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From Issue: 631 [Read full issue]
Revelation and Reason
As revelation ended with the death of the Prophet and reason was accorded a greater importance, ot the extent of considering its proper use (ijtihad) and act of ibadah (worship), it goes without saying that reason has an important role in conducting this life. Reason has no role to play if there is a clear-cut revealed statement, since revelation supersedes reason. If there is no specific revealed statement on a given issue, then reason must be used to distinguish between good and bad and to direct man to the right path.
Over time, the strong pressures of life led some people to regard all revealed statements as non-conclusive, thereby nullifying and voiding revelation. This might have been the result of confusing the two levels of the intellectual approach to revelation: understanding revelation and establishing rules.
If those who fell under the pressures of life had merely questioned the applicability of conclusive revealed statements to life, their positions would have been regarded as ijtihad. Instead, they challenged the definite understanding of revelation, claiming that it should be changed. They believed that they were pursuing the way of Umar ibn al Khattab, who they thought had voided the hadd (punishment) for theft (cutting off the hands of thieves) during the "Year of the Famine." In fact, he neither changed nor suspended that punishment, which remains conclusive; rather, he believed that the punishment lacked the conditions for it to be applied at that particular time. Therefore he applied ijtihad; he did not change the definite understanding of revelation.
Compiled From:
"The Vicegerency of Man" - Abd al Majid al Najjar, pp. 84, 85