Understanding Maqasid al-Shari’ah: A Contemporary Perspective

UnderstandingMaqasid al-Shari’ah: A Contemporary Perspective

Author: Musfirbin Ali al-Qahtani

Publisher: IslamicBook Trust

Pages: 212pp

ISBN: 9789670526362

Price: RM40.00

Dr. Musafirbin Ali al-Qahtani’s work contributes to the ever growing body of scholarlyliterature in the field of maqasid al-Shari’ah (higher objectives of Islamiclaw). Understanding Maqasidal-Shari ah calls for the development of ajuridicial sense that is finely tuned to the higher objectives and purposes ofIslamic rulings, the aims of which are the formulation of a new methodology inunderstanding the revealed texts and the reform of Muslim thought and itsapplication. The author draws attention to the importance of understandingvarious levels of maqasid, including distinguishing between primary aims(al-maqasid al-asliyyah) and secondary aims (al-maqasid al-tabi’ah). Al-Qahtaniasserts that a positive understanding of the objectives of the Shari’ah shouldproduce affirming human and cultural developments in Muslim societies. The realstrength of this work, however, is in the author’s application of higherobjectives and aims to different areas of jurisprudence, such as in derivingand issuing religious rulings (ifta‘). and to important social issues andproblems present in Muslim societies, such as extremism, jihad, commandingright and forbidding wrong, social change, crisis of Muslim thought, counteringreligious excessiveness, the need for recreation and leisure, citizenship andnation-belonging, spreading beauty and harmony in Islam, and the role of Muslimwomen in society.