Maṣlaḥa and the Purpose of the Law

Download or read book Maṣlaḥa and the Purpose of the Law written by Felicitas Opwis and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2010-05-31 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on writings of legal theory by leading jurisprudents from al-Jaṣṣāṣ (d. 370/980) to al-Shāṭibī (d. 790/1388), this study traces the Islamic discourse on legal change. It looks at the concept of maṣlaḥa (people’s well-being) as a method of extending and adapting God’s law, showing how it evolves from an obscure legal principle to being interpreted as the all-encompassing purpose of God’s law. Discussions on maṣlaḥa’s epistemology, its role in the law-finding process, the limits of human investigation into divinecommands, and the delineation of the sphere of religious law in Muslim society highlight the interplay between law, theology, logic, and politics that make maṣlaḥa a viable vehicle of legal change up to the present.