In Islamic world view, Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is the Last of the Prophets. With the end of the prophethood, it becomes the responsibility of Muslim scholars to develop an understanding of religion among people and guide the Muslim ummah in their matters. The issues and challenges which do not have explicit text or traditions in the Holy Quran and Sunnah can be answered through Ijtihad. In previous nations, the prophets, and messengers of almighty Allah, who were sent to different regions during different time periods, guided their ummah in their problems and issues. Hence, the finality or end of the prophethood means that the scholars and jurists of this ummah will find the solutions for new issues and challenges through conducting Ijtihad. With the expansion of Islam in non-Arabs, the need for Ijtihad increased due to the new challenges. The messenger of Almighty Allah said, I have left behind two things, you will never go astray as long as you hold fast onto them i.e., the Quran and Sunnah. In the light of this Hadith, the first project initiated by Muslim scholars was the preservation of sacred texts and research on the Holy Quran and Hadith. The scholars at that time preferred textual study instead of rational debates to protect and preserve the text of The Holy Quran and hadith. However, when Islam crossed the Arabian borders, the non-Arabs challenged and raised many objections and questions on Islam. To respond to these challenges, one segment of scholars relied upon explicit sacred texts and another one on rationality. Ahl-As-Sunnah tried to stay in between these two by combining both and responded to these challenges with reasonable degree of accuracy. Resultantly, the theological science got introduced and established in the academic world. To address the contemporary challenges, same practices are needed. The department of Islamic thought, history and culture at Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad constantly tries to explore and present new dimensions of knowledge and research. Therefore, this year topic for the annual conference is “Tradition and Reformation / evolution in Islamic Thought: Contemporary and Historical Perspective”. We hope scholars and researchers will contribute through their active participation by highlighting and analyzing the historical and contemporary discourses about the topic.