Religious Authority in Islam: Between Classical Fiqh and Hadith Traditions in Contemporary Epistemological Discourse

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the paradigm of religious authority in the historical context of the early generation of Islam through the relationship between hadith narration (periwayatan) and fiqh ijtihad. The formation of a religious paradigm requires a comprehensive understanding of religious texts by combining normative and historical approaches. However, in the development of Islamic intellectualism, academic problems arose regarding religious authority, particularly in the relationship between hadith narration and fiqh ijtihad in the generatian early Islam. The debate over the authority of hadith and methods of understanding religious texts gave rise to various religious paradigms that continue to be influential into the contemporary. This study uses a descriptive-analytical method with a socio-historical approach and type of research by literature study. Data were analyzed through a systematic depiction of the social, political, and intellectual dynamics that influenced the formation of religious authority in the early Islam. The results of the study indicate three main findings. First, the Qur'an and hadith are the highest authorities in Islam, understood through normative and historical approaches by scholars who possess scholarly authority and are recognized in the Islamic scholarly tradition, particularly in the discipline of hadith. Second, the debate on the authority of hadith has been ongoing since the time of the imams of the madhhab between ahl al-fiqh and ahl al-hadith, which was then synthesized by Imam al-Shafi'i and Imam Ibn Qutaybah, and continues into the contemporary era with the emergence of a tendency towards textualism in understanding hadith. Third, the formation of religious authority in the early Islamic period was influenced by political, social, and scholarly background factors, but scholarly factors most effective influence and benefit in building the legitimacy of authority in the public sphere. This research recommends the need for further study in early of Islamic history in more depth by tracing the genealogy of scholarship, politics, and theology in various Islamic intellectual centers, such as Kufa, Egypt, Syria, and Bukhara, in order to strengthen contemporary readings of the legacy of early Islamic scholarship.