Maybe it is time - past time - to engage in building a new Islamic jurisprudence that will go beyond the framework, and the limitations, of the 4 ancient madhhabs? https://twitter.com/hambalium/status/1333799229626535936
It is a huge topic, but in a nutshell, the key to such a new jurisprudence (as the great Fazlurrahman put it well) would be:
1) Recognizing the #contextuality of the two main sources (Qur'an & Sunna).
2) Pursuing their "intentions" in the hugely dissimilar modern context.
1) Recognizing the #contextuality of the two main sources (Qur'an & Sunna).
2) Pursuing their "intentions" in the hugely dissimilar modern context.
3) Also making a distinction between the Sunna and the Hadith literature at hand will be crucially important. Sunna is sacred, but the Hadith literature gives us only human reports of it, which may be less accurate than what most Sunni jurists assumed in the past.
Moreover, there will be the inevitable question: Why would we ever do any of that? Why try to adopt to "the modern context"?
That requires more than jurisprudential rethinking. It requires theological rethinking - about human nature, conscience, "natural law," etc.
That requires more than jurisprudential rethinking. It requires theological rethinking - about human nature, conscience, "natural law," etc.