IBN ASHUR Treatise on Maqasid al-Shari'ah

Abstract

Maqasid al-Shari'ah or the higher objectives of Islamic law is considered a very important branch of knowledge in Islamic Shari'ah. Next to Usul al-fiqh, which deals with issues pertaining to the sources and methodology of Islamic Law, Maqsid al-Shari'ah can be regarded as the greatest development in the history of Islamic jurisprudence. Many scholars of Islamic jurisprudence contributed to this important development, right from Abul Ma`ali al-Juwayni (419/1028-478/1085) in the classical period of Muslim history up to Muhammad al-Tahir Ibn Ashur (1296/1879-1393/1973) in modern times. Realizing the importance of the idea of maqasid, al-Shatibi (d. 790/1388) laboured to reconstruct the whole of usul al-fiqh around the Maqasid and thus made them the unifying theme of the issues and topics usually dealt with almost independently of one another by usul works. With him the Maqasid became the axis of usul al-fiqh.