Methodological Necessities of System Making Based on the Views of Shahid Sadr

Assuming the necessity of theorization to regulate and guide social systems in Islamic societies as well as considering subjective and objective realities of the society and compliance with Islamic laws, this question arises: what is the methodological nature of these theories and what do they necessitate? Inspired by system making ideas of Shahid Sadr, this article tries to answer this question. Findings of this research which has adopted qualitative content analysis and techniques of Grounded Theory indicate that religious theory making about social systems requires covering three criteria of “consistency”, “viability’ and “religious justifiability”. Integration of rational, narrative and empirical methods is necessary in order to cover those three criteria. Each method has its own requisites concerning data collection methods, deduction and explanation methods and finally evaluation and judgment methods in the process of theorization. These three criteria can be integrated into ijtihad under a specific method; social understanding of the texts, free zones (without any ruling by God), dividing rulings into fixed and changeable, permissibility of the case where a mujtahid abandons his own fatwa and refers to the fatwas of other mujtahids in the process of system making are the most important theoretical building blocks in Shahid Sadr’s theory to support this type of ijtihad.