The word · Law & life
مَقاصِدُ الشَّريعة
Maqasid al-Shari'ah
The higher aims of Islamic law: what its rulings exist in order to protect.
Also written · Maqasid · Maqasid al-sharia · Maqasid ash-shariah · Makasid · Maqasid shariah · Maqsad · higher objectives · objectives of sharia · aims of Islamic law · purposes of the law
The meaning
What Maqasid al-Shari'ah means in Islam
Al-Ghazali and later al-Shatibi set out five: religion, life, intellect, lineage and property, with dignity and sometimes freedom added by later scholars. Interests are ranked as necessities, needs and refinements, so what preserves life outweighs what merely makes life more comfortable. Maqasid explain why a ruling exists and help reasoning where the texts are silent, but most scholars insist they cannot be used to set a clear text aside.
Evidence · Editorial · Our own summary, drawn from the sources named
Read beside it
Words that sit beside it
- MaslahahPublic benefit, weighed as a legal consideration where no specific text settles the matter.مَصْلَحة
- Shari'ahThe whole of what God revealed as guidance: belief, worship, character and law together.الشَّريعة
- Usul al-FiqhThe science of how rulings are derived: which sources count, and how they are read.أُصولُ الفِقْه
- DarurahNecessity: the state in which something forbidden becomes permitted in order to preserve life.ضَرورة
More from Law & life
- 'AqdA contract: a binding agreement formed by an offer and its acceptance.عَقْد
- FardObligatory: required by decisive evidence, and sinful to abandon without an excuse.فَرْض
- HijabThe covering a Muslim woman wears in public, most often a headscarf with modest clothing.حِجاب
- MadhhabA school of law: a settled method of deriving rulings, carried by generations of scholars.مَذْهَب
- MustahabbRecommended: rewarded if done, with no blame for leaving it.مُسْتَحَبّ
- RiddahApostasy: abandoning Islam after having accepted it.رِدَّة