The Early Founders of ʿIlm Al-Maqāṣid and Shāṭibī’s Intellectual Debt to Them

Abstract

Main Idea of the Study This study investigates the intellectual foundations of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah (the higher objectives of Islamic law) by examining the role of the early scholars to whom the emergence of this concept is attributed and whose ideas profoundly influenced Imām al-Shāṭibī. The research contends that al-Shāṭibī did not formulate his theory of Maqāṣid in isolation; rather, he constructed it in al-Muwāfaqāt upon the cumulative insights, classifications, and juristic creativity of earlier scholars. Among these pioneers are al-Juwaynī, who first introduced the tripartite division of human needs into essentials, necessities, and embellishments; al-Ghazālī, who elaborated the preservation of the five universal necessities; al-ʿIzz ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, who related legal rulings to the realization of benefits and avoidance of harms; al-Qarāfī, who distinguished between the Prophet’s various modes of conduct; and Ibn Taymiyyah and his disciple Ibn al-Qayyim, who expanded and codified these ideas across their extensive writings.The study aims to uncover one of the most significant stages in the historical evolution of ʿIlm al-Maqāṣid: its formative phase prior to its codification as an independent discipline with defined terminology, classifications, and objectives. Employing descriptive and inductive methods, the research traces early Maqāṣid-based reasoning and demonstrates the extent to which al-Shāṭibī’s Maqāṣid theory was shaped by these earlier contributions.

Keywords: Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, origins of Maqāṣid, early scholars, al-Shāṭibī