Ijma (1)

We have so far discussed many interesting topics in the realm of istidlal i.e. how to derive rulings from the sources. This is the end (and potentially most interesting) side of fiqh, but behind this, there is a wealth of learning. This istidlal gives an insight into the rulings of scholars but all of these deductions requires understandings of many different topics such as Usul, Rijal, Tafsir…etc., and the next few blogs gives an insight into the scholarship/discussions that occur about each of these sources as well. This hopefully will show that the istidlal, although seemingly straightforward, has a lot of complications that are not always easy to understand.

There are several ways of determining whether something is actually from the Prophet/Imam:

1. Tawatur (many independent chains of narrations)
2. Ijma’ (consensus)
3. Shuhrah (widely known)
4. Sirat al-mutasharri’ah (normative practices of observant believers)
5. Khabar al-wahid al-thiqah (traditions which have a sound chain of transmission)

Ijma’ was used in the previous discussion about Bulugh and a few people have expressed their interest in how it really makes sense and why we use it. In the next few blogs, I will detail Shahid Muhammad Baqir Sadr’s view (with my own comments) in his Halaqat (I have used Ayrawani’s commentary on Halaqat al-Thalitha to supplement this).

Ijma’ (/Shurah) means consensus (/widely known), and it is when all (/most) scholars at one time, close to the time of the Imam/Prophet, agree to a ruling. If one scholar has a ruling, there are two possibilities:

1. He relied on verbal evidence from the Imam/Prophet (or others)
2. He made a mistake

Now if there are lots of scholars at one time, close to the time of the Imam/Prophet agreeing to a ruling, there is more chance that there is the existence of some verbal evidence (by probabilities).The point is that this should be taken into consideration IF they yield evidence of verbal evidence.

In the next blog, we will discuss some of the proofs, what is meant by them and their limitations...and then move onto the main conditions of the ijma'...enjoy!