Emergence of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah in Early Islamic Legal Thought

Abstract

This article investigates the historical underpinnings of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah by following their development in early Islamic legal thought from the Qurʾānic context to the jurisprudential contributions of religious scholars. Although subsequent thinkers like al-Ghazālī and al-Shāṭibī are frequently linked to the systematic theory of maqāṣid. This study contends that purpose-oriented legal reasoning was already present, however subtly, in the fundamental texts of Islam and the early years of Islamic jurisprudence. The normative foundation for maqāṣid-based reasoning was established by the Prophetic Sunnah’s consideration of context and public interest, as well as the emphasis on justice, mercy, welfare, and the eradication of hardship. The paper also looks at how early jurists and uṣūl scholars approached ideas like legal causation (ʿillah), maṣlaḥah, and ḥikmah al-tashrīʿ. This leads to Imām al-Shāfīʿī’s methodological consolidation of legal principles in al-Risālah. The eventual development of maqāṣid theory was greatly inspired by al-Shāfīʿī’s structure of legal reasoning and balance between scriptural authority and logical inference, even though he did not explicitly express maqāṣid as an independent concept. This study challenges the idea that maqāṣid is a solely post-classical invention and emphasizes its deep roots in the early stages of Islamic law by placing it within its early historical and philosophical background.