The 6th century of Islam witnessed the first emergence of the new class of
‘ulama that tended to “close” the gate of ijtihad. By the closure of the gate of ijtihad I do
not mean that the gate of ijtihad can indeed be closed. At some point of its development,
the legal system of various schools of thought of Islam has finally been established, the
resultant consequence of which being that some ‘ulama felt that ijtihad can only be done
on elaborating further the views of the previous ‘ulama and not on proposing original
views on particular legal issue of Islam. Al-Suyuti emerged during the era where legal
system of Islam has already been established. He claims interestingly, that he is a mujtahid
mutlaq, that is, some one who has the absolute and independent authority to do ijtihad
and to extrapolate rules from the legal sources of Islam. This comes as a sharp contrast
to the general belief at the time that no mujtahid mutlaq may any longer emerge. Al-
Suyuti wrote al-Radd to legitimize his claim; a claim that inevitably prompted a strong
objection from his fellow legalists. Although his claim was not received with enthusiasm
from the public, al-Suyuti has nonetheless made a valuable contribution in the field of
the study of ijtihad. His works are applauded as a great evaluation on the subject. On
various occasions, al-Suyuti wrote that the Muslim intellectuals should not be satisfied
with the views of the previous ‘ulama (taqlid) and that they should instead exercise their
intellectual acumen via ijtihad.