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[quote]saba2 -

I know that I am hardly qualified as a knowledgeable speaker myself on the matter, but I wanted to share this as perhaps it may offer some insight or further discussion.  The quote comes from the book [i]Islam: Religion, History, and Civilization[/i] by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, p. 79:

&quot;The great jurists (fuqaha', pl. of faqih) who codified the schools of law practiced the rendering of new opinions based on the basic sources, or what is called ijtihad.  In the Sunni world the gate of ijtihad became closed in the fourth/tenth century, and many authorities have been seeking to open it since the end of the nineteenth century.  In the Shi'ite world, the gate of ijtihad has always been open, and it is considered essential that in each generation those who have the qualifications to practice ijtihad, called mujtahids, go back to the Qu'ran, Sunnah, and Hadith (which for Shi'ites includes the sayings of the Shi'ite Imams) and reformulate in a fresh manner the body of the Law.&quot;

I am not sure if that is helpful or not.  I hope someone can provide you a better answer than I was able to find![/quote]

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