At the kind invitation of Dar Al-Hadith Al-Hasaniyya Foundation at Al-Qarawiyyin University in the Kingdom of Morocco, H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustpha Sano, Secretary General of the Academy, delivered a lecture on “The Need for Humanities in Ijtihad and Ifta in the Current Era”, in the first scientific session of the international symposium organized by the Foundation entitled “Teaching Human Sciences in Institutions of Religious Higher Education: The Present and the Future,” on Tuesday, 26 Shawal 1444, corresponding to 16 May 2023, at the institution’s headquarters in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

His Excellency began his lecture by extending his sincere thanks and appreciation to those in charge of Dar Al-Hadith Al-Hasaniya Foundation for their warm welcome, and for their successful organization of this important scientific symposium in the present era, praising the importance of the topic and the necessity of multiplying similar seminars and conferences that aim of enhancing awareness of the importance of the humanities, and highlighting the scientific and methodological need to teach them in institutions of religious higher education, praying God to perpetuate on the Moroccan people more security, stability and prosperity. His Excellency then spoke of the concepts of his lecture, in which he emphasized that “both Ijtihad and issuing fatwas have become an industry and a task that cannot be practiced by anyone. The scholars of Usul and Maqasid went on early in history with the codification of sciences to surround it with a solid fence of conditions and controls that prevent it from being compromised. Sometimes, with the tools of ijtihad and fatwas at other times, and with the mechanisms of ijtihad and fatwas at other times..”

His Excellency then explained that the Sharia ruling has three pillars, which are the Lawgiver represented in the Quran and the Sunnah and the evidence that derives from them known as sub-evidence, or rational evidence, and the second pillar is meant by the person who is charged, and as for the third pillar, it is the one who is judged in it, and it means the act that is the subject of the assignment. His Excellency added, saying that the intended goal of diligence and fatwa is “to achieve a trustworthy link between the Revelation from the Sky and the reality on earth, and to enable man to carry out the duty of succession and prospering the universe,” which means that the subject of each of the two , ijtihad and ifta, revolves around understanding the text (the revelation = the ruler), understanding the human being (= the one who is judged = the one charged), and understanding the reality (= the one who is judged or by it = the subject of the assignment), and that is for the sake of “ Ensuring human compliance with what was brought by the Revelation (= the sacred text), and ensuring the excitement of reality with its lofty teachings, in order to ward off the specter of conflict and contradiction between the text and the human being on the one hand, and between the text and reality on the other hand.

His Excellency pointed out that “the one who meditates on the tools and instruments considered by the former scholars of usul and maqasid as the most important conditions for practicing the industry finds most of them knowledge and sciences that enable the listener to understand the text with a rational and graceful understanding; As for those knowledge and sciences that enable him to understand man, they are sober and solid in parallel, we think that they did not receive the same proper care, nor that desired care, in order to root their foundations and liberate their contents, just as we think that the desired attention and the expected liberation of these knowledge and sciences that enable him to understand The reality that is intended to be adapted and subjugated to the will of the honorable Lawgiver has not yet obtained what it deserves in terms of rooting, analysis, and investigation. Therefore, we call from here, from the well-established Dar Al-Hadith Al-Hasaniyya Foundation, to the necessity of reconsidering the classification of the sciences and tools of ijtihad and fatwas so that it becomes an objective, balanced and reliable classification. With the sciences and knowledge that helped to understand the sacred text as sciences and knowledge for Ijtihad and fatwas, and also relied on the sciences and knowledge that helped to understand man, and to understand reality in a sound, sober understanding that was no less deep and accurate than the previous ones, and that was to ensure a safe and effective usage of the requirements and significance of the text that is fixed on man and the reality…”

With regard to the first type of science and knowledge, it is represented by what is known as the legitimate sciences and knowledge, and the knowledge of the Arabic language as well, the knowledge of the roots of religion, the science of hadith, the science of jurisprudence, the science of difference = comparative jurisprudence, and the knowledge of purposes/maqasid. As for the second type of sciences and knowledge, it is represented in those sciences and knowledge that are labeled with human sciences and knowledge..”And he added that “enabling ijtihad and issuing fatwas to bring about the desired and sustainable change in man and reality today requires mastering the basic principles that make up those sciences and knowledge, and also requires his saturation with the major theories that organize them, in addition to the need to supervise the curricula and the research tools in it that are equivalent to the methods of inference and deduction.” And he also added: “The implication of this proposed classification of the sciences and knowledge of the fiqh and fatwa is the need to overcome that schizophrenia between religious sciences and human sciences, and the need to carry out a prudent and honest review of the curricula and courses so that they become curricula capable of preparing an empowered and balanced generation of scholars and thinkers who understand the sacred text (= revelation = Example) They are sober, and they understand the human being and the reality that affects him and is affected by him.

Our basis for this call, is what the reader may find in many books and works that talked about the conditions of ijtihad and issuance of fatwas, from the firm belief that their masters have knowledge of reality as one of the conditions of ijtihad, and knowing people well is a condition of issuing fatwas. However, one does not find in the midst of that analysis and elaboration of those sciences and knowledge specific to these two knowledges. He then explained that “the predecessors have their excuse for not stating the sciences and knowledge called sciences and human knowledge within the sciences and knowledge of Sharia, given that these sciences and knowledge were not codified in their eras, which made it impossible to stipulate them at that time. For our current era, that excuse is no longer acceptable, because these knowledge and sciences are today written, available and facilitated for learning and furthering, which nullifies with it every excuse or reluctance to not stipulate them..”. Therefore, today the human sciences should be relied upon as one of the conditions for ijtihad and fatwas in our present era, as they are sciences that provide a reasonable explanation for the phenomena surrounding man in their various manifestations and formations, as they are available on specific research methods and tools for a good understanding of reality, and for an understanding of duty in reality without affectation; and of course, it goes without saying that it is not required of the one who practices ijtihad and issuing fatwas to reach the degree of specialists in all the knowledge and sciences mentioned by the scholars of the Fiqh principles and maqasid, whether to know the text or to know the reality and know the human being, but it is sufficient for him to master the basic principles of them, and that is according to all of them sciences, instruments and means, not just sciences of purposes, as Ibn Khaldun pointed out in his introduction..”

His Excellency concluded his lecture by stating that the need for human sciences by both the mujtahid and the mufti is considered one of the most important acts of worship, in order to achieve the objectives of his Ijtihad and fatwa, which is to achieve the predominance of religion over reality, and to guide life with the teachings of Sharia based on balance, coherence, harmony and stability.