Ijma Flashcards

1
Q

Literal meaning of ijma

A

“to agree on something”

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2
Q

What is ijma?

A

Unanimous agreement of all the Islamic legal scholars of any time period on any legal matter after the death of Prophet Muhammad

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3
Q

Proofs of ijma

A
  • AQ 3:110
  • AQ 2:143
  • Hadith - “My community shall never agree on an error”
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4
Q

Importance of ijma

A
  1. Prevents formation of controversial and contradictory legal opinions
  2. An instrument of tolerance and of the evolution of ideas
  3. Ensures the AQ and Sunnah are interpreted correctly and ijtihad is properly carried out
  4. Enhances authority of speculative rulings
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5
Q

How does ijma prevent controversial or contradictory legal opinions?

A
  • If there are a lot of different opinions, scholars would discuss which opinion is the most relevant
  • First practiced in Medina after the death of Prophet Muhammad
  • Companions would consult each other’s opinions if they encountered legal problems
  • Their collective agreement would be accepted by the community
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6
Q

Why ijma is instrument of tolerance?

A
  • Ijma’ begins with ijtihad when legal scholars make decisions on matters not covered by the AQ or the Sunnah
  • Resulting differences in opinion tolerated until consensus is reached
  • Tolerance of different opinions contributed to evolution of ideas
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7
Q

How does ijma ensure AQ, Sunnah interpreted correctly and ijtihad is proper?

A
  • Doubt on whether a legal ruling has been properly derived from the sources of Syariah law, especially for ijtihad
  • If ijma’ is reached, the doubt can be safely put to rest
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8
Q

How does ijma enhances authority of speculative rulings?

A
  • Speculative legal rulings do not have binding force due to unclear manner of construction
  • if speculative legal ruling is supported by ijma’, it becomes legal rule that all Muslims are legally bound to follow
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9
Q

Conditions of ijma’

A
  1. At least more than one legal scholar who are all capable of ijtihad
  2. Agreement must be unanimous
  3. Scholars must express their agreement verbally or in writing
  4. All the legal scholars participating in ijma’ must be from the ummah of Prophet Muhammad
  5. Can only be practiced after the death of Prophet Muhammad
  6. Agreement must be reached by legal scholars belonging to the same time period
  7. Agreement must be concerning a rule of law or hukm syarie
  8. Scholars encouraged to rely on sanad or evidence while performing ijma’
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10
Q

“Agreement must be unanimous”

Conditions of ijma

A

Means all the legal scholars of the community must uniformly agree on a matter

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11
Q

Why ijma can only be practiced after the death of PM?

Conditions of ijma

A
  • Agreement made between the Companions during the Prophet’s lifetime is not ijma’
  • If the Prophet was present, it would be part of the Sunnah
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12
Q

Why scholars encouraged to use sanad while performing ijma’?

Conditions of ijma

A

Ensures that legal scholars carry out ijtihad before arriving at their conclusion

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13
Q

Why agreement must be concerning legal rule?

Conditions of ijma

A

Agreement concerning non-legal matters such as theology is not ijma’

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14
Q

Types of ijma

A
  1. Ijma’ Sarih (explicit ijma’)
  2. Ijma’ Sukuti (implicit ijma’)
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15
Q

Ijma’ Sarih (explicit ijma’)

A
  • All scholars involved must express their opinions explicitly in writing
  • Most legal scholars agree explicit ijma’ is an authoritative source of Islamic law
  • Legal ruling based on ijma’ has authority of a legal ruling derived from the AQ or Sunnah
  • Muslims are legally bound to accept and follow legal rules derived by ijma’ without question
  • Forbidden to carry out ijtihad on particular matter if a consensus has been reached
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16
Q

Ijma’ Sukuti (implicit ijma’)

A
  • When only one or a few legal scholars present their opinion on legal matter to scholar community
  • Most scholars of community only kept silent and did not acknowledge at all
17
Q

Views on whether ijma’ sukuti is valid source of law

A
  1. Shafi’ie and Hanafi schools - Not true ijma’ or even probable proof
  2. Shi’ie and Hanabali schools - Legally binding source of Islamic law
  3. Some legal scholars from Shafi’ie and Hanafi schools - not true ijma’ but still regarded as probable proof
18
Q

Why Shafi’i and Hanafi schools do not accept ijma sukuti as valid ijma or probable proof?

A
  1. Do not agree that silence is not consent
  2. Argument - scholars could have kept silent out of respect or fear of the scholar presenting his opinion or they had not formed an opinion at the time
  3. Considers ijma’ sukuti to be presumptive ijma’ that does not prohibit fresh ijtihad
19
Q

Why Shi’ie and Hanabali schools view ijma sukuti as legally binding source of law?

A
  1. Believes silence indicates consent
  2. Argument - no evidence indicating a lack of consent
  3. Evidence – some scholars who kept silent already knew about the opinion and had enough time to investigate the matter
  4. Since they still chose to keep silent, their silence was regarded as consent
20
Q

Why some legal scholars from Shafi’ie and Hanafi schools view ijma sukuti as probable proof?

A

Because scholars who kept silent did not object to the opinion’s validity