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What is ijtihad?

ما الاجتهاد؟

Ijtihad is the exertion of effort to derive a ruling from the sources. The restricted form belongs to the jurist-mufti who issues fatwas; the unrestricted form belongs to one who reaches the rank of competence for legal derivation.

Depth

At a glance

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Scripture and its sciences

Overview

Ijtihad is exerting effort to derive a ruling from the evidence. A jurist restricted to a field is a faqih mufti, and one who reaches the rank of unrestricted derivation is an unrestricted mujtahid. 1

People and things also explored

The seven ahruf· Hadith· Shama'il Muhammadiyya· The Prophetic sira· The Prophetic Sunna· Command, prohibition and capacity· The Sunna as explanation of the Qur'an· Bid'a (religious innovation)

Sources

  1. Wikidata
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “What is ijtihad?”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/questions/what-is-ijtihad/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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Related

The seven ahruf

The Prophet's saying 'the Qur'an was revealed in seven ahruf, so read of it what is easy' — narrated through Umar's dispute with Hisham ibn Hakim over Surat al-Furqan; its exact meaning is one of the widest debates in Qur'anic sciences.