The Maqsad of Hifz al-Din is Liberal Religious Freedom Sufficient for the Shari'ah?

This article examines some treatments of the meaning and extension of the Islamic legal purpose (maqsad) of protecting religion (hifz al-din), with an eye towards Islamic legal theorists’ explicit or implicit encounter with modern liberal and secularist understandings of what it means to ‘protect re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Islam and civilisational renewal 2011-01, Vol.2 (2), p.358-378
Main Author: March, Andrew F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Commitment
Endorsements
Ethics
Freedom of Religion
Human rights
Islam
Law
Legitimacy
Methods
Muslims
Politics
Religions
Secularism
Society
Values
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Summary:This article examines some treatments of the meaning and extension of the Islamic legal purpose (maqsad) of protecting religion (hifz al-din), with an eye towards Islamic legal theorists’ explicit or implicit encounter with modern liberal and secularist understandings of what it means to ‘protect religion’. The theory of the ‘purposes of divine law’ (maqasid al-shari'ah), which the author refers to as a form of ‘Complex Purposivism’ in legal interpretation and argumentation, is often viewed as a panacea for modern reformers and pragmatists who want to establish Islamic legitimacy for new substantive moral, legal and political commitments in new socio-political conditions, because it allows Muslims to ask not whether a given norm has been expressly endorsed within the texts, but whether it is compatible with the deeper goods and interests which God wants to protect through the Law.
ISSN:2041-871X
2041-8728
DOI:10.52282/icr.v2i2.653