Ijma is an arabic word in Islamic philosophy which refers to the consensus of scholars. So in other words, when the majority of Islamic scholars agree on a certain matter, according to traditional Islamic jurisprudence, that matter needs to be followed by Muslims. Ijma usually comes into play when a clear answer isn't available from the Quran or Hadith.
Hardline/Salafi/Wahhabi Muslims ALWAYS talk about the ijma to try and prove that there is only one Islam, and that everyone throughout Islamic history has always agreed on every subject (not even close to being true. Islamic scholarship is riddled with differing and contradicting views). I talk about this quite a bit in my article about not having to be a liberal or conservative Muslim:
http://mymuslimthoughts.blogspot.com/2019/02/do-you-have-to-be-liberal-muslim-or.html
Those hardline/Salafi/Wahhabi Muslims throw the "ijma card" when they believe they are right and everyone else is misguided and wrong. I myself personally never questioned the ijma, I mean if the majority of Islamic scholars agreed on something, who am I to go against it?
But then I started to think about silly rulings from scholars, like in Saudi Arabia, where they banned women from driving, or passed rulings that all women need to wear hijab. Like seriously, why? Why is it only in Saudi that these scholars have such absurd rulings? What about orthodox Islamic scholars in Pakistan, why haven't they passed the same rulings? How can orthodox Islamic scholars differ? Keep that train of thought going, why is it conservative scholars in European/Eurasian Muslim countries (Bosnia, Kosovo, Albania, Turkey, Kazakhstan) didn't have the same rulings as other conservative Islamic scholars in different parts of the world?
Here is an article that I did about culture heavily influencing how we view Islam that you might want to take a look at:
http://mymuslimthoughts.blogspot.com/search?q=culture
Anyways, back to the topic of ijma. Here is something interesting that I found. Medieval Muslim scholars had a consensus that the earth was flat:
https://theislamissue.wordpress.com/2019/03/22/scholarly-consensus-of-a-round-earth/
Yes, it is a website critical of Islam. However they prove (with quotes) how early and medieval Muslim scholars literally held the view that the earth is flat. They literally believed that the Quran says the earth is flat! Obviously, we know through modern scholars (and grade 2 science) that the earth is round. Yet there was an ijma on this! The article actually helps Islam because it is a slap in the face to the annoying right wing/Salafi/Wahhabi/hardline Muslims who come at you aggressively.
Similarly, Ibn Taymiyyah, a medieval Muslim scholar, was considered by most scholars at his time to be misguided, a deviant, or even a kaffir. Yet today, conservative Muslims celebrate his work. Right here the ijma ideology is proven wrong again, and conservative muslims did it themselves.
Here is an article by an Islamic scholar that talks about the emotional blackmail right wing/ultraorthodox Muslims use to try and force their beliefs on others:
http://www.khalidzaheer.com/questioning-the-basis-of-ijma/
So, what does this prove? It proves that scholars, even the majority, can be wrong. Scholars are human, they are not divine. The religion of Islam is also not reserved for scholars, Islam is for everyone to understand and practice. Many times, scholars are unable to understand underlying social issues. This doesn't allow them to think critically, but instead just give blind answers.
So next time a right wingWahabi/Salafi Muslim comes at you saying so and so is agreed upon by scholars as being "haraam" or "halaal", tell them about this flat earth example. What is haraam and halaal are clearly mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, but there is a lot of grey area on a LOT of matters. Unfortunately, hardline right wing Muslims will automatically label them as "haraam" or "halaal" because of what their desires say.
