Al-Azhar Grand Imam, Prof. Ahmad At-Tayyeb, said that the call to sanctify the jurisprudential legacy, and equate its status with the Islamic Sharia leads to the stagnation of contemporary Islamic jurisprudence. This has already happened in our modern age as a result of literal adherence to the received fatwas or old doctrinal rulings that represented a renewal and kept pace with new events in the era in which they were issued. However, they may no longer be useful for today’s problems, which are not similar to those of the past except only superficially. 

During the eighteenth episode of his Ramadan program Grand Imam At-Tayyeb Talk, His Eminence explained today that what may surprise the viewer is that the issue of jurisprudential renewal, especially in the fields of family affairs, women issues, domestic relations, economy, banks and usury, and even political issues and others, is not a new issue born only today, or in this century. It takes long to explain that point but I confine myself to drawing attention to the fact that the debate about it in the form of dialogues, discussions, compositions and lectures have been known to people in Egypt for at least one hundred and twenty-five years. 

Al-Azhar Grand Imam indicated that Imam Muhammad Abdou, who died in 1905 AD, may Allah have mercy on him, had propagated among Muslims in the East and the West that Islam was broader and more merciful to people than the legal rulings taken exclusively from the Ḥanafī school of thought. The Ḥanafī doctrine was adopted by the Caliphate state at that time, to the exclusion of all other schools of thought.

Like other leaders of reform, he was specifically preoccupied with women's issues, yet the situation remained as it was before and after him: stagnation and fear of bearing the responsibility for change in situations that remained associated with the Sharia laws for centuries. Then came one of the professors at Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif from the Faculty of Law, Dr. Muhammad Yusuf Musa, who published in Al-Azhar magazine in May 1953 an informative article entitled: “Enough with Imitation in Jurisprudence” in which he criticized Al-Azhar scholars and his fellow Law Faculty professors. While they repeated the famous saying: “Sharia is valid for every time and place,” they were yet satisfied with merely repeating, and flirting with dreams and aspirations, without taking a single step on the path of realizing this saying, and applying it to the reality of people and their daily lives. 

His Eminence the Grand Imam also pointed out that Dr. Muhammad Yusuf was of the opinion that the main reason behind this stagnation, and the major obstacle that stands as an impenetrable wall in the path of renewal is “the obstacle of imitation that controlled their minds for centuries.” In addition, he specified another serious obstacle which he calls "surge in the desire for ijtihad (reaching new rulings through reasoning) and innovation by opening the doors to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who are not capable of ijtihad."  Those are among the people who believe that the time has come for this door to open wide, and that we have to issue new rulings that fit the time in which we live.

The danger of these people is that they think that the matter is easy and simple, and that they only have to contradict the fatwas of the ancient jurists. They think they are innovators, even though they do not have any knowledge that is necessary for everyone who may delve into this field. Al-Azhar Grand Imam sees that Dr. Muhammad Yusuf Musa, may Allah have mercy on him, hit the nail on the head. The latter drew attention to the fact that the cause of stagnation and the inability to renew is a compound problem of a lazy element and a reckless element, and that each of these two opposing elements tempts the other to be steadfast in a battle that would ultimately be lost. Each party provides the other with the causes of permanent obstruction and failure, the case which results in a very complex problem that leaves its disastrous effects to this day. “I personally still feel a little disappointed every time I think of a suitable solution to it”.

His Eminence added: When we read the writings of the leading jurists, we find a clear warning against imitation, as it is a path that inevitably leads to stagnation, killing the gifts of thinking and creativity. We read it all in their crystal clear statements: “Do not imitate me” and their saying: “Quote from where they had quoted” and their saying: “A man follows what was narrated from the Prophet (pbuh) and his Companions, then it is up to him whether to follow the Successors or not.” These aphorisms represent authentic narrations of Imam ˀAbu Ḥanīfa, Imam Aḩmad, Imam Ash-Shāfiˁī and Imam Mālik, may Allah be pleased with them.

His Eminence concluded the episode by saying: “I do not want to mislead you, honorable viewers, by making you think that I consider myself one of the scholars of renewal, or the knights of ijtihad. I  am much less than that, but I do not deny that I am one of those who have been tired of this stagnation for a very long time, which began with my travels between villages and cities of Upper Egypt and the city of Cairo, and some European, Arab and Asian cities. I watched the paradoxes that go from one extreme to the other. Despite the fact that Al-Azhar Ash-Sharif has recently been charged with stagnation and rejection of renewal, I bear witness before Allah and then before history that the matter was never like that. Rather, the whole matter was the opposite of what was claimed, but most people would not know it”