Islam's Message of Peace: Ijtihad and Qiyas

Islamic scholars from some 100 countries came together this weekend in İstanbul.

The Congress Center, one of the biggest conference centers in İstanbul, was crammed full of people coming to attend the meeting. The conference was titled "Ijtihad and Qiyas: The Richness of Islam." The first instance of this meeting, co-hosted by journals Yeni Ümit and Hira, had been held last year, resulting in positive feedback. Last year's conference was about ijtihad and this year's meeting was complementary to last year's.

What makes this meeting significant is that it represents one of the two conflicting views around the world. One of these views is marketed in serious and sober meetings while the other has become more visible in light of violent incidents. These views are based on an interpretation difference. The use of the terms "ijtihad" and "qiyas" in the title gives us hints about the key to understanding this difference.

Radical Islamic movements tend to stress the literal meanings of verses in the Quran and the Prophet's hadith. They argue that the injunctions in these verses and the hadith should be implemented directly and without any interpretation. Salafism is a sort of Islamic Puritanism which does not allow gray areas between black and white. Al-Qaeda and similar organizations have built themselves a world of violence based on these Salafi interpretations. These interpretations urge believers to live as in the time of the Prophet without changes or diversions. The inhibition of divergent interpretations and practices thus paves the way for conflicts. They see the world as being completely black and white and tend to declare anyone who holds diverse views as infidels. This stringent world is prone to producing violence.

Ijtihad and qiyas are mechanisms from the Quran and the Sunnah that can be used to produce solutions to the problems of our time. By using these mechanisms, we are able to realize that diversities are actually our assets and we can create common denominators for peaceful coexistence. In this context, this international conference was critical in terms of reinvigorating the dynamics of peace in the Muslim world.

Turkey has rich experience in terms of peaceful coexistence of diversities. Salafism is continually finding new recruits in the Muslim world, but it cannot penetrate Turkey. The reasons for this are the established imperial experience and the ongoing mystical interpretations of Islam via religious orders. Salafism rejects ijtihad and qiyas and is hostile to these mystical interpretations of Islam. On the other hand, Turkey can influence the masses with this mystical power. The entry of Salafism into Turkey is blocked by Islamic scholars who employ ijtihad and qiyas methods as well as religious orders.

Another meeting about Islam titled “Democratic Islam Congress" was held in Diyarbakır over the weekend. This meeting was rumored to be organized by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as ordered by PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Pro-Kurdish politicians are now more interested in religion. Oddly enough, this meeting, too, promotes peaceful interpretations of Islam. The PKK is fighting radical Islamist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Rojava or North Syria and at the same time is conducting a settlement process in Turkey. For this reason, it is quite natural for this meeting to market peaceful interpretations of Islam. Indeed, this meeting was dominated by Ali Bulaç's Charter of Medina thesis. This charter is a sort of constitutional text penned by the Prophet for the peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims. The fact that it was directly drafted by the Prophet constitutes a firm ground in the face of the Salafi mentality.

Two distant groups in Turkey are offering contributions to peaceful interpretations of Islam and this is portent to the existence of a very sound source for the Muslim world.