Maslaha in Contemporary Islamic Legal Theory

Islamic Law and Society

Volumn 12, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 182-223

  Opwis, Felicitas ^a  

^a YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 53949098402     PISSN: 09289380     EISSN: 15685195     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/1568519054093699     Document Type: Review

References (162)

1. See Daniel Brown, Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 122.
2. See John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, Makers of Contemporary Islam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 192.
3. Marshall G.S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974], vol. 1, 96).
4. Felicitas Opwis, "Changes in Modern Islamic Legal Theory: Reform or Reformation?" in An Islamic Reformation, ed. Michaelle Browers and Charles Kurzman (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2004), 28-53.
5. A. Chris Eccel, Egypt, Islam and Social Change: Al-Azhar in Conflict and Accommodation [Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1984], 34).
6. See Edmund Burke, "The Moroccan Ulama, 1860-1912: An Introduction," in Scholars, Saints, and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions in the Middle East Since 1500, ed. Nikki R. Keddie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 95-123
7. Richard L. Chambers, "The Ottoman Ulema and the Tanzimat," in Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, 35-46, at 36-8;
8. David Dean Commins, Islamic Reform: Politics and Social Change in Late Ottoman Syria (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 14-6;
9. Daniel Crecelius, "Nonideological Responses of the Egyptian Ulama to Modernization," in Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, 180-205, at 189, 191-4, 200-5;
10. Eccel, Egypt, Islam and Social Change, 34-44, 263-81;
11. Wolf-Dieter Lemke, Mahmud Saltut (1893-1963) und die Reform der Azhar (Frankfurt: Peter D. Lang, 1980), 20, 24-7, 87-8;
12. Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, "The Ulama of Cairo in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," in Scholars, Saints, and Sufis, 153-63, at 163;
13. Robin Ostle, "The Printing Press and the Renaissance of Modern Arabic Literature," Culture & History 16 (1997), 145-57, at 146.
14. Nathan Brown, "Shari'a and State in the Modern Muslim Middle East," International Journal of Middle East Studies 29 (1997), 359-76, at 365-8).
15. See Burke, "Moroccan Ulama," 107-8, 118;
16. Chambers, "Ottoman Ulema," 35-6;
17. Crecelius, "Nonideological Responses," 182;
18. Eccel, Egypt, Islam and Social Change, 73-8;
19. Uriel Heyd, "The Ottoman 'Ulema and Westernization in the Time of Selim III and Mahmud II," in The Modern Middle East: A Reader, ed. Albert Hourani et al. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 29-60, at 52;
20. Joseph Schacht, Introduction to Islamic Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), 101.
21. See Chambers, "Ottoman Ulema," 43;
22. Commins, Islamic Reform, 13;
23. NJ. Coulson, A History of Islamic Law (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1964), 152.
24. See Chambers, "Ottoman Ulema," 41-5;
25. Commins, Islamic Reform, 16;
26. Coulson, History of Islamic Law, 151-2;
27. Crecelius, "Nonideological Responses," 197;
28. Aharon Layish, "The Transformation of the Shart'a from Jurists' Law to Statutory Law in the Contemporary Muslim World," Die Welt des Islams 44 (2004), 85-113, at 88-9, 96-7.
29. Schacht, Introduction, 90-1 13
30. Chambers, "Ottoman Ulema," 44-5;
31. Coulson, History of Islamic Law, 151-2;
32. Eccel, Egypt, Islam and Social Change, 78-105.
33. Cf. Burke, "Moroccan Ulama," 116-8;
34. Commins, Islamic Reform, 26-9.
35. Rudolph Peters, "Idjtihd'd and Taqlfid in 18th and 19th Century Islam," Die Welt des Islams 20 (1980), 131-44, at 131.
36. Ahmad Dallal, "Appropriating the Past: Twentieth Century Reconstruction of Pre-Modern Islamic Thought," Islamic Law and Society 7 (2000), 333-42, at 333-4;
37. Gudrun Krämer, "Kritik und Selbstkritik: Reformistisches Denken im Islam," in Der Islam im Aufbruch? Perspektiven der arabischen Welt, ed. Michael Lüders (Munich: Piper, 1992), 209-24, at 210.
38. Mazheruddin Siddiqi, Modern Reformist Thought in the Muslim World (Islamabad, Pakistan: Islamic Research Institute, 1982), 1-6, 24-5, 73-5, 86.
39. Commins, Islamic Reform, 65, 69-73;
40. Krämer, "Kritik und Selbstkritik," 218;
41. Siddiqi, Modern Reformist Thought, 1-6, 24-5, 73.
42. 'Abd Allah b. al-Muqaffa', "Risala fi l-sahaba," in Athar Ibn al-Muqaffa', ed. 'Umar Abu l-Nasr [Beirut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayat, 1966], 345-61, at 360).
43. Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Khwarazmi, Mafatih al-'ulum, ed. G. van Vloten (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1895), 9.
44. See Ahmad b. 'All al-Jassas, al-Fusul fi l-usul (Lahore: al-Maktaba al-'Ilmiyya, 1981), 133-5.
45. Felicitas Opwis, Maslaha: An Intellectual History of a Core Concept in Islamic Legal Theory (Ph. D. thesis, Yale University, 2001).
46. Muhammad al-Ghazali, al-Mustasfa min 'ilm al-usul, 4 vols. (Jidda: Sharikat al-Madina al-Munawwara, n. d. [1993]), vol. 2, 481-2, 502-3.
47. George F. Hourani, Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of 'Abd al-Jabbar [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971], 3, 8-13).
48. Hourani, Islamic Rationalism, 69-75, 121-5;
49. A Kevin Reinhart, Before Revelation: The Boundaries of Muslim Moral Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995), 38-61.
50. Hourani, Islamic Rationalism, 3, 9-12.
51. Reinhart, Before Revelation, 62-76.
52. Reinhart, Before Revelation, 177-82).
53. Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997], 30-7;
54. Reinhart, Before Revelation, 14-30).
55. Opwis, Maslaha, 31-40).
56. Cf. Max Weber, Economy and Society (ed. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), 656-7, 810-21;
57. Majid Khadduri, The Islamic Conception of Justice (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 135-60.
58. Cf. Max Weber, "Die 'Objektivität' sozialwissenschaftlicher und sozialpo-litischer Erkenntnis," in Max Weber: Schriften zur Wissenschaftslehre, ed. Michael Sukale (Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam, 1991), 21-101, at 73.
59. Cf. Bernard G. Weiss, The Spirit of Islamic Law (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1998), 80.
60. Cf. Ahmad b. Idrls al-Qaraff, al-Dhakhira (Cairo: Matba'a Kulliyyat al-Sharfa, 1381/1961), vol. 1, 145;
61. idem, al-Furuq wa-bi-hamish al-Kitabayn Tahdhib al-furulq wa'l-Qawciid al-saniyya fi l-asrar al-fiqhiyya, 4 parts in 2 vols. (Beirut: 'Alam al-Kutub, n. d.), vol. 2, 33;
62. idem, Shark Tanqih al-fusill fikhtisar al-Mahsul fil-usul (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr, 1393/1973), 448-9;
63. Mohammad Hashim Kamali, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (Cambridge: Islamic Texts Society, revised edition 1991), 315-7.
64. For an in-depth discussion of these models of maslaha, see Opwis, Maslaha, 40-339.
65. Hallaq, History of Islamic Legal Theories, 88-90.
66. Muhammad Khalid Masud, Islamic Legal Philosophy: A Study of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's Life and Thought [Delhi: International Islamic Publishers, 1989], 152-60).
67. al-Ghazali, al-Mustasfa, vol. 2, 488. Both al-Ghazali and al-Razi developed elaborate criteria to identify legally valid suitable rationes legis
68. al-Ghazali, al-Mustasfa, vol. 3, 620-33;
69. idem, Shfa' al-ghalil (Baghdad: Matba'at al-Irshad, 1390/1971), 146-94;
70. Fakhr al-Din Muhammad b. 'Umar al-FIusayn al-Razi, al-Mahsul fi 'ilm usul al-fiqh, 2 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1408/ 1988), vol. 2, 319-27.
71. Al-Ghazall, al-Mustasfa vol. 2, 488.
72. See al-Qarafi, al-Dhakhira, vol. 1, 119-30;
73. idem, Shark Tanqih, 383-94.
74. Sherman A. Jackson, Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi (Leiden: EJ. Brill, 1996), 59-62, 92-4.
75. See al-Qarafi, al-Dhakhira, vol. 1, 127, 144-6;
76. idem, al-Furflq, vol. 2, 32-4;
77. idem, Shark Tanqih, 85-7, 415-6, 448-50.
78. It should be noted that al-Razi, 45 See Mustafa Zayd, al-Maslaha fi l-tashrf al-islami wa-Najm al-Din al-Tufi (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'Arabi, 2nd ed. 1384/1964), 206-17.
79. Hallaq, History of Islamic Legal Theories, 150-3.
80. Zayd, al-Maslaha, 231.
81. 49 Ibrahim b. Musa al-Shatibi, al-Muwafaqat fi usul al-sharfa, 4 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Fikr al-'Arabi, n. d.), vol. 3, 366-8, 406, vol. 4, 20-2.
82. Opwis, Maslaha, 158-60, 246-50, 340-52;
83. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories, 64-5, 164-7;
84. Wael Hallaq, "On Inductive Corroboration, Probability and Certainty in Sunni Legal Thought," in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence, ed. N.L. Heer (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990), 3-31;
85. Bernard Weiss, "Knowledge of the Past: The Theory of Tawatur According to Ghazali," Studia Islamica 61 (1985), 81-105.
86. When Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi advocated it, he had to endure severe criticism and persecution (Commins, Islamic Reform, 50-4).
87. Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform: The Political and Legal Theories of Muhammad 'Abduh and Rashid Rida (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966), esp. 153-223.
88. See Commins, Islamic Reform, 112-3;
89. Malcolm Kerr, "Rashid Rida and Islamic Legal Reform: An Ideological Analysis," Muslim World 50 (1960), 99-108, 170-81
90. Commins, Islamic Reform, 71;
91. Kerr, Islamic Reform, 17;
92. Rida, "al-Muhawarat," 861;
93. idem, Yusr al-islam, 16-9, 50, 153.
94. Siddiqi, Modern Reformist Thought, 74-5.
95. See Commins, Islamic Reform, 32-3, 48, 65-7;
96. Kerr, Islamic Reform, 107, 157;
97. Rida, "al-Muhawarat," 216;
98. idem, Yusr al-islam, 147.
99. Commins, Islamic Reform, 12-20;
100. Kerr, "Rashld Rida," 170.
101. Commins, 29, 32, 48, 66-8;
102. Kerr, "Rashld Rida," 104, 170, 180;
103. idem, Islamic Reform, 55.
104. Rida, "al-Muhawarat," 866.
105. Commins, 65, 69, 71-3;
106. Kerr, "Rashld Rida," 107-8;
107. Rudolph Peters, "Idjtihad and Taqlid," 141;
108. Siddiqi, Modern Reformist Thought, 75.
109. Commins, Islamic Reform, 44-5;
110. Kerr, Islamic Reform, 207.
111. See Commins, Islamic Reform, 48, 66, 69, 78, 142.
112. See Wolfhart Heinrichs, "Gadal bei at-Tuff: Eine Interpretation seiner Beispielsammlung," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Supplement III 19. Deutscher Orientalistentag 1975. Vorträge, ed. Wolfgang Voigt (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1977), vol. 1, 463-73, at 468-9;
113. Zayd, Maslaha, 215, 226-32.
114. See Commins, Islamic Reform, 65-73, 141;
115. Rida, Yusr al-islam, 159.
116. Rida, "al-Muhawarat," 205.
117. Commins, Islamic Reform, 69.
118. Cf. Commins, Islamic Reform, 65-6, 69, 141-2;
119. Dallal, "Appropriating the Past," 335-6, 357;
120. Rida, Yusr al-islam, 159.
121. Cf. Badran Abu l-'Aynayn Badran, Usul al-fiqh al-islami (Alexandria: Mu'assasat Shabab al-Jami'a, 1984), 213;
122. Jallal al-Din Abd al-Rahman Jallal, al-Masalih al-mursala wa-makanatuhafi-l-tashrf (Cairo: Matba'at al-Sa'ada, 1403/ 1983), 57, 64, 67, 95-6;
123. Kerr, "Rashld Rida, 176, 179;
124. Abd al-Wahhab Khallaf, Masadir al-tashrf al-islamifi-ma la nassa fih (Kuwait: Dar al-Qalam, 6th ed. 1414/ 1993), 101;
125. Krämer, "Kritik und Selbstkritik," 224.
126. Layish, "Transformation of the Shari'a, 85-113).
127. See Schacht, Introduction to Islamic Law, 100-11.
128. For a biographical sketch of Mahmasan's life see Nabil Saleh, "Biographical Notes on the late Dr. Sobhi Mahmassani (1909-1986)," Middle East Commercial Law Review 2, vi (1996), 183;
129. Muhammad Khayr Ramadan Yusuf, Tatimmat al-A'lam li-Zirikli (Beirut: Dar al-'Ilm li'l-Malayln, 1998), vol. 1, 242-3.
130. Yusuf and Saleh give different birth dates for Mahmasan, 1323/1906 and 1326/ 1909 respectively. Since Saleh provided a specific day, January 29, I follow his dates.
131. Saleh, "Biographical Notes," 183;
132. Yusuf, Tatimmat al-A'lam, vol. 1, 242-3.
133. Subhl Rajab Mahmasan, Falsafat al-tashrf fi-l-islam (Beirut: Dar al-'Ilm li'l-Malayin, 3rd ed. 1380/1961), 163, 199, 219, 262.
134. Amnon Cohen, "Allal al-Fasi: His Ideas and His Contribution Towards Morocco's Independence," Asian and African Studies 3 [1967], 121-64, at 121;
135. Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, s.v. Fasi, Muhammad 'Allal al-; Khayr al-Din Zirikli, al-A'lam [Beirut: Dar al-'Ilm li'l-Malayin, 1992], vol. 4, 246).
136. Cohen, "Allal al-Fasi," 121-64.
137. Cf. 'Allal al-Fasi, Maqasid al-sharfa al-islamiyya wa-makarimuha (Casablanca: Maktabat al-Wahda al-'Arabiyya, n.d. [1963?]), 209-17.
138. For similar criticism of al-Fasi's thought see Hallaq, History of Islamic Legal Theories, 224-6;
139. and Cohen, "Allal al-Fasi," 163.
140. Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, The Second Message of Islam, translation and introduction by Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1987), 2-10.
141. Mohamed Mahmoud, "Mahmud Muhammad Taha's Second Message of Islam and His Modernist Project," in Islam and Modernities: Muslim Intellectuals Respond, ed. John Cooper, Richard, L. Nettler, and Mohamed Mahmoud (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 1998), 105-28.
142. Mahmud Muhammad Taha, al-Risala al-Thaniya min al-islam (Omdurman, Sudan, 4th ed. 1391/1971), 3.
143. see also Krämer, "Kritik und Selbstkritik," 223;
144. Mahmoud, "Mahmud Muhammad Taha," 116-7.
145. Taha, al-Risala al-Thaniya, 164.
146. 119 'Abd al-Wahhab Khallaf, 'Ilm usul al-fiqh (Alexandria: Mu'assasat Shabab al-Jami'a, 1984), 4.
147. Muhammad 'Izzat al-TahtawT, Min'Ulama'al-ruwwad fi rihab al-Azhar (Cairo: Maktabat Wahba, 1990), 141-52.
148. Khallaf, Masadir al-tashrf, 6.
149. See also Hallaq, History of Islamic Legal Theories, 220-4.
150. Khallak, Masadir al-tashrt', 56, 88.
151. 140 Andreas Christmann, "Islamic Scholar and Religious Leader: Shaikh Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti," in Islam and Modernity, 57-81, at 58-60.
152. Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-BuS, Dawabit al-maslaha fi l-sharta al-islamiyya (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Risala, 4th edition 1402/1982), 11-5.
153. Khallaf, Masadir al-tashrf, 90, 101, 160.
154. Al-Buti, Dawabit al-maslaha, 115-16.
155. 162 See Zayd, al-Maslaha, 235-40;
156. Opwis, Maslaha, 216-35.
157. Although al-Razi also had a similar scale of preponderance, al-Buti's language resembles more that of al-Tufi (see al-Razi, al-Mahsul, vol. 2, 480-2;
158. Opwis, Maslaha, 91-4).
159. Al-Buti, Dawabit al-maslaha, 266, 270.
160. See Commins, Islamic Reform, 50-4.
161. J.N.D. Anderson, "The Tunisian Law of Personal Status," International and Comparative Law Quarterly 7 [1958], 262-79
162. Fazlur Rahman, "A Survey of Modernization of Muslim Family Law" International Journal of Middle East Studies 2 [1980], 451-65, at 457).