Full 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'a captures 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.
Contents
Editor's Introduction
Part I: Promises
1. Goals and Purposes Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah: Methodological Perspectives
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
2. Realising Maqāṣid in the Sharīʿah
Jasser Auda
3. Freedom of Religion in the Age of Multi-Religious Societies with Special Reference to Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah
Muhammad Khalid Masud
4. The Inviolability of Human Dignity: A Maqāṣidī Perspective
Idris Nassery
5. Qur'ān, Sunnah, Maqāṣid and the Religious Other: The Ideas of Muḥammad Shaḥrūr
Adis Duderija
6. Ibn ʿĀshūr's Interpretation of the Purposes of the Law (Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah): An Islamic Modernist Approach to Legal Change
Felicitas Opwis
7. Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah in Islamic Contracts: A Study of Current Practices of Islamic Finance in Light of Islamic Legal Maxims
Younes Soualhi
Part II: Challenges
8. Reason and Revelation: A Meaningful Contribution to Contemporary Ethical Debates in a Secular Context
Muna Tatari
9. The Hermeneutical Approach of Shāṭibī on the Basis of the Maqāṣid Definition of Reason: Fundamental Issues of a Modern Reinterpretation
Mohammed Nekroumi
10. The Challenge Facing Islamic Banking and Finance: Has It Moved Away From Its Core Objectives, With Special Reference to Maqāṣid?
Habib Ahmed
11. The Relationship between Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah and Uṣūl al-Fiqh
Cefli Ademi
12. Which comes first, the Maqāṣid, or the Sharī'ah?
Rumee Ahmed
13. How Objective are the Objectives (Maqāṣid)? Examining Evolving Notions of the Sharī'ah through the Lens of Lineage (Nasl)
Ayesha S. Chaudhry
14. Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah as a Legitimization for the Muslim Minorities Law
Mouez Khalfaoui
Epilogue: Anver Emon
