Conceptualizing maqāṣid through an ethical framework : theoretical exploration of Taha Abdurrahman's philosophy

Abstract

The study of maqāṣid al-sharīʿa gained significant attention from the scholars from West to the East as an approach to bridging various fields of study with the Islamic legal discourse. Historically, the concept of maqāṣid can be traced back to the era of the Prophet Muḥammad PBUH, which was then analyzed by scholars as a coherent discourse with the Uṣūl al-Fiqh. The discourse is developed and applied with various approaches such as classical, traditional, reformist, secular, and postmodernist approaches. The development of the maqāṣid concept has transformed it from a coherent discourse with uṣūl al-fiqh into a specific field of study, recognized as an approach to modernizing Islamic law. This phenomenon has invited Taha Abdurrahman, a prominent Muslim philosopher to conceptualize maqāṣid, as he argued that the previous maqāṣid approaches have yet to sufficiently appreciate ethical considerations. Taha’s conceptualization of maqāṣid serves as his effort to renew Traditional Islamic literature (turāth). Taha’s maqāṣid concept is framed by his ethical philosophy, the Trusteeship paradigm, emphasizing the relationship of humans with God that occurred since the testimony prior to their existence. Hence, this study aims to examine the significance of Taha’s conceptualization of maqāṣid by situating his thought among the maqāṣid approaches from classical to modern. To examine this, I employ a qualitative methodology with data collection through primary and secondary sources. The primary sources are the original books of the discussed scholars especially Taha Abdurrahman and the secondary sources are from related books, journals, and articles to enrich the discussion. The data will be analyzed through content and textual analysis by engaging with all the sources. This study will also focus on intellectual analysis framed by Fuzzy Set Theory (FST), a mathematical theory that aims to identify that certain things cannot be categorized entirely in a specific group. In this context, the framework is applied to situate Taha Abdurrahman’s concept of maqāṣid among other maqāṣid approaches, placing him in dialogue with classical, traditional, reformist, secular, and postmodernist scholars. The findings affirm that Taha’s maqāṣid concept tends to be Sufi-inspired, making it difficult to implement practically. Positioning Taha’s maqāṣid concept as a legal discourse is deemed overly idealistic, resulting in utopian and imaginary expectations. Consequently, Taha’s maqāṣid concept cannot be simply classified under a specific group rather it fits into several groups simultaneously. It is traditional in terms of its reliance on textual proof in understanding law and reformist in terms of its new and innovative methodology, aiming to address current issues where ethics is considered a central concern.