1- Our Need for New Fiqh (1): Dr. Ihssan Baadarani

Introduction:

Jurisprudence is the understanding of meanings, indications, and objectives in texts, regardless of their form—written, read, heard, spoken, or otherwise. This is evident in the words of Prophet Moses in the Quran: {And untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech}.

Jurisprudence means “the opening and uncovering of the closed and sealed” to reveal the reality of anything and reach its essence.

As for renewal, it means “not following tradition.” For those who wish to be jurists, Al-Ma’arri said:
You have given me the fatwa, so crown me tomorrow
With exemption from imitation.

We then ask: Is it not part of new jurisprudence to interpret necessity in its broadest sense as the jurisprudence of (the means) that protects us from a new world order that burns us with its fire and does not give us its light, and as the jurisprudence of (well-being) that heals us from its diseases and epidemics?

Exempting ourselves from renewal (if we have the reasons for it) only means that we were created in vain, or that we are dead in the bodies of the living.

If we know that jurisprudence means “opening and uncovering,” and that its original linguistic dimension is “understanding,” which is the meaning and dimension intended by the Prophet Muhammad in his saying: (Whomever Allah wishes good for, He grants him understanding of the religion), then this term has transformed after the prophetic era into a term that means legislation. We turned to dictionaries and their authors for guidance and were astonished not to find the meanings of opening and uncovering in some of them, like Al-Zamakhshari in his book Asas al-Balagha, until we found Ibn Manzur in his book Lisan al-Arab saying: “F-Q-H: jurisprudence is knowledge and understanding of something, predominantly religious knowledge due to its prominence and nobility.
Ibn al-Athir said: “Its derivation is from opening and uncovering, but custom has made it specific to the knowledge of Sharia.”

Required Reading Series
Authored by: Sheikh Dr. Ihssan Baadarani
From the book “Our Need for a New Fiqh in Islamic Sharia”