Disciplined Pluralism: Reconciling Feyerabend’s ‘Anything Goes’ with the Hermeneutical Tradition of Islamic Ijtihad

Abstract

This article critically examines the philosophical resonances between Paul Feyerabend’s epistemological anarchism and the Islamic intellectual tradition of ijtihad, situating both within the broader problematic of methodological rigidity in contemporary Islamic scholarship. The growing hegemony of singular epistemological frameworks within Islamic studies has demonstrably contributed to interpretive stagnation and curtailed the creative latitude of Muslim scholars. Employing a qualitative library-based research design, this study systematically analyzes Feyerabend’s principal philosophical texts alongside canonical and contemporary sources in Islamic epistemology. Through descriptive and comparative methods, the inquiry maps conceptual convergences between Feyerabend’s thoroughgoing critique of methodological absolutism, most forcefully articulated through his celebrated principle of “anything goes”, and the inherently pluralistic character of ijtihad as it was practiced by the classical jurists of Islam. The findings establish that both intellectual traditions affirm the primacy of intellectual freedom, contextual reasoning, and methodological diversity in the pursuit of knowledge. Rather than endorsing epistemic relativism, the synthesis proposed here offers a model of methodological openness grounded in ethical accountability and revealed norms. The article contends that this epistemological convergence can invigorate contemporary ijtihad by cultivating an inclusive, adaptive, and contextually sensitive paradigm of Islamic knowledge production, one capable of engaging substantively with modern scientific rationality while remaining faithful to the normative foundations of Islamic thought.