Maqasid Al-Shari’ah, Ijtihad and Civilization Renewal


Book Description

This paper develops the idea of a maqasid-based framework for ijtihad and civilizational renewal (tajdid hadari), a broad and engaging prospect that also involves a review and reappraisal of the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence relating to both the maqasid and ijtihad. The author argues that this would enable Muslims to widen the scope and horizon of the maqasid or objectives of Islamic law from their currently legalistic leanings towards the wider perspective of civilisational renaissance. The nexus that needs to be developed between the maqasid and ijtihad also needs to be supported by a credible methodology, which is what the author has attempted in this paper.




Maqasid Al-Shari’ah, Ijtihad and Civilisational Renewal


Book Description

This paper develops the idea of a maqasid-based framework for ijtihad and civilizational renewal (tajdid hadari), a broad and engaging prospect that also involves a review and reappraisal of the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence relating to both the maqasid and ijtihad. The author argues that this would enable Muslims to widen the scope and horizon of the maqasid or objectives of Islamic law from their currently legalistic leanings towards the wider perspective of civilisational renaissance. The nexus that needs to be developed between the maqasid and ijtihad also needs to be supported by a credible methodology, which is what the author has attempted in this paper.




Maqasid Al-Shari’ah, Ijtihad and Civilisational Renewal (Ukrainian Language)


Book Description

This paper develops the idea of a maqasid-based framework for ijtihad and civilizational renewal (tajdid hadari), a broad and engaging prospect that also involves a review and reappraisal of the methodology of Islamic jurisprudence relating to both the maqasid and ijtihad. The author argues that this would enable Muslims to widen the scope and horizon of the maqasid or objectives of Islamic law from their currently legalistic leanings towards the wider perspective of civilizational renaissance. The nexus that needs to be developed between the maqasid and ijtihad also needs to be supported by a credible methodology, which is what the author has attempted in this paper.




Ibn Ashur


Book Description

Shaikh Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur is the most renowned Zaytuna Imam and one of the great Islamic scholars of the 20th century. The publication of this translation of Shaikh Ibn Ashur’s Treatise on Maqasid al-Shari’ah is a breakthrough in studies on Islamic law in the English language. In this book, Ibn Ashur proposed Maqasid as a methodology for the renewal of the theory of Islamic law, which has not undergone any serious development since the era of the great imams. Ibn Ashur – quite courageously – also addressed the sensitive topic of the intents/Maqasid of Prophet Muhammad (SAAS) behind his actions and decisions. He introduced criteria to differentiate between the Prophetic traditions that were meant to be part of Islamic law and the Prophetic actions/ sayings that were meant to be for the sake of specific purposes such as political leadership, court judgment, friendly advice, and conflict resolution. But Ibn Ashur’s most significant contribution in this book has been the development of new Maqasid by coining new, contemporary, terminology that were never formulated in traditional usul al-fiqh. For example, Ibn Ashur developed the theory of the ‘preservation of lineage’ into ‘the preservation of the family system’, the ‘protection of true belief’ into ‘freedom of beliefs’, etc. He also introduced the concepts of ‘orderliness’, ‘natural disposition’, ‘freedom’, ‘rights’, ‘civility’, and ‘equality’ as Maqasid in their own right, and upon which the whole Islamic law is based. This development opens great opportunities for Islamic law to address current and real challenges for Muslim societies and Muslim minorities.




Tajdid, Islah and Civilisational Renewal in Islam


Book Description

The history of Islamic thought is marked by a continuous tradition of internal revitalisation and reform embedded in the principles of islah, and tajdid. The ultimate purpose has been to bring existing realities and social change in line with the transcendant and universal standard of the Qur’an and Sunnah through a process of restoration and reform. The tradition of islah-tajdid has thus consistently challenged the Muslim status quo and prompted fresh interpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah, understood and implemented through the methodologies of interpretation and ijtihad, as well as the rejection of unwarranted accretions to the original messages of Islam. The basic theme of the paper is that civilisational renewal is an integral part of Islamic thought. The paper looks into the meaning, definition and origins of tajdid and islah and their relationship with ijtihad, and how these have been manifested in the writings and contributions of the thought leaders of Islam throughout its history. It also develops tajdid-related formulas and guidelines that should lead the efforts of contemporary Muslims in forging the objectives of inter-civilisational harmony and their cooperationfor the common good.




Maqasid al-Shari’a and Contemporary Reformist Muslim Thought


Book Description

It is the first study which comprehensively, systematically and critically examines the role and usefulness of the concept of Maqasid al-Shari'a (higher Objectives of Islamic Law) in contemporary Muslim reformist thought in relation to number of specific issues pertaining to Islamic legal philosophy, law, ethics and the socio-political sphere.




The Objectives of Islamic Law


Book Description

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.




Shari’ah and Common Law


Book Description

Harmonisation of law, a term that refers to the bringing together of two different legal traditions, has developed a negative connotation when considered in the context of Shari’ah and common law. Harmonisation began to be looked at as an attempt by one legal system to impose its values on the other. A major reason for that is the lack of understanding of the scope to which these two legal traditions converge. One of the principal findings of this book is that Shari’ah and common law have many more commonalities than differences. As a result, the need for harmonisation between the two might have been exaggerated. The similarities do not need to be harmonised. Rather, they need to be acknowledged and appreciated. If the differences between Shari’ah and common law, which undoubtedly exist as evidenced in this book, are viewed with an appreciation of the commonalities, the ambiance to reconcile the differences would be more conducive to the harmonisation process. This book is intended to help readers better understand Shari’ah and common law and aid harmonisation efforts when the need arises.




Beyond Modernity


Book Description

A contest is afoot in Muslim discourses around the world in the twenty-first century. Prevalent norms and acts are subject to competing motivations, trends and forces. The image of a monolithic Islam is thus wholly inadequate to identify and interpret the different expressions of Muslim thought and practice in their specific yet connected contexts. This book proposes competing and persuasive perspectives for interpreting what Muslims say, do and think in collective settings or in the light of common frames of reference. The chapters contained in this book reflect a diversity of disciplines and interests. Nonetheless, a common thread of the preoccupation with meanings in context unites the contributors and the approaches to their chosen examples. Islam is not a discrete category that is taken for granted. Instead, the cacophony of voices in the Muslim world situated in specific contexts, variously national, regional or global, is allowed to inform each chapter. Here one encounters contemporary Muslims participating in discourses with a contested character that create opportunities to augment or question orthodox dictates or transmit or alter existing beliefs and practices. What emerges are nuanced portraits of contemporary Muslim thought and practice that reveal a far from monolithic Islam to which all things Islamic can be reduced.




American Journal of Islam and Society (AJIS) - Volume 39 Issues 1-2


Book Description

The four articles, two review essays, various book reviews, and obituary contained in this issue all revolve around contestations of Islamic authority. Notably, two of these articles are drawn from the AJIS symposium on Maqāṣid whose first set of essays were featured in the previous issue (38:3-4) dedicated to the topic. In the first article, “Agents of Grace,” Ali Altaf Mian develops a sophisticated and nuanced reading of “intentionality” in the work of the moral theologian al-Ghazali. Mian reads the latter’s work to disclose ethical action as a site of contingency and ambivalence, indeed of the subject’s “non-sovereignty.” He contributes this theorization of intentionality as a constructive critique of accounts of ethical agency in the anthropology of Islam. In the second article, “No Scholars in the West,” Emily Goshey carefully unpacks the ostensible paradox by which Western Salafis who studied in the Muslim world are not seen as “scholars” by the very communities they lead. What then comprises religious authority and scholarship within these models of knowledge transmission? Goshey tracks the dynamics of scholarship and community leadership based on fieldwork with African American Salafi affiliate communities in Philadelphia. In the third article, “Maqāṣidi Models for an ‘Islamic’ Medical Ethics,” Aasim Padela presents a typology of maqāṣid-based approaches to medical ethics. Whether requiring a field-based redefinition, a conceptual extension, or a text-based postulation of the classical maqāṣid theory, however, Padela shows that these frameworks remain woefully underdeveloped to offer appropriate and sufficient guidance for pressing bedside cases. In the fourth article, “Developing an Ethic of Justice,” Thahir Jamal Kiliyamannil offers a creative rereading of new Muslim movements in South India. Rather than relying on old typologies about political Islam or secularized activists, he considers the Solidarity Youth Movement to articulate an Islamic ethic of justice inspired by Abul A’la Maududi. This case study shows not only how the maqāṣid framework may inform discourses well beyond the domains of legal practice, but also how this specific articulation of political justice is based in the praxis of the Indian Muslim minority. These four articles and the remaining elements of the issue foreground contemporary contestations of Islamic authority. Read together, they also offer a set of terms for thinking productively about its contours, limits, affordances, and possibilities.