Understanding Maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah

Musfir al-Qahtani’s translated book is a recent contribution on the contemporaryrelevance of maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah. After a lengthy introduction in whichhe outlines some technical aspects of the subject, he turns to their relevancefor issuing fatwas (e.g., “cultural development,” “religious extremism,” and“the Muslim mindset”) before rounding-off with what he calls the “goalawareness crisis.” Helpfully, the reader is provided with a synopsis at the beginningof every chapter.The book is divided into five main chapters. The introduction seeks to establisha definition for the maqāṣid al-Sharī‘ah while drawing attention to howothers have referred to them. The reader is then briefly presented with the textualand “logical” (read: theological) arguments in favor of ta‘līl al-aḥkām (determiningthe ratio decidendi of rulings), a fundamental query in the quest toestablish the field’s validity. Neither section is very detailed, and it soon becomesclear that the author wrote this book for activists who want to understandwhat the maqāṣid are and what relevance they hold for their cause.Having established the proofs for the concept, al-Qahtani turns to themaqāṣid’s meta-structure. There is nothing original in this chapter, as al-Izzbin Abdussalam (d. 1262), al-Shatibi (d. 1388), Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 1350), andthe other usual figures are cited. It is much to the author’s credit, however,that he refers (albeit once and almost just as a gesture) to Mustafa Shalabi (d.1997), who has been largely overshadowed by other scholars despite his majorcontributions to the field of Islamic law and legal theory, most notably in his1944 Azhar ‘ālimīyah thesis Ta‘līl al-Aḥkām ...