, an immediate help is needed in this regard to improve students’ understanding of NOS. This study also draws the attention of the stakeholders toward teachers’ professional development and inclusion of the concepts of NOS in science textbooks.