The Objectives Of Islamic Law

Scholars, thinkers, and activists around the world are paying increasing attention to a legal reform method that promises to revolutionize the way people think about Islamic law. Known as “The Objectives of the Sharī‘a” (maqāṣid al-sharī‘a), the theory offers a way to derive and apply new Islamic laws using an ancient methodology. The theory identifies core objectives that underlie Islamic law, and then looks at inherited Islamic laws to see whether they meet those objectives. According to the maqāṣid theory, historical Islamic laws that meet their objectives should be retained, and those that do not—no matter how entrenched in practice or embedded in texts—should be discarded or reformed. Recently, several scholars have questioned the maqāṣid theory, arguing that it is designed not to reform laws, but to support existing power structures. They warn that adopting the maqāṣid wholesale would set the reform project back, ensuring that inherited Islamic laws are never fully reformed to agree with contemporary values like gender-egalitarianism and universal human rights. The Objectives of Islamic Law: The Promises and Challenges of the Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘acaptures the ongoing debate between proponents and skeptics of the maqāṣid theory. It raises some of the most important issues in Islamic legal debates today, and lays out visions for the future of Islamic law.

Dr. Musafir bin Ali al-Qahtani's work contributes to the ever growing body of scholarly literature in the field of maqasid al-Shari'ah (higher objectives of Islamic law). Understanding Maqasidal-Shari’ah calls for the development of a juridicial sense that is finely tuned to the higher objectives and purposes of Islamic rulings, the aims of which are the formulation of a new methodology in understanding the revealed texts and the reform of Muslim thought and its application. The author draws attention to the importance of understanding various levels of maqasid, including distinguishing between primary aims (al-maqasid al-asliyyah) and secondary aims (al-maqasid al-tabi'ah). Al-Qahtani asserts that a positive understanding of the objectives of the Shari'ah should produce affirming human and cultural developments in Muslim societies. The real strength of this work, however, is in the author's application of higher objectives and aims to different areas of jurisprudence, such as in deriving and issuing religious rulings (ifta'). and to important social issues and problems present in Muslim societies, such as extremism, jihad, commanding right and forbidding wrong, social change, crisis of Muslim thought, countering religious excessiveness, the need for recreation and leisure, citizenship and nation-belonging, spreading beauty and harmony in Islam, and the role of Muslim women in society.

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With the end of the early Islamic period, Muslim scholars came to sense that a rift had begun to emerge between the teachings and principles of Islam and Muslims’ daily reality and practices. The most important means by which scholars sought to restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Qur’an was to study the objectives of Islam, the causes behind Islamic legal rulings and the intentions and goals underlying the Shari'ah, or Islamic Law. They made it clear that every legal ruling in Islam has a function which it performs, an aim which it realizes, a cause, be it explicit or implicit, and an intention which it seeks to fulfill, and all of this in order to realize benefit to human beings or to ward off harm or corruption. They showed how these intentions, and higher objectives might at times be contained explicitly in the texts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, while at other times, scholars might bring them to light by means of independent reasoning based on their understanding of the Qur’an and the Sunnah within a framework of time and space. This book represents a pioneering contribution presenting a comprehensive theory of the objectives of Islamic law in its various aspects, as well as a painstaking study of objectives-based thought as pioneered by the father of objectives-based jurisprudence, Imam Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi; in addition, the author presents us with an important study of al-Shatibi himself which offers a wealth of new, beneficial information about the life, thought and method of this venerable man.

The Islamic Shari'a as a phrase has two scope of meanings. Generally and widely construed it denotes everything that has been written by Moslem jurists throughout the centuries, whether it dealt with contemporaneous issues of the time or in anticipation of future ones. The jurist derived their principles from the Qur'an and the Sunna (way of action and the opinions of the Prophet), and from the other sources of Shari'a such as Ijma', (the consensus of the community represented by its scholars and learned men), and public interest considerations. The Shari'a looked upon in this wide scope constitute a huge Juristic tradition the value of which depends on the individual jurist himself, his era, or even the particular problem confronting him. As such the system has a tremendous scholastic value to the Moslem, however, it has no binding authority; since within it one might find different, and sometimes contradictory principles resolving the same issues, depending on the Juristic school that propagated the principle. Furthermore, it cannot have a binding authority since circumstances that brought about a certain principle might not be in existence any more, and surely we cannot maintain that previous Moslem Jurists have anticipated all our existing contemporary problems. Yet, as I said before in this wide sense, one cannot deny the Shari'a scholastic value as an elaborate system of deduction which should be relied upon for future derivations of principles. Construed narrowly, the Shari'a is confined to the undoubted principles of the Qur'an, to what is true and valid of the Sunna, and the consensus of the community represented by its scholars and learned men during a certain period andregarding a particular problem, provided such consensus was possible. Viewed as such, the Shari'a has a binding authority on every Moslem, and he is obligated to follow and employ it to resolve his affairs, deriving what is not explicit of its principles by the methods and means. The statement that it is too late for Shari'a to face contemporary issues is an exaggerated prejudiced statement, made possible because of the closing of the doors of investigation many centuries ago. The spirit and general principles of Shari'a are as valid today as they were yesterday many centuries ago and as they will be tomorrow many centuries to come. They are like a green oasis in the desolate desert of our lives which is over crowded with problems and conflicting ideologies. At the time of the original publication Ahmed Zaki Yamani was Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. AUTHOR COMMENTS The Islamic world, relying on the principles of Shari'a, can achieve its own entity, independent of East and West, and by which it can defend and protect itself from the torrent of communism and certain inequities of capitalism. The ability of Shari'a, to developed and evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of society, by relying on the concept of public interest as a source of legislation. The collective notion in Islam should be emphasized, outstanding quality in Shari'a which establishes a profound equilibrium between the individual and the community, should be put in perspective in relation to our own age. When our political leaders begin to think seriously about the happiness and welfare of their people, they shall find in Shari'a a guiding proven system to achieve and fulfill theiraims. The immortal principles of Shari'a can be used to correct and cure our social diseases in the Islamic world. Perhaps even the West might find it, again, a ray of light and knowledge to achieve still a more advanced civilization, or at least to preserve its existing one.

Dr. Musafir bin Ali al-Qahtani's work contributes to the ever growing body of scholarly literature in the field of maqasid al-Shari'ah (higher objectives of Islamic law). Understanding Maqasid al-Shari’ah calls for the development of a juridicial sense that is finely tuned to the higher objectives and purposes of Islamic rulings, the aims of which are the formulation of a new methodology in understanding the revealed texts and the reform of Muslim thought and its application. The author draws attention to the importance of understanding various levels of maqasid, including distinguishing between primary aims (al-maqasid al-asliyyah) and secondary aims (al-maqasid al-tabi'ah). Al-Qahtani asserts that a positive understanding of the objectives of the Shari'ah should produce affirming human and cultural developments in Muslim societies. The real strength of this work, however, is in the author's application of higher objectives and aims to different areas of jurisprudence, such as in deriving and issuing religious rulings (ifta'). and to important social issues and problems present in Muslim societies, such as extremism, jihad, commanding right and forbidding wrong, social change, crisis of Muslim thought, countering religious excessiveness, the need for recreation and leisure, citizenship and nation-belonging, spreading beauty and harmony in Islam, and the role of Muslim women in society.