IBN ASHUR: TREATISE ON MAQASID AL-SHARIAH

Goals, Objectives, Higher Objectives, principles, Intent, Purpose..

Paperback 489 Pages
Published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought IIIT, London, Washington
ISBN: 1-56564-422-0

Ibn Ashur’s famous and pioneering study of the Shariah’s higher objectives and goals. To restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Qur’an scholars developed the study of the objectives of Islam. The Shariah is marked by a universal wisdom whereby every legal ruling has a function which it performs, an aim which it realises, an intention which it seeks to fulfill and all of this in order to realise benefit to human beings or to ward off harm or corruption.
Muhammad al-Tahir ibn ‘Ashur (1879 -1973~)was an eminent figure in the institution of the Tunisian scholars for most of the twentieth century. He is also highly regarded as a Muslim reformist and his Qur’anic tafsir al-Tahrir wa’l-tanwir, is among the influential tafsirs produced in the modern era.

Since he lived during the colonial period, as well as the early period of Tunisian independence, Ibn ‘Ashur’s intellectual output reflects different forces and stands witness to the dilemma experienced by the ‘ulama’ in a time of unprecedented change.


Influenced by Muhammad ‘Abduh, and responding to modern challenges to Islamic traditions, Ibn ‘Ashur called for substantive reforms in Islamic education. His work on the ultimate purposes of the Shari‘a represents not only an attempt to revive the maqasid theory of Shatibi, but also a significant addition to modern efforts to renew Islamic legal theory. Ibn ‘Ashur, however, seems to have become disappointed with the independent state’s drive for modernisation and radical secularisation.