ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the continuing centrality of thinking about Islamic law in the contemporary Muslim world. It explains the importance of making a distinction between shariʿa as a shorthand for ‘Islamic law’ and fiqh, or ‘jurisprudence’. It also stresses the significance of methodological and philosophical reflections on law, extending the concerns from casuistry to moral underpinnings and ethics, including the question of the public good (maslaha). A distinction is made between formalist and substantivist approaches to Islamic law and legal reform, shaping the debates from Morocco to Indonesia, among both Sunni and Shiʿi Muslims. Extensive coverage is given to the renewed interest in maqasid al-shariʿa, or higher objectives of Islamic law, involving not only traditional religious scholars, but also jurists with modern training, philosophers and other academic specialists. The presence of large communities of Muslims outside the historical Islamic world makes the emergence of ‘minority fiqh’ an increasingly important issue in contemporary Islamic legal thinking.
