“The Maqāṣid Are the Qibla of the Jurists”: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary References to and Usages of Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī’s Dictum
Abstract
:1. Introduction
1.1. Al-Ghazālī’s Understanding of the Role of Reason in the Process of Ijtihād
1.2. Al-Ghazālī’s Conceptualization of the Maqāṣid in Al-Mustaṣfā
1.3. Al-Ghazālī’s Kitāb Ḥaqīqat Al-Qawlayn and the Context of His Maqāṣid-Dictum
2. Modern Preoccupations with Al-Ghazālī’s Dictum
2.1. Al-Ghazālī’s Dictum in the Different Types of Literature on the Maqāṣid
2.2. References Not to Al-Ghazālī’s Original Work but to Al-Suyūṭī’s
2.3. Few Cases with Direct Reference to the Original Al-Ghazālī Source and Engagement with It
3. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1 | In this domain, contributions have become numerous and, among others, consist of the critique of al-Ghazālī’s restriction on the maqāṣid to the classical five values (Rayyān 2021, p. 24; Opwis 2017, p. 29). However, it is argued that it is not only in the modern age that such critique is mentioned but that already classical scholars such as Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 756/1355), Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī (d. 683/1285), Ibn Taymiyya, ʿIzz al-Dīn b. ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 660/1262), and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751/1350) criticized his concept (Ademi 2018, p. 224). In the modern age, the American Egyptian jurist Khaled Abou El Fadl suggests that the classical five values mentioned by al-Ghazālī should be interpreted according to modern needs. Thus, for example, when al-Ghazālī mentions the necessity of protecting religion (ḥifth al-dīn), Abou El Fadl proposes that this value should be reinterpreted into the protection of religious freedom (Bassiouni 2014, p. 207). Another critique, expressed by the Moroccan philosopher ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Ṭāhā, reads that the five values mentioned by al-Ghazālī and others are merely materialistic and that ethics were disregarded when this early maqāṣid concept was formulated (Ṭāhā 2015, p. 111). |
2 | See, for instance, Ahmad (2012, p. 122); Emon (2021, pp. 152–53); Zaman (2012, p. 37); Hallaq (1997, p. 214; 2004, p. 46). |
3 | For al-Ghazālī’s great admiration of Imam al-Shāfiʿī, see, for instance, Ormsby (2007, pp. 40–41). |
4 | Hallaq explains that with his change in thought, al-Ghazālī was not an exception at all among Muslim scholars and he cites famous examples among them (Hallaq 1992, p. 191). |
5 | Perhaps Moosa’s assumption as to why al-Ghazālī addressed the maṣlaḥa in al-Mustaṣfā under the so-called suspect sources goes too far when he assumes that because al-Ghazālī was “cautious about venting this idea too loudly, he artfully discusses it in a section entitled ‘suspect sources’” (Moosa 2013, p. 278). |
6 | According to Nekroumi (2018, p. 177), al-Ghazālī’s definitions of both the maṣlaḥa and the maqāṣid are today regarded as the first systematic attempts of their kind. Following Opwis (2010, p. 67), it can be added that al-Ghazālī’s explanation of the maṣlaḥa since he first defined it became the standard definition in Islamic law. |
7 | Several Prophetic narrations mention that in such a case, a slave should be freed. If the person is not capable to do so, he or she should fast for 60 consecutive days and if he or she is unable to do that, then feed 60 poor people. |
8 | For an analysis of al-Ghazālī’s maqāṣid understanding, see, for instance, al-Kīlānī (2009). The actual origin of the five ḍarūrāt is unclear but they seem to have first emerged among the Khurasanian branch of the shāfiʿī school of law. Zyzow argues that in al-Ghazālī’s time, the doctrine was already well known (Zyzow 2013, p. 201). |
9 | An example he provides for the protection of religion is the killing of the infidel and punishment of the innovator in religious affairs (mubtadiʿ) and whoever promotes this innovation among people. Al-Ghazālī explains those punishments because through the actions of these people, religion becomes in danger (al-Ghazālī 1997, p. 417). Another example for the protection of religion is offered a few pages onwards when al-Ghazālī argues that during war, when non-Muslims attack the Muslim community and have taken a group of Muslims as a human shield, even then Muslims should attack the non-Muslim army because otherwise they themselves will be attacked, the Muslim territory may be conquered, and the Muslim population killed as a result (ibid., p. 420). He also reasons that retaliation (qiṣāṣ) is intended to protect people’s lives, as is the punishment for the consumption of alcohol, since the intellect is meant to be protected through the implementation of this prohibition. The ground for the punishment of adultery (zina) again is the intended protection of progeny, and for stealing to protect people’s property (ibid., p. 417). |
10 | One reason for the lack of deeper engagement with the maqāṣid might be, as argued by some contemporary authors, that a general understanding on their meaning and role in ijtihād was already clear to classical scholars, so that the provision of definitions and explanations was not regarded as necessary. See, for instance, Kamali (2012, p. 6). |
11 | http://alhiwarmagazine.blogspot.com/2014/12/blog-post_69.html (accessed on 15 April 2023). |
12 | مجلة الحوار: إدراك مقاصد الشريعة الإسلامية (alhiwarmagazine.blogspot.com) (accessed on 24 January 2024). |
13 | https://lakhasly.com/ar/view-summary/44EPhV8pjB (accessed on 19 April 2023). |
14 | https://islamanar.com/destinationsthe-diligent/ (accessed on 15 April 2023). |
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Kepplinger, E. “The Maqāṣid Are the Qibla of the Jurists”: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary References to and Usages of Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī’s Dictum. Religions 2024, 15, 165. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020165
Kepplinger E. “The Maqāṣid Are the Qibla of the Jurists”: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary References to and Usages of Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī’s Dictum. Religions. 2024; 15(2):165. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020165
Chicago/Turabian StyleKepplinger, Eva. 2024. "“The Maqāṣid Are the Qibla of the Jurists”: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary References to and Usages of Abū Ḥāmid Al-Ghazālī’s Dictum" Religions 15, no. 2: 165. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15020165