Ijtihad (Arabic اجتهاد) is a technical term of
Islamic law that describes the process of making a legal
decision by independent interpretation of the legal sources, the
Qur'an and the Sunnah. The opposite of ijtihad is taqlid, Arabic
for "imitation". A person who applied ijtihad was called a
mujtahid, and traditionally had to be a scholar of Islamic law
or alim.
