Maq¥|Id Al-Sharо Ah As
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Maq¥|id al-SharÏ¢ah as Philosophy of Islamic Law A Systems Approach MAQASID AL-SHARIAH AS PHILOSOPHY OF ISLAMIC LAW ! A Systems Approach jasser auda the international institute of islamic thought london ! washington © The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1428ah/2007ce the international institute of islamic thought p.o. box 669, herndon, va 20172, usa www.iiit.org london office p.o. box 126, richmond, surrey tw9 2ud, uk www.iiituk.com This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of the publishers. isbn 978-1-56564-424-3 paperback isbn 978-1-56564-425-0 hardback The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s and not necessarily those of the publishers. Typesetting by Shiraz Khan Cover Design and Chart illustrations by Sideek Ali Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Limited, King’s Lynn contents List of Charts xi Acknowledgements xvii Foreword xix introduction xxi In the Name of the ‘Islamic Law’? xxi Where is the ‘Islamic Law’? xxii Is There a Problem with the ‘Islamic Law’? xxiii Scope of Disciplines xxv Abstract xxvii 1 maq®ßid al-shari¢ah a contemporary perspective 1 Overview 1.i. Maq¥|id al-SharÏ¢ah: Early History of the Idea 1 What is Maq¥|id? 2 Dimensions of Maq¥|id 3 Al-Maq¥|id in the Companions’ Ijtihad 9 Early Theories of Maq¥|id 13 1.2. Al-Maq¥sid as a Developed Theory: 5–8 Centuries 16 The Emergence of a Philosophy for Islamic Law 16 Ab‰ al-Ma¢¥lÏ al-JuwaynÏ 17 Ab‰ ¤¥mid al-Ghaz¥lÏ 18 Al-¢Izz ibn ¢Abd al-Sal¥m 18 Shih¥b al-DÏn al-Qar¥fÏ 19 Shams al-DÏn ibn al-Qayyim 20 Ab‰ Is^¥q Al-Sh¥~ibÏ 20 vi Contents 1.3. Contemporary Conceptions of Maq¥|id 21 From ‘Protection’ and ‘Preservation’ to ‘Development’ & ‘Rights’ 21 ‘Human Development’ as a Maq¥|id in its Own Right 24 2 systems as philosophy & methodology for analysis 26 Overview 2.i. Systems and Systems Philosophy 27 Teleology, Causality, and Irrationality 27 Towards an ‘Islamic’ Systems Philosophy 28 Are Systems ‘Real’ or Mental Creations? 30 2.2. A Systems Approach to Analysis 31 Traditions of ‘Decompositional’ Analysis 31 Systems Analysis 33 Theories of System Features 34 Theories of System Hierarchies 42 Proposed System Features 45 Cognitive Nature of the System of Islamic Law 45 Wholeness of the System of Islamic Law 46 Openness of the System of Islamic Law 47 Interrelated Hierarchy of the System of Islamic Law 48 Multi-Dimensionality of the System of Islamic Law 49 Purposefulness of the System of Islamic Law 51 3 islamic law, imams, & schools: a historical survey 56 Overview 3.i. What is ‘Islamic Law’? 56 Fiqh and Shari¢ah 56 Q¥n‰n and ¢Urf 57 The Importance of Differentiating between Fiqh and Shari¢ah 99 3.2. Schools of Islamic Law: A Brief History 60 Overview Post-Prophetic Era 60 Contents vii The Imams’ Era 65 A Formal Critique of Madh¥hib Categorisation 69 Chains of Studentship and Narration 71 The ‘Era of Declination’ 75 4 classical theories of islamic law 76 Overview 4.i. Fundamental Sources/Scripts 76 Qur’an 77 Sunnah 79 4.2. Script-Based Linguistic Evidences 88 Overview Clarity 89 Implication 93 The ¤anafÏ Classification of Implications 94 The Sh¥fi¢Ï Classification of Implications 95 Contrary Implication 98 Scope 100 Generality 101 Qualification 102 Linguistic Evidence: The Impact of Greek Philosophy 105 4.3. Script-Based Linguistic Evidences 107 Overview Consensus 109 Analogy 112 Interest 120 Juridical Preference 122 Blocking the Means 125 Previous Jurisprudence 127 A Companion’s Opinion 128 Tradition of People of Madinah 129 Custom 130 Presumption of Continuity 131 Prioritisation of Evidences 132 4.4. Rulings 135 viii Contents Overview Levels of Approval 136 Obligations and Prohibitions 136 Optional Levels 137 Declaratory Rulings 139 Legal Capacity 140 5 contemporary theories in islamic law 143 Overview 5.i. Contemporary Classification and Labels 144 Background 144 Islamic ‘Ideologies’ 145 RAND’s Classification 147 ‘Script-Based’ Classifications 150 5.2. A Proposed Classification 153 Levels of Authority 153 Current ‘Sources’ in Islamic Law 156 Current ‘Tendencies’ in Islamic Law 160 5.3. Traditionalism 162 Scholastic Traditionalism 162 Scholastic Neo-Traditionalism 164 Neo-Literalism 166 Ideology-Oriented Theories 168 5.4. Islamic Modernism 168 Reformist Re-interpretation 171 Apologetic Re-interpretation 174 Ma|la^ah-Based Theories 176 U|‰l Revisionism 177 ‘Science’-Oriented Re-interpretation 179 5.5. Postmodernist Approaches 180 Post-Structuralism 182 Historicity of Means and/or Ends 184 Neo-Rationalism 188 Critical Legal Studies 189 Post-Colonialism 190 Contents ix 6 a systems approach to islamic juridical theories 192 Overview 6.i. Towards Validating All ‘Cognitions’ 193 ‘Revealed’ Ijtihad 193 Separating the Revealed from its ‘Cognition’ 194 6.2. Towards ‘Holism’ 197 The ‘Uncertainty’ of Individual Evidence 197 Limitation of ‘Causation’ in Traditionalist and Modernist Theories 198 Towards a ‘Holistic’ ¢Ilm al-Kal¥m 200 6.3. Towards Openness and Self-Renewal 201 Change of Rulings with ‘Cognitive Culture’ 201 Self-Renewal via Philosophical Openness 206 6.4. Towards Multi-Dimensionality 211 Spectrum of Certainty 211 Resolving ‘Opposition’ through Multi-Dimensionality 218 Multi-dimensionality and Postmodernism 226 6.5. Towards ‘Purposefulness’ 227 The ‘Implication of the Purpose’ 228 Purposeful Interpretations of Primary Sources 232 Prophetic Purposes and Intents 233 Analogy via Purposes 236 Interests Coherent with Purposes 238 Juridical Preference Based on Purposes 239 ‘Opening the Means’ to Achieve Good Ends 241 Customs and the Purpose of ‘Universality’ 241 Presumption of Continuity 243 ‘Purposefulness’ as Common Grounds for Schools of Law 243 ‘Purposefulness’ as as the Fundamental Criteria for Ijtihad 244 7 conclusions 246 Classic Conceptions and Classifications of Maq¥|id 246 Contemporary Conceptions of Maq¥|id and Their Significance 248 Multi-Disciplinarity 249 Systems Analysis 249 x Contents Classifying Theological Schools Regarding ‘Causation’ 250 What is ‘Islamic law’? 250 The Evolution of Traditional Schools of Islamic Law 251 Fundamental Sources/Scripts 251 Linguistic Evidences 252 Rational Evidences 252 Contemporary Theories in Islamic Law 253 A Proposed Classification for Theories of Islamic Law 253 A Systems Approach to Theories of Islamic Law 255 Notes 259 Bibliography 305 Glossary of Islamic Terms 316 Notes on Sources of Information, Transliteration and Translation 319 General Index 320 List of Charts page 3 Chart 1.1. Hierarchy of the purposes of the Islamic law (dimension of levels of necessity). 7 Chart 1.2. Based on the ‘cognitive nature’ of the Islamic law, all of the above structures of the law’s purposes are valid. 15 Chart 1.3. The first page of Egyptian D¥r al-Kutub’s manuscript of al-Qaff¥l al-KabÏr’s Ma^¥sin al-Shar¥’i¢ (The Beauties of the Laws). 44 Chart 2.1. (a) Laszlo’s parallel hierarchies. (b) Salk’s hierarchy of the ‘categories of nature.’ 50 Chart 2.2. A gray-scale picture distorts the variety of detail of a colored picture. Its two-color ‘distortion,’ however, filters out a great deal of information. In this example, viewing the two-color picture alone creates an interesting puzzle. 58 Chart 3.1. A diagram illustrating the (traditional) relations between the concepts of shari¢ah, fiqh, ¢urf, and q¥n‰n. Notice the inclusion of fiqh with the Qur’an and the prophetic tradition in ‘the revealed.’ 63 Chart 3.2. This map illustrates the seventh-century paths that battles, and immigrants, took. Scanned from: R. Roolvink et al., Historical Atlas of the Muslim Peoples (Amsterdam, 1957). Available in soft form on: http://www.princeton.edu/thumcomp/ dimensions.html (visited: April 13, 2006). 69 Chart 3.3. A summary of the ‘sources of legislation’ that are used as ‘classifying features’ between the schools of Islamic law. This classification approach has a number of limitations, including single-dimensionality and overgeneralisations. xii List of Charts 72 Chart 3.4. Chains of students who eventually formed the schools of Islamic law, starting with (a selected group of) the companions and ending with (a selected group of) the u|‰lÏs. 77 Chart 4.1. A list of ‘evidences’ and a classification according to their endorsement (in principle) within the schools of Islamic law. 79 Chart 4.2. A classification of the Qur’anic narrations according to their ‘level of authenticity.’ 80 Chart 4.3. A classification of the possible relationships between the traditions of the Sunnah and the Qur’anic verses. 81 Chart 4.4. Types of Prophetic actions according to their implications on ‘legislation.’ 83 Chart 4.5. Types of Prophetic narrations in terms of their number of narrators. 85 Chart 4.6. Conditions for validating single-chains narrations in traditional Sciences of Hadith. 87 Chart 4.7. Positions of some schools of law regarding the mursal hadith. 88 Chart 4.8. Classification of terms/expressions in terms of clarity, implication, and scope. 89 Chart 4.9. Classification of ‘clear’ and ‘unclear’ terms. 90 Chart 4.10. Classification of clear terms according to the possi- bility of their specification, re-interpretation, and abrogation. 91 Chart 4.11. Classification of types of unclear expressions, based on the reason behind their non-clarity. 94 Chart 4.12. Implications of expressions according to the ¤anafÏs. 96 Chart 4.13. Implications of expressions according to the Shafies. 98 Chart 4.14. Types of contrary implication. 100 Chart 4.15. Classification of expressions in terms of their scope. 101 Chart 4.16. Difference of opinion over the relationship between an ¥^¥d narration and a ‘general’ verse.