The Maqasid al-Shariah Question
This topic came up in every meeting, but nowhere was it addressed more succinctly than at the Institute for Advanced Islamic Studies in KL, by esteemed scholar Professor Dr Mohammad Hashim Kamali. The Maqasid al-Shariah, or "objectives" of shariah is of special interest to us as students of contemporary Islamic studies. Developing a methodology based on addressing the objectives of Islamic Law in a contemporary context, rather than adhering rigidly to the "letter of the law", is seen by some as necessary for Islam to be able to proceed effectively into the modern world as an ideology and a polity.
Professor Dr Mohamad Hashim Kamali is Founding Chariman and CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS). He is an expert in Islamic jurisprudence and a prolific author.
Prof Kamali began by outlining a definition of shariah, a term often thrown about by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, without their really understanding what it means.
The following is a summary of what Professor Kamali said to us in the meeting:
The term shariah is from the Arabic root "sharaha", meaning street. In it's theological context it means a path, or a beaten track, to a watering place. It is the totality of guidance revealed in the Qur'an and explicated in the sunnah, or way, of the Prophet Muhammad. The shariah explains the essentials of belief, morality and legal principles in Islam.
A breakdown of the basic components of shariah might be as follows:
Aqida (belief) or relationship to God
Moral behaviour, or relationship to others
Fiqh, or law, which makes up about 2.5-3% of the Qur'an (although this is disputed).
Fiqh ought to be in service of the first two components. It is a manifestation of the more concretised legal rulings, and is not as essential as aqida.
Shariah might serve as state jurisdiction, deal with criminal matters and/or be applied to family matters such as property and inheritance.
The maqasid al-shariah are the objectives of shariah, which are six:
Justice
Fair Treatment
Rights
Protection of values such as property, family, intelligence and integrity
Education
Dignity
The question was asked about challenges with usool-ul-fiqh, the traditional methodology for developing law from the Islamic sources, and whether a maqasid, or objective oriented approach was feasible.
Professor Kamali addressed the question firstly by explaining usool-ul-fiqh.
Usool-ul-fiqh is a set of formulas whose purpose is to regulate ijtihad, or independent reasoning in Islam. Unfortunately usool-ul-fiqh has, across the centuries, become over-burdened with technicalities and excessively enriched by scholarship. This has rendered usool-ul-fiqh difficult to use now and completely overwhelming for the modern student of Islamic Law.
The so-called maqasid approach may lack the methodological grounding to ensure accuracy, the Professor explained. He maintained, intriguingly, that a maqasid methodology be developed while utilising usool-ul-fiqh in its service and that both methodologies be applied together.
In Turkey, Sheikh Osman Nuri Topbas addressed the question of shariah from a more spiritual, individualistic standpoint. He identified the main, or over-arching objective of shariah to be drawing closer to Allah: to live in awareness that he is watching and so avoiding the wrongful and seeking to do the praiseworthy. In terms of the "Islamic State" question, Sheikh Osman reminded us that the prophets had no personal interests but focused on changing hearts before anything else, in line with this Qur'anic verse: “Allah will never change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” {Surah al-Israh 17:31} . This is reflected in the fact that the Prophet Mohammad prepared the hearts of the early Muslims for thirteen years before a "state" was constructed and even before any key Islamic obligations were revealed: for example, salat, hajj, fasting and hijab.
