Concluding reflections

Maslaha and the maqasid al-Shari 'ah have always been an important avenue to affect legal change in Islamic law. They often serve to arrive at unprecedented rulings and at the same time to justify them — an analytical conflation of means and ends that is rarely acknowledged by Muslim jurisprudents.

The shifts in interpreting the maqasid al-Shari 'ah in the modern period, namely towards abstraction, focus on society and a system-like approach, open up possibilities for Islamic law but also pose challenges. Understanding maslaha and the maqasid al-Shari 'ah in abstract and community-oriented terms facilitates a legal system that is adaptable according to place and time. Universal divine purposes are realized according to context, and, hence, permit a variety of particular rulings and policies. This provides jurists with flexible solutions to unprecedented situations that are in line with the objectives of the divine law.

The move towards more abstract communal purposes, however, makes it all the more dif­ficult to define them precisely. Proclaiming that the divine purposes are universal is poten­tially empty without providing tangible substance and meaning.³⁵ The unresolved tension between universalism and subjective interpretation of what these universals mean, including an agreed upon definition of what constitutes maslaha in concrete terms and its relationship to the textually explicit rulings in Qur'an and Sunnah engenders controversy as well as abuse in the name of the divine intent. Different scholars interpret the maqasid al-Shari 'ah very differently. For example, Adis Duderija and Jamal al-Din Atiyya both identify as divine objectives for the family ‘affection’ (mawadda), ‘compassion’ (rahma) and ‘repose’ (sakdna). Yet Duderija interprets these purposes as evidence for a gender-egalitarian Islamic family law, whereas Atiyya employs them to assert traditional gender hierarchies.³⁶ Such differences in interpretation provide opportunities for innovative application of Islamic law yet may just as well lead to authoritarian exploitation in the name of God’s intentions by state institutions or vigilante.

3.1 The maqasid al-Shari ah as public policy

Another observation about the intense focus on the purposes of the law is that it approaches an ‘ideology’. The maqasid al-Shari 'ah are no longer debated in connection with the sources of the law or methods of law finding, but are used as an ideology for policy and action. The onus to put the purposes of the law into practice is put on the state, by establishing policies, laws and institutions that protect the necessities and realize God’s objectives for humankind.

This shift reflects the changed role of law in the modern nation-state and the state’s ex­clusive claim on the sphere of law.

Yet, employing the maqdsid-cum-maslaha approach as a type of siyasa shar'iyya remains at present rather vague. Largely absent from contemporary discussions are questions as to who exactly in a state legal system has the ability and the right to determine the purposes of the Shari 'ah — trained 'ulama’ or secularized state legislators? So far unsatisfactorily addressed are the difficult questions of modern states, such as citizens with diverse religious affiliations — without creating an unequal dhimmd status for non-Muslims and crying apostasy at Muslims who exercise religious freedom.³⁷ No consensus has been reached on how to apply the di­vine purpose of legal equality to gender. Likewise, how to implement the particulars of the Quranic text in those cases where Muslims’ attitudes are changing, such as towards execut­ing the hudUd punishments, still has to be resolved.

Just as important, questions of the limits of the reach of the nation-state and its legal in­stitutions into the behaviour of its citizens (from legislation to enforcement), that is the line between ‘legal’ and ‘moral’ or between ‘criminal offence’ and ‘moral infraction’, has rarely been explored in any serious manner. Zaman pointedly remarks about Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s proposal to consider maslaha and the purposes of the law in all areas of modern society that thereby ‘the distinction between sin and crime, and between moral and legal infractions, collapses’.³⁸

Nevertheless, the attention that scholars devote to the objectives of Islamic law and the innovative interpretations they articulate offer new avenues of accomplishing legal change and giving Shari 'ah a role and place in the modern world.³⁹

Notes

1 Cf Necmettin Kizilkaya, ‘An Outline of the Historical Evolution of Qawa'id Literature in Islamic Law’, American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 28 (2011): 76—105 (see pages 83, 88 and 91).

2 Presenting the intricate positions of Mu'tazili and Ash'ari scholars towards human ability to iden­tify the maqadsid al-Shari ah is beyond the scope of this chapter. Main trends and ideas are presented in George F. Hourani, Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of Abd al-Jabbar (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971); Majid Fakhry, ‘Justice in Islamic Philosophical Ethics: Miskawayh's Mediating Contribu­tion', Journal of Religious Ethics 3 (1975): 243—54; Felicitas Opwis, Maslaha and the Purpose of the Law: Islamic Discourse on Legal Change from the 4th/10th to 8th/14th Century (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 27—32.

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, al-Mustasfa min 'Ilm al-Usul, ed. Hamza b. Zuhayr Hafiz, 4 vols (Jedda, Saudi Arabia: Sharikat al-Madinah al-Munawwara li-l-Tiba' wa-l-Nashr, 1993), 2: 481-2.

Al-Ghazali, al-Mustasfa, 2: 482, 487-95 and 502-3; Opwis, Maslaha and the Purpose of the Law, 65-88.

Fakhr al-Din Muhammad b. 'Umar b. al-Hasan al-Razi, Al-Mahsul fi 'Ilm Usul al-Fiqh, 2 vols (Bei­rut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1408/1988), 2: 319-32, 389-92, 480-2 and 578-81; Opwis, Maslaha and the Purpose of the Law, 96-131.

For an overview of legal precepts, their development and application in Islamic law see Kizilkaya, ‘An Outline'; Wolfhart Heinrichs, ‘Qawa 4d as a Genre of Legal Literature', in Studies in Islamic Legal Theory, ed. Bernard G. Weiss (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 365-84; Mohammad Hashim Kamali, ‘Legal Maxims and Other Genres of Literature in Islamic Jurisprudence', Arab Law Quarterly 20 (2006): 77-101; Mohammed Khalil, ‘The Islamic Law Maxims', Islamic Studies 44 (2005): 191-207; and Intisar A. Rabb, Doubt in Islamic Law: A History of Legal Maxims, Interpretation, and Islamic Criminal Law (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Heinrichs, ‘Qawa'id as a Genre of Legal Literature', 375.

Ahmad b. Idris al-Qarafi, Sharh Tanqih al-Usulfi Ikhtisar al-Mahsulfi al-Usul (Cairo: Matba'at Kulli- yyat al-Sharifa, 1381/1961), 85-7, 415-16 and 448-50.

Al-Tufi presented his interpretation of maslaha in a work on hadith.

Ibrahim b. Musa al-Shatibi, al-Muwafaqat fi Usul al-Shari 'a, ed. 'Abdullah Diraz, 4 vols (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'Arabi, n.d.). For short accounts of al-Shatibi's theory see Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories: An Introduction to Sunni Usul al-Fiqh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 162-206; Opwis, Maslaha and the Purpose of the Law, 247-333.

Muhammad Rashid Rida, Yusr al-Islam wa-Usul al-Tashri' al- Amm (Cairo: Maktabat al-Salam al-'Alamiyya, 1984), 153.

Cf Badran Abu al-'Aynayn Badran, Usul al-Fiqh al-Islami (Alexandria: Mu’assasat Shabab al-Jami'a, 1984), 213.

For an overview of the thought of several jurists of the 20th century, i.e. the early ‘wave' of writing on maslaha, see Felicitas Opwis, ‘Maslaha in Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory', Islamic Law and Society 12 (2005): 183-223.

Muhammad al-Tahir Ibn 'Ashur, Maqasid al-Shari ah al-Islamiyya (Tunis: al-Sharika al-Tunisiyya li- l-Tawzi', 1978), trans. (into English) as Ibn Ashur: Treatise on Maqasid al-Shari ah, trans. (from Arabic) and annot. Mohamed el-Tahir el-Mesawi (London: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1427/2006) - references are to the Arabic edition; 'Abd al-Wahhab Khallaf, Masadir al-Tashri' al-Islami fi-ma la Nassa fih, 6th edn (Kuwait: Dar al-Qalam li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi', 1414/1993); Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Dawabit al-Maslahafi al-Shari 'ah al-Islamiyya, 4th edn (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risala, 1402/1982); 'Allal al-Fasi, Maqasid al-Shari ah al-Islamiyya wa-Makarimuha (Rabat: Matba'at al-Risala, 1979).

See Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Dirasa fi Fiqh Maqasid al-Shari 'ah: Bayna al-Maqasid al-Kulliyyah wa-l-Nusus al-Juz'iyya (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1427/2006); Isma'il al-Hasani, Nazariyyat al-Maqasid 'inda al- Imam Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur (Herndon, Virginia: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1415/1995); Ahmad al-Khamlishi, Wijhat Nazar, 4 vols (Rabat: Dar Nashr al-Ma'rifa, 1998 (vol.

16 Cf. Adis Duderija, ‘Introduction’, in Maqasid al-Shari"a and Contemporary Reformist Muslim Thought, 1—11; David Johnston, ‘A Turn in the Epistemology and Hermeneutics of Twentieth Century Usul al-Fiqh’ Islamic Law and Society 11 (2004): 233—82.

17 ‘Haythuma⁷ wajadat al-maslaha fa-thumma sharaa Allah’ Khallaf, Masadir al-Tashri' al-Islami, 90, 101 and 160. Khallaf was severely criticized for this statement by al-Buti (Dawabit al-Maslaha, 12).

18 Al-Khamlishi, Wijhat Nazar, 2: 126 and 158; for a detailed critique of the necessities as defined by al-Ghazali, see 3: 15—18.

19 Such criticism is voiced explicitly as well as implicitly by Ibn Ashur (Maqasid al-Shari'a, 78, 93 and 136), al-Qaradawi (Dirasa, 25—30) and Atiyya (Towards Realization, 85).

20 Ibn 'Ashur, Maqasid al-Shari "ah, 80; al-Buti, Dawabit al-Maslaha, 252—3; 'Atiyya, Towards Realization, 120.

21 Al- Qaradawi, Dirasa, 29.

22 'Atiyya, Towards Realization, 120 and 203.

23 Al-Khamlishi, Wijhat Nazar, 3: 15—16 and 19.

24 Ibid., 3: 16.

25 Ibn 'Ashur, Maqasid al-Shari'ah, 95—9 and 130—5; al-Qaradawi, Dirasa, 28.

26 Al-Hasani, Nazariyyat al-Maqasid, 299.

27 Al-Khamlishi, Wijhat Nazar, 2: 126. The Qur’an translation is Yusuf Ali.

28 The notion of a solidified or stagnant Islamic law and Islamic thought is expressed several times in al-Khamlishi’s work, see e.g. Wijhat Nazar, 2: 126 and 152, 3: 10, 54 and 57.

29 The work of 'Atiyya, Auda, and Bin Sattam are examples of the system approach; yet, they vary greatly in terms of mastery of the pre-modern discourse as well as the solutions they put forward, with, for example, Ibn Sattam’s articulations resembling more a self-help book than scholarly con­tribution (Abdul Aziz Bin Sattam, Shari'a and the Concept of Benefit: The Use and Function of Maslaha in Islamic Jurisprudence (London: I. B. Tauris, 2015).

30 'Atiyya, Towards Realization, 116—49.

31 Ibid., 119.

32 Ibid., 124-31.

33 Ibid., 131-41.

34 Ibid., 142-9.

35 Cf. Sherman A. Jackson, ‘Literalism, Empiricism, and Induction: Apprehending and Concretizing Islamic Law’s Maqasid al-Shari'ah [sic] in the Modern World’, Michigan State Law Review (2006): 1469-86, at 1479, 1480-2 and 1485.

36 Adis Duderija, ‘Maqasid al-Shari'a, Gender Non-patriarchal Quran-Sunna Hermeneutics’, 206 and 215; 'Atiyya, Towards Realization, 124-31. Ibn 'Ashur’s emphasis on the divine objective of equality also does not extend to gender (cf. Maqasid al-Shari'a, 95-9).

37 Discussing the Tunisian thinker al-Ghannushi, Karim Sadeq attempts to employ the purposes of the law as overarching principles under which religious freedom and equality of all citizens can be exercised. He envisions the maqasid al-Shari 'ah to serve akin to constitutional principles (Karim Sadeq, ‘Maslaha and Rashid al-Ghannushi’s Reformist Project’, in Maqasid al-Shari'a and Contempo­rary Reformist Muslim Thought, 151-75).

38 Muhammad Qasim Zaman, ‘The 'Ulama of Contemporary Islam and the Conceptions of the Common Good’, in Public Islam and the Common Good, ed. Armando Salvatore and Dale F. Eickel­mann (Leiden: Brill, 2004), 129-155, at 134-5.

39 Western scholarship not rarely portrays Islam as antithetical to modernity and modernization. For a brief overview of such views, see Deina Abdelkader, ‘Modernity, the Principle of Public Welfare (maslaha) and the End Goals of Shari'a (maqasid) in Muslim Legal Thought’, Islam and Muslim— Christian Relations 14 (2003): 163-74.

Selected bibliography and further reading

'Attia, Jamal al-Din. Towards Realization of the Higher Intents of Islamic Law: Maqasid al-Shari 'a: A Func­tional Approach, trans. (from Arabic) Nancy Roberts (London: International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1428/2007).

Duderija, Adis (ed.). Maqasid al-Shari 'a and Contemporary Reformist Muslim Thought (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Ghazali, Abu Hamid Muhammad al-. Al-Mustasfa min ‘ilm al-Usul. Ed. Hamza b. Zuhayr Hafiz, 4 vols. (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: Sharikat al-Madina al-Munawwara lil-Tiba' wa-l-Nashr, 1993).

Hourani, George F. Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of "Abd al-Jabbar (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971).

Ibn 'Ashur, Muhammad al-Tahir. Maqasid al-Shari'ah al-Islamiyya (Tunis: al-Sharika al-Tunisiyya li-l- Tawzi', 1978).

Ibn Ashur. Treatise on Maqasid al-Shari "a, trans. (from Arabic) and annot. Mohamed El-Tahir El-Mesawi (London: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1427/2006).

Jackson, Sherman A. ‘Literalism, Empiricism, and Induction: Apprehending and Concretizing Islamic Law’s Maqdsid al-Shan'ah [sic] in the Modern World’. Michigan State Law Review (2006): 1469—86.

Khamlishi, Ahmad al-. Wijhat Nazar, 4 vols (Rabat: Dar Nashr al-Ma'rifa, 1998 (vol. 2), 2000 (vol. 3), 2002 (vol. 4)).

Kizilkaya, Necmettin. ‘An Outline of the Historical Evolution of Qawd'id Literature in Islamic Law’. American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 28 (2011): 76—105.

Opwis, Felicitas. ‘Maslaha in Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory’. Islamic Law and Society 12 (2005): 183-223.

Opwis, Felicitas. Maslaha and the Purpose of the Law: Islamic Discourse on Legal Change from the 4th/10th to 8th/14th Century (Leiden: Brill, 2010).

Opwis, Felicitas. ‘New Trends in Islamic Legal Theory: Maqasid al-SharTa as a New Source of Law?’ Die Welt des Islams 57 (2017): 7-32.

Qaradawi, Yusuf al-. Dirasafi Fiqh Maqasid al-Shari'ah: bayna al-maqasid al-kulliyya wa-l-nusus al-juz'iyya (Cairo: Dar al-Shuruq, 1427/2006).

Qarafi, Ahmad b. Idris al-. Sharh Tanqih al-Fusulfi Ikhtisar al-Mahsulfi al-Usul (Cairo: Matba'at Kulli- yyat al-Sharifa, 1381/1961).

Razi, Fakhr al-Din Muhammad b. 'Umar al-. Al-Mahsul fi Um Usul al-Fiqh, 2 vols (Beirut: Dar al- Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1408/1988).

Shatibi, Ibrahim b. Musa al-. Al-Muwafaqatfi Usul al-Shari‘ah. Ed. 'Abdullah Diraz, 4 vols (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'Arabi, n.d.).