ABSTRACT

The legal discourse on the maqa'id al-Shari'ah, commonly translated as purposes, objectives or intentions of the Shari?ah, arises out of practical considerations of finding rulings for situations unprecedented in the textual sources of Islamic law as well as theological discussions over the nature of God and His revealed word. Since the earliest time of Islam, the limited legal material revealed in the Qur'an and available from the practice of the Prophet Muhammad made Muslims look for principles to apply in the adjudication of matters not explicitly addressed in the scriptural sources of the law. In al-Ghazali’s legal theory, recourse to the purposes of the law serves as a means for resolving cases that are not expressly decided in the scriptural sources of the law and fall outside the deductive procedure of legal analogy. Despite entering the realm of legal precepts, a common feature of pre-modern interpretations of the maqa'id al-Shari’ah is jurists’ focus on individual legal cases.