On January 12, the IIIT lectures series for CIS countries, organized by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and the Institute for the Integration of Knowledge (IKI), continued with a lecture “Ijtihad in the Heritage of Islam” by Dr. Ramil Adygamov, PhD in History, head of the Arabic language and humanities department of Kazan Islamic University, as well as the chairman of the ulema council of the Centralized religious organization the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Dr. Adygamov's presentation consisted of the following parts: the Arabian Peninsula before Islam; the emergence of Islamic Sharia; Ijtihad at the time of the Prophet, Companions, Tabi’un; emergence of madhhabs and Ijtihad; the idea of closing the gates of ijtihad; Tatar theologians about ijtihad.
In his lecture, Ramil Adygamov spoke in detail on the pre-Islamic period, explained the geographical conditions, characteristics of the population of that time.
The lecturer offers to define Ijtihad as making maximum efforts in any deed. “Making an effort to get rid of doubts and comprehend the (most probable) solution that is closest to the truth.” Dr. Adygamov also briefly reviewed the interpretation of ijtihad by modern researchers in the Russian Federation and other countries.
At the end, the lecturer elaborated in detail on the views of Tatar theologians about ijtihad at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 20th centuries.
In the second part of the meeting, the participants had an opportunity to get answers for their questions, particularly about the impact of international events and processes on the modern understanding of ijtihad, about the geographical specifics of understanding ijtihad and the universal approach to prayer time in the Arctic Circle.
More than 20 participants from different countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other countries, took part in the meeting.
The next lecture is planned for the end of January, and in the near future its announcement will appear on both the IIIT CIS lectures and the Institute of Knowledge Integration Facebook pages.
