Reclaiming Space for God-Talk: Theories of ijtihād and Intra-Muslim Differences in Matters of Belief

A substantive and dynamic God-talk demands space for difference. If there is no space for difference, there is little space to talk productively. When God-talk commences with the presumption that different opinions are flatly incorrect it often descends into dogmatic polemics; simply aimed at demonstrating the other is wrong, and one’s self correct. The risks, spiritual and social, of such purported God-talk are compounded when it is held that even the slightest error in belief is tantamount to disbelief. This study focusses its attention on reclaiming resources for accommodating differences in belief within the extensive and detailed theorisation of the phenomenon of ijtihād, the scholarly effort to understand sources that are not immediately or explicitly clear. The chapter examines the theory of ijtihād in matters of belief set forth by Ibn Taymiyya, the widely invoked 14th Century Sunni reformer, and al-Mīrzā al-Qummī, an important 19th Century Twelver Shī‛ī Uṣūlī reviver. In different times, and in different contexts, these two thinkers, coming from distinct theological traditions, argued for theories of ijtihād in matters of fundamental belief that can allow for an embrace of theological difference.
Neither Ibn Taymiyya nor al-Mīrzā al-Qummī were indifferent to truth. When it comes to matters of fundamental beliefs both assume there is a singular truth, in reality. It is clear from their writings that they both vigorously argued for the positions they believed to be correct. Yet neither defended theories of ijtihād in matters of beliefs that were intolerant to theological error. They both allow for the assumption that our errors, or limits, in theological understanding, may well be the sincere results of one’s best efforts and that theological error does not necessitate unbelief. The theories afford the possibility of theological discourse that encourages a pursuit of truth, with humility, through an engagement with difference- whether that difference be about revelation and prophecy, the subject matter of this volume, or the breadth of wider issues within the scope of Muslim God-talk past or present.