Tajdid / Renewal and Revival (تَجْدِيد)

Definition

Tajdid (تَجْدِيد) — "renewal, revival" — refers in Islamic thought to the periodic revitalization of the Muslim community's understanding and practice of their religion, as foretold in the hadith: "God will send to this Community at the head of every century one who will renew for it its religion" (Abu Dawud, authenticated by multiple scholars). Qaradawi provides a decisive clarification: tajdid does not mean altering Islam or creating a "new edition" adapted to the age. Rather, it means "the reversion of it to where it was in the epoch of the Messenger and his Companions, and of those who followed them with sincerity. It means: the revival of ijtihad in it, and recourse to its original wellsprings, liberation from inflexibilit

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