ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the new Islāmic scholarship in research based on the Maqasid Methodology. It focuses on the limitations of past and current methodological Islāmic research scholarship and Maqasid Methodology Framework. It is based on Jasser Auda (2021), who introduced a new method of research in Islāmic Scholarship which is based on the Islāmic or Qur’ānic worldview. The essence of this research framework, based on the positioning of the Qur’ān and Sunnah as the ultimate sources of knowledge, with an interconnected webs of meaning provides an integrative and holistic frame of reference for Islāmic scholars to integrate their diverse fields of knowledge. This is reflected in the broad definition Maqasid Methodology as a systematic approach in which connectivity, wholism and emergence are focal points. In order to apply the different stages of the Maqasid Methodology in the research process, the researcher need to be re-oriented with the three most fundamental aspects of this reorientation are: (1) knowledge (ilm), (2) reality (waqi) and (3) scholarship (ijtihad). There are five overlapping and interconnected Maqasid methodology steps: (1) purpose, (2) cycles of reflection, (3) framework, (4) critical studies of literature and reality and (5) formative theories and principles. When thinking of applying the Maqasid Methodology in Islāmic psychology, it is worthwhile valuable to reflect on the Higher Objectives of Islāmic Law (Maqasid Ash-Shar’iah): the preservation of the religion; the preservation of the self/soul; the preservation of lineage/offspring, progeny, honour; the preservation of the mind/intellect (‘aql); and the preservation of the wealth. There are seven elements in the Framework that conceptualise an Islāmic worldview composite: concepts (mafahim); objectives (maqasid); values (qiyam); commands (awamir); universal laws (sunan); groups (fi’at); and proofs (hujaj). However, Islāmic psychologists and psychotherapists are expected to re-orient psychology in accordance with the Qur’ānic worldview, which is drawn through a composite framework of cycles of reflection on divine revelation. This methodology is a comprehensive framework for understanding and applying Islāmic sources of knowledge in a unique interdisciplinary context.
