EN.MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, KLATEN – Secretary of the Muhammadiyah Central Board’s Council for Religious Opinion and Reform, Muhammad Rofiq Muzakkir, has described the council as the first collective ijtihad institutions in the Muslim world.
He made the statement on Friday (14/8) during the Muhammadiyah Tarjih Study Forum in Klaten. Rofiq explained that the council was established in 1927 following a proposal by Kiai Mas Mansur of Surabaya.
According to Rofiq, the establishment of the council marked a new chapter and a continuation of Muhammadiyah’s reform efforts. It marked the first time in the Muslim world that Islamic legal rulings formulation was institutionalized through collective ijtihad.
Explaining the process through which the Muhammadiyah Central Board’s Council for Religious Opinion and Reform formulates its legal rulings, Rofiq said that its products are developed through collective ijtihad. This differed from the prevailing practice in the Muslim world at the time, when ijtihad was generally conducted individually.
“Council for Religious Opinion and Reform was the first collective ijtihad institution established in the Muslim world. Before the council existed, Ijtihad was generally carried out by individuals (ijtihad fardi),” he said.
Rofiq said this historical fact challenges the widely held view that the first collective ijtihad institution in the Muslim world was the Islamic Research Academy (Majma‘ al-Buhuth al-Islamiyyah) under Al-Azhar University in Egypt.
The Islamic Research Academy was established in 1961, several decades after Majelis Tarjih was established in 1927.
Another similar institution was subsequently established: the Muslim World League’s Majma‘ al-Fiqh al-Islami. It was founded in 1962 under the Muslim World League, with Saudi Arabia as its principal sponsor.
