Maqasid al-Sharia al-Islamiyya 1
- Author died
- 1393 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs
Maqasid al-Sharia al-Islamiyya (The Objectives of Islamic Law) is a legal treatise written by the Tunisian jurist and Grand Imam of al-Zaytuna Mosque, Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur (1296–1393 AH / 1879–1973 CE), devoted to establishing the study of the higher purposes and rationale of Islamic law as an autonomous discipline .
Background and Purpose
The book originated as lectures prepared and delivered by Ibn Ashur to students of maqasid at al-Zaytuna, after which the text was adopted into the curriculum for first-year higher-level students in the sharia department of the mosque .
Ibn Ashur composed the work to provide jurists and students of law with a definitive, objective reference point to curtail intractable disagreements (ikhtilaf), discard factional partisanship (ta'assub), and establish clear criteria for evaluating competing legal positions (tarjih) . He argued that classical legal theory (usul al-fiqh) had become entangled in scholastic debates and was primarily designed to extract specific rules from verbal formulas rather than to articulate the underlying wisdom (hikma) of legislation . Ibn Ashur therefore advocated reforming legal theory by distilling its definitive principles into an independent science centered on the objectives of the law . While acknowledging and building upon earlier foundational contributions—most notably the second volume of al-Muwafaqat by Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi—he sought to supplement and refine their scope, particularly regarding civil transactions and social ethics .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an introductory theoretical exposition followed by three primary divisions :
- Establishing the Objectives: Covers the verification of legal objectives, the methods used to identify and substantiate them (turuq al-ithbat), their hierarchical classifications, and their division into definitive (qat'i) and speculative (zanni) categories . Ibn Ashur identifies five areas of legal reasoning (ijtihad) where a jurist depends on knowledge of maqasid, particularly when addressing novel situations unaddressed by specific texts or analogies .
- General Objectives (al-Maqasid al-'Amma): Details the overarching intents and wisdoms observed across all or most branches of legislation . These include the preservation of public social order (hifz nizam al-umma), realizing benefits and repelling harms, establishing equality, aligning legislation with natural human disposition (fitra), and ensuring the law's authority and practical enforcement .
- Specific Objectives (al-Maqasid al-Khassa): Analyzes the discrete purposes governing various areas of transactions and interpersonal relations (fiqh al-mu'amalat), including family law (marriage and divorce), commercial contracts, and pledges .
Methodology and Key Themes
Throughout the treatise, Ibn Ashur emphasizes inductive survey (istiqra') of scriptural texts and context over rigid, isolated textual literalism, cautioning against approaches that neglect contextual circumstances and the broader spirit of the law . He critiques the literalist methodology of the Zahirite school for discarding legal rationale (ta'lil) and analogy (qiyas) .
In structuring the traditional universal necessities (al-daruriyyat), he adopts classical classifications from scholars such as Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Ibn al-Hajib, and Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi, while dissenting from al-Qarafi's addition of preserving honor (hifz al-'ird) as an independent universal necessity . He also delineates the distinct roles and capacities of the Prophet ﷺ—distinguishing between prophetic conveyance of revelation, judicial rulings, and state leadership—as a foundational mechanism for legal deduction .
Publication and Editions
The work was first published in Tunis by Maktabat al-Istiqaama . In modern scholarship, it has been issued in critical editions, including an edition edited by Muhammad al-Tahir al-Misawi (published by Dar al-Nafa'is, Amman, 1421 AH / 2001 CE) and an extensive three-volume critical edition and analytical study edited by Muhammad al-Habib Ibn al-Khoja, published under the auspices of Qatar's Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs (1425 AH / 2004 CE) .
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