2. What is Maqasid Shari’ah ?
 Maqasid Shariah is the objective established when deriving laws according to
Islamic Shariah.
 Imam al-Ghazali defined Maslaha as that which secures a benefit or prevents
harm. However, benefits mentioned in the Islamic Divine Law are of three kinds:
i. Accredited benefits (Masalih Mu'tabarah) : regulated by The Lawgiver in the
sense that a textual authority from the divine law could be found to prove
their validity.
ii. Nullified benefits (Masalih Mulghat) : there are also other kinds of benefits
and interests that the Shariah neglected because they lead to harm and
hardship (Mafsadah), such as stealing or usury.
iii. Unregulated benefits (al-Masalih al-Mursalah) : since the benefits of people
can be as numerous as their public interests, we find that the divine law did
not regulate a number of these benefits.

3.  As a theme of the Shariah in its own right, the
maqasid did not receive much attention in the early
stages of the development of Islamic legal thought .
 Even though this day, many reputable textbook on
Usul al-Fiqh does not mention maqasid al-Shariah in
their usual coverage of familiar topics.
 This is partly due to the nature of the subject, which
is largely concerned with the philosophy of the law

4. Why Allah Revealed a Divine Law (Shariah)?
 Some Muslim scholars of jurisprudence, especially
Ibn Taimia (661-728 A.H./1263-1328 A.D.), said that
Allah revealed such a legislative system or Shariah
in order to achieve Justice.
 Other jurists said it is for the purpose of achieving
happiness. And still some others, especially al-
Ghazali, said it is only for the achievement and the
realization of the very benefits of man on earth.

5.  The Islamic Divine Law or Shariah was revealed for
one basic universal purpose: to realize or to make
real the best interests of humans on earth.
 Maslaha in Arabic language, which literally
translates as benefit or interest, is defined by Imam
al-Ghazali as that which secures a benefit or
prevents harm.

6.  During (450-505 A.H./ 1058-1111 A.D.) a question
was presented by Imam al-Ghazali in his book on
the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence called “al-
Mustasfa Min ‘lm al-Usul.”
 The question is about the abandoned ship that were
written in his book as stated below :
 Q : Three hundred people were in a boat sailing on
the sea. They realized that their safety was at risk,
and the lives of the majority could only be saved by
throwing 10 people overboard. Would it be morally
right to kill 10 people in order to save 290?

7.  Human nature tends naturally to seek happiness and to live as good as
possible, but this cannot be achieved unless people cooperate with each
other, but cooperation is impossible unless people live a peaceful life.
However, rules and legal regulation are useless without a source of
authority to enforce them and apply them equally. For the above reasons
the Divine wisdom made the Islamic law or Shariah achieves the benefits
of people in the two following ways:
i. By procuring these benefits
For eg ; Since people cannot bring about the benefits of mankind
equally; they discriminate against each other, they kill each other .In
one word they present their interest as central and others are only
means to achieve their own ends. Allah is an absolute justice who
legislates to mankind what is beneficial to all.
ii. by preserving or protecting these human universal benefits by
setting rules and regulations with sets of prescribed punishments.

8.  According to al-Ghazali, and on the basis of Shariah, it is morally wrong
to kill some people in order to save others. Why?
 Al-Ghazali gave three reasons against the justification of killing in this
case of the abandoned ship:
i. Universality: the benefit of people, in this case the majority, is not a
universal benefit, it is only the interest of of small community who are
going to use others as means to their end.
ii. Necessity: the benefit of those people on the boat is not
necessary to a degree to break another necessity and kill
humans.
iii. Certainty: we are not certain that killing those people is going
to save the rest. What if they killed them and after that they faced
another problem at sea, should they kill another 10 people to save the rest?
This is morally unjustifiable and becomes out of control.
 In Islam the life of every single human is unique and precious; it is one of
the five necessities and must be preserved and protected. Allah
commanded Muslims in the Qur’an that killing is prohibited, and to kill
one soul is as if you killed the entire human race and to save one soul is as
if you saved the entire human race.

9. The essentials/necessities
(al-Daruriyyat)
The needs/exigencies
(al-Hajiyyat)
The complementary interests
(al-Tahsiniyyat)

11.  The most basic needs in life.
 These Necessities are defined as those
activities and things that are essential to the
preservation/protection of the five
foundations of rights of individual and social
life according to Islam.

12.  The prioritization of these five elements by the
Hanafiyyah is as follows (AlZuhayli, 1998)
5. 1. Religion
Property/weal
th (al-mal) (al-Din)
Classification of
basic rights
4. Lineage 2. Life
(al-nasab) (al-Hayah)
3.
Intellect/reas
on (al-’aql)

13.  To resolve any conflict between these
categories of interest.

14.  Their destruction and collapse will precipitate
chaos and collapse of normal order in society.
 Otherwise human life would be harsh, brutal,
poor, and miserable here and in the hereafter.
 Shari’ah seeks to protect and promote these
values and validates measures for their
preservation and advancement.

16.  means to protect the faith of every individual Muslim from
negative influences that may cause confusion and
undermine his faith.
 Jihad is prescribed for defending Din, prayer , fasting
pilgrimage and zakah help establish it.
 Jihad has thus been validated in order to protect
religion, and so is just retaliation (qisas) which is designed to
protect life.

17. “There are no people who went astray after having been
guided except for indulging in disputation.” (al-Tirmidhi)
Prophet Muhammad S.A.W:
"Shall I tell you who a true believer is? A person with whom
others entrust their money and lives. A Muslim is one from
whose tongue and hand others are safe. A true fighter in
the path of Allah is one who strives against the inner
yearnings of his self in order to obey Allah, and the true
emigrant (one who leaves a land of disbelief and
immigrates to a land of belief) is one who leaves sins and
wrongful acts." (Ibn Hibbaan)

18.  secured by obtaining lawful means of
sustenance such as food, marriage, medicine,
shelter.
 The way to protect it is through the
enforcement of prescribed penalties provided
by the Divine Law. For example, adultery,
false accusation, killing, and suicide are
prohibited.

19. “…And do not kill yourselves (nor
kill one another). Surely, Allah is
most Merciful to you.” (Annisa’
:29)

20.  essential to the existence of the human race. The
benefit of reason to the human existence might
be beyond reason.
 Thus, it is secured by lawful means of
sustenance, and protected against destruction
by a set of rules and punishments.
 For example, anything that diminishes the
intellect’s ability to function properly such as
alcohol or any similar substance is prohibited.

21. (al-Maida:90)
“Oh you who believe! Intoxicants and gambling and idols and divining arrows are
only the filth of Shaitan’s handiwork, so avoid them so that you may be successful.”
“Indeed Shaitan only wants to stir up enmity and hatred amongst you by means of
intoxicants and gambling, and hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and the
prayer. Will you not then abstain? “
(al-Maida:91)

22.  Means – prevention of all means that stops procreation such
as celibacy, adultery, homosexuality, and abortion.
 It enjoins human to control and regulate it and seek its
fulfillment in marriage.
 Lineage and procreation can be most suitable protected
through marriage and the institution of family.
 Strongly discourage secret marriages and marrying a wife
without consent of her guardian (wali).
 Several punishment for adultery – to strengthen the
institution of family.
 Create and maintain unique relationship between husband
and wife and between parents and children so that they
provide the necessary love and essential support to each
other.

23.  Wealth should not go from the hands of its owner without
fair compensation.
 Prohibits theft and all other forms of unlawful acquisition of
private and public wealth.
 Ownership over the wealth of other person could only be
acquired through contracts by mutual consent or
inheritance.
 The Shari’ah also prohibited fraud and giving short
measures. The Qur’an condemns those who give short
measure. It state “Woe to those who give short measure:
those who, when they are not to receive their due from
(other) people, demand that it be given in full – but when
they have to measure or weigh whatever they own to others,
give less than what is due.” Al-Mutaffifin (83:1-3)

24.  The Shari’ah also want to ensure the wealth is transferred
among the members of a certain society and between
societies themselves in a fair way and with proper
exchange value (i’wad).
 Prohibit usury as the lender gets his principal and an
additional amount without giving anything in return to the
borrows.
 Usury profitable transaction.
 Also prohibit gambling, fraud, uncertainty(gharar).
 Include its use and investment for beneficial purposes.
 Objective of shari’ah – not to kept the wealth of an individual
idle but should benefits him and the community as a whole

25.  Therefore, Shari’ah prohibits both hoarding of wealth and
extravagance.
 Not to be wasted on luxuries or in sinful activities such as
gambling.
 Spend in proper ways – investment benefits the owner and
society – create job opportunities, improves their living
standards and result in sharing the rewards.
 Example – contract of sale, lease, pledge, agency, transfer of
debt, guarantee and transaction that combine capital and
labour likes musharakah, mudarabah, and others.

26.  Another shari’ah objective, is the circulation of wealth
within the community.
 Can be done through redistributive measures such as
imposition of zakat on the wealthy and its distribution to the
poor, encouraging the creation of waqf and spending on
other charitable causes.
 If the individual wealth is protected the wealth of a
community is also protected as “the benefits and utility of
private property lead to the general public good of the
community.”

28.  Comlimentary interest (al-hajiyyat) overall supplement the
essential interest (al-daruriyyat) and refer to interest whose
neglect leads to hardship but not to total disruption of
normal life.
 Also defined as benefits that seek to remove severity and
hardship in cases where such severity and hardship do not
pose a threat to the very survival of normal order.
 Refer to what is necessary to supplement and enrich the 5
fundamental values.
 May include, da’wah to spread religion, proper upbringing
and education for spiritual and intellect development, and
adequate nutrition, clothing and medical facilities.
 Necessity to take all appropriate measures for enviromental
protection.

29.  Lineage - As a necessity measure Islam prohibits obscenity
and nudity, and orders both men and women to wear decent
and dignified dress.
 Prohibits other instances of immoral behaviour that corrupt
individual and public morality.
 Also extend to banning hoarding, controlling monopolies by
providing for fair competition and registration of ownership
of certain properties such as land, building and vehicles.
 A great number of the rukhas (concessions), such as the
shortening of the salah and the forgoing of the fast by the
sick or the traveller, may be classified as hajiyyat.
 These concessions are aimed at preventing hardship, the
benefit being derived from the permission granted to lessen
an obligatory action or accommodate a temporary inability
to perform such action.

31.  Refer to any measure or interest the realisation of which
leads to improvement, beautification, and perfection in the
behaviour of an individual.
 the nature of desirabilities as they seek to attain refinement
and perfection in the customs and conduct of the people.
 Include all measure that facilitate the acquisition of
praiseworthy moral qualities that give an individual a
balanced personality, excellent manners and a refined
characters.
 Observe gentleness, pleasant speech and conduct, and fair
dealing.

32.  Example of measures that add perfection to an individual
worship are supererogatory prayer and voluntary fasting.
 Other embellishment : giving charity to those in need, over
and above the obligatory charity (zakat).
 It also refers to all measure that improve the living
conditions of an individual and the social order of the
community.
 Include welfare policies, comfortable transportation, the
provision of accessible and free healthcare, provision of
enough leisure time to meet all essential family and social
obligation, etc.

34.  Prevention and eradication of evil should be teach by
parents since the small age of their children.
 Protection of religion can be implement by teaching
basic ibadat and Islamic principle in a family.
 Parents should also teach the value of life, intelligent
and lineage. These are other other things that should
be protected instead of ‘deen’ only.
 A family should pay zakat for purifying and protection
of their family’s property.
 The embellishment (al-tahsiniyyat) that can be teach
to the children is giving charity above zakat to poor
relatives and those in need and helping others .

35.  Muslim Scholars: Many challenges need to be
overcome such as thought of
pluralism, liberalism, LGBT and others in today’s
world.
 For an example: Jakim, Jais, and so on.
 Policemen and soldiers: Their job is to secure
human life from being taken in a wrong way.
 Economists: Investment benefits both the owner
and the society as it create job oppertunities of
the people, sharing reward and risk of
ownership.

36.  Businessmen: Trade in commerce result in
wealth creation for the trader and benefit the
community by meeting their needs.
 Nutritionists: Research in adequate nutrition
which is necessity (al-Hajiyyat) for protection of
life.
 Town Planners: The planning of land use
activities for allocation and distribution of
resources to fulfill human need and other
necessities.

37.  Indeed a good leader is a leader who is
knowledgeable, has the vision and foresight
to build the nation and always keeps the
prosperity and the interests of the people.
 Key Performance Indicators (KPI), National
Key Result Areas (NKRA), Government
Transformation Programme (GTP)

38. From this, we can conclude that all professions in the
world can practice maqasid al-Shariah whether they
want to practice it or not and whether they want to
benefit the community or want to benefit themselves.
They have to realize the importance of Islamic Law for
the preservation of the family system, state’s system
as well as for the world’s system itself. [2:3] who
believe in the unseen, observe the Contact Prayers
(Salat), and from our provisions to them, they give to
charity. From this verse, the charity is the second
most important thing after Solat, so as a believer, we
need to give charity to the people by practicing the
maqasid shariah.