Shi'a clergy

Shia Muslims believe that the study of Islamic literature is a continual process, and is necessary for identifying all of God's laws. Shia Muslims believe that the process of finding God's laws from the available islamic literature will facilitate in dealing with any circumstance. Hence unlike the Sunni scholars, Shi'a scholars believe that the door to ijtihad has never closed. They believe that they can interpret the Qur'an and the Shi'a traditions with the same authority as their predecessors. This process of ijtihad has provided a means to deal with current issues from an islamic perspective. Generally, the Shi'a clergy have exerted much more authority in the Shi'a community than have the Sunni ulema.

Most Sunni scholars, preachers, and judges (collectively known as the Sunni ulema) traditionally believe that the door of ijtihad, or private judgment, closed some four hundred years after the death of Muhammad(SAW). Sunni Muslims consider that Sunni scholars had studied the Qur'an and hadith for centuries, during which time they developed the four schools of law (madhhab), and that there was nothing more to be added to these four schools.