Bittersteel
IB Expert
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Originally Posted by Irshad Manji
It was the leader of progress and debate and critical thinking. This was during the golden age of Islam, for example, when Jews and Christians and Muslims worked together to preserve the works of Plato and Socrates and so forth. (insertion-huh?what's this)
There was a time when critical thinking was embraced and that tradition was called ijtihad. I know it sounds a lot like jihad to non-Arab ears and in fact it comes from the same root – to struggle. But unlike violent struggle ijtihad is all about independent reasoning and independent thinking.
I explain in the book that towards the end of the 11th century, for very political reasons - which we can go into if you are interested - the gates of ijtihad were deliberately closed; 135 schools of thought were whittled down to only four schools of thought. And today a thousand years later, most Muslims have inherited that legacy of a ban on independent thinking.
And I am asking my fellow Muslims, especially in the West but not only in the West, what is stopping us from rattling at the gates of ijtihad at the very least and if nothing else ripping off the lock and saying, it is time that we rediscovered our tradition of critical thinking.
;D
finally satan got some competition.
we need someone to write a refutation about this......"Islamic expert".