Showing results by author "Mohammad Hashim Kamali" in All Categories

Maqasid al-Shari’ah, or the higher goals and objectives of Islamic law, is an important and yet somewhat neglected theme of the Shari’ah. Generally the Shari’ah is predicated on the benefits of the individual and that of the community, and its laws are designed so as to protect these benefits and facilitate improvement and perfection of the conditions of human life on earth.

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.

Advanced in this paper is a Qur’anic perspective on thinking, rationality, and critical reason, which in its critical and goal-oriented dimensions provides a set of guidelines that ensures its purity and purpose from negative reductionist influences. The guidelines so provided are also rich in advancing a spiritual dimension with the understanding that thinking which is not informed by morality and faith can lose its direction and purpose, and can even become harmful to human welfare.

The higher purposes, or maqasid, of Shariah are applied and actualized (taf`il) through their means (wasa’il). This audiobook begins with the definition and meaning of maqasid and proceeds to ascertain three discernible tendencies regarding their scope: reductionist, expansionist, and the moderate approach of wasatiyyah/i’tidal.