Suhaib Webb – The Higher Principles of Islam (alMaqsid) Jasser ‘Auda
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Student of Sheikh Suhib Webb in Swiss
for the past,
about, for the past 6 months or so.
I've really enjoyed my experience. I've done many
courses with them including his on demand courses.
That's one of the best things I love
about SWISS. You can you can do the
live classes. I love those live classes
interacting with all the students as well as
Shapes Ahead. As well as you can, on
your time, you're able to do all the
on demand courses. I've had a lot of
fun. I've done essentials of Islam, the prophet
series,
and then as well I've been things like
Tajweed classes and then other really really, fun
events I've done with Twist, and then Sheyaf
Saheb has he has a very different teaching
style, and I think people really students really
like that. He makes it really fun and
interactive,
instead of just like a just like a
lecture we like go we talk to each
other and we have like really fun activities
and such
and it's it's really fun.
And for example, we have we have such
things like game, game nights or we had
like an Eid party so I really enjoyed
that so that's why a lot of these
things so many things I could go on
and on that I love about Sheikh Suheb
and the Swiss program.
So with that, let me introduce.
Okay. Yeah. But with that so let's go
ahead and introduce
Sheikh, Jaser Aouda. So prepare professor Jaser Aouda
is a scholar of Islam. His latest contribution
is a new
method methodology
that aims to bring about a restructuring of
Islamic scholarship
around a complex network of the higher objectives
and Maqasid of the Quran and prophetic traditions.
He's the president of Maqasid Institute Global, a
think tank registered in building research and educational
projects in a number of countries.
He's Al Shatibi
chair for Makassid
Studies at the International Peace University in South
Africa, a founding and board member of the
International Union for Muslim Scholars,
an executive member of the FICC Council of
North America,
a member of the European Council For Fatwa
and Research, and the chairman of the Canadian
FICC Council.
He has a PhD in the philosophy of
Islamic law from the University of Wales, UK,
and a PhD in systems analysis from the
University of Waterloo, Canada.
Early in his life, he memorized the Quran
and undertook traditional studies at the study circles
of Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt.
He worked previously as a professor at the
Universities of Waterloo,
Ryerson, and Carleton in Canada, Alexandria,
and Egypt. Faculty of Islamic Studies, Qatar, American
University of Sharjah, UAE,
and University of Brunei, D'Arusula.
Brunei.
Professor Alda lectured on Islam and it's in
it's dozens of countries and wrote 25 books
in Arabic and English, some of which were
translated to 25 languages.
So without further ado, go ahead and take
it away, Sheikh Jaser.
This
is a very exciting
meeting for me to be on Swiss.
Sheh Soib, just called me a few minutes
ago. He's on his way.
He would be
fine.
And I'm happy to see
brother Ahmed and brother Ahmed,
and, be on this platform. It's a very
exciting place.
And, Sheikh Suhayb I have known
since
his
time of memorizing the Quran and so on
the very first days back in the nineties.
Long time and,
developed to be
a scholar of Islam, Allah bless him, who
has a benefit for this Umma,
The topic of Maqasid al Sharia
or the Maqasid al Islam as you announced
it, the objectives of Islam,
is a very big topic
that
could be detailed in
100 of hours, not just half an hour
as an introduction.
In fact, my brother mentioned South Africa. We
have a whole graduate program
there as Macasset Institute. We founded in the
Peace College in South Africa,
where we offer a master's degree and now,
applying for a PhD degree in that topic.
It's a topic that has a long history
in the Islamic scholarship
from the time of the Sahaba
all the way throughout the centuries
of a number of imams who were focusing
on this topic of Muqasid al Sharia,
the higher objectives. I will explain
define it what it is.
And today, we have thousands of researchers and
thousands
of courses
and books and so on. Again, in Macassett
Institute,
we have a database where we have about
6 or 7000
books and papers and so on in Arabic
and English that we surveyed
that are part of this movement,
of,
research and application
of Maqasid.
What what is Maqasid? Just in case first
time you hear about that.
A Quranic word
that has to do with the aim, the
objective, the balance, the middle path, the intent.
A Maqasid is a purpose.
So when you say Islam,
these are the purposes of this deen, of
this
Islam as a way of life.
What are the purposes,
the objectives, the ends, the aims,
different names. I will not go through the
history or
cite any of the scholars,
who
wrote and talked about Maqasid al Sharia.
I will go to the original source of
Islam
looking for
these Maqasid. What they are? Are they there
anyway in the original source? Of course, the
original source of Islam is the book of
Allah and the sunnah of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
That is a bayan or an illustration
or a clarification,
an example of the book of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
He was a Quran walking on earth. So
he is, salaam,
is an illustration of the Quran.
And the Quran
is the the pure source that we have,
that
was not
altered in any way and was not contaminated
by any narration of history
or interpretation
in a way
that alters it, in a translation or any
of that, we have it as
revealed to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We
go back to the Quran
and look for, Qasada, yaksudu, the purpose, the
aim. Are there any purposes?
And when we research, we realize
that the book of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is not just full of purposes and objectives,
it's actually
the main logic, the main
argument,
for truth in
in this book. There is nothing in the
book of Allah or the son of his
prophet
that is mentioned
without an objective, without an aim,
that is either
textually
stated in a clear way or
implied
and therefore,
deducted or,
you know, understood
through the analysis
of the book of Allah and the sunnah
of his messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Examples.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created us
for Ibad. He said, I
created jinn and ins so that here is
a purpose, so that they worship me. So
we have worship as the purpose of our
life. And, of course, worship,
you all know is not just to pray
and fast, but worship is a comprehensive
concept that includes anything you do in the
way of Allah
When he created the universe
he mentioned everything that he created
with a purpose. He created the day and
night so that we could learn
how to calculate
and we could
remember
and that we could have
a time for work during the day and
a time for,
relaxation and retreat during the night
and so that we can reflect
upon the changes
and the ayat or the signs of Allah
and so many other purposes. He created the
mountains
so that he stabilizes,
the earth, and he created the wind so
that
the clouds could be formed and the rains
could fall and the rains would fall so
that
we have
vegetation for
us and for the cattle.
And the vegetation is for
us to thank
and for the cattle
to,
enjoy
first and for us to have beauty
when they
eat and and drink and so on. And,
therefore, we also have
some benefits in them in their skin and
in their meat and so forth.
And the bees for the honey, that's from
our perspective for many other things,
and the,
horses
for the riding and so forth. When Allah
gave us stories and events in the Quran,
he,
during during the story as well as after
the story he would include the purpose of
that,
so that you could reflect,
here is an example of chastity so that
you could have a lesson
from Prophet Yusuf
Here is an example of truth to power
with Prophet Ibrahim and Prophet Musa and Prophet
Muhammad
so that you can learn that,
and that is how
we
reward
those who are excellent,
and that is how, and therefore he makes
you
through his
speech
always think
about a purpose, about an objective.
When
he even told us about his own attributes
and about things that we have no knowledge
of except through the book, the
hidden dimensions of the creation
and the hidden dimensions of his existence, Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, he would give us also
a reason
for
that. So he made everything
in a book so that we are not
sad when we face trials and so forth.
And
he
gives victory for those who give him victory
so that they know the truth and so
forth.
And he shows us life and death so
that we remember
our end and therefore we work,
in a good way towards our end and
so forth.
When he sends the books and the messengers
so that people could establish justice,
he said so that people could establish justice.
That is why he
sends the books and the messengers
and a warning
and good news
and for us to reflect and
to follow
good examples
and to rectify
earth and reform our societies
and serve our communities.
And he created family,
mates amongst you, he said,
so that you could find tranquility
in them and you find love and mercy.
And he,
created us as an umma
so that
we could would be witnesses over humankind
and as an ummmah so we can enjoy
good and forbid evil,
and to give victory for those who are
oppressed.
And for,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
when he created
when even when he revealed that book in
in Arabic,
he said that this is
for clarification
and for remembrance and so forth. There is
nothing in the book of Allah and in
the illustration of his prophet
that is not for a purpose, for
a reason,
for an aim, for an objective.
And this is a way of thinking, this
is a logic, a Huja.
In the Quranic words, it's called Huja.
Imam Shauli of India has a great book,
on Maqasid al Sharia called
The
Proof That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has sent,
the ultimate proof. And he said that these
objectives and purposes on higher ends are the
ultimate proof
of the excellence,
of the Sharia
and the power of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Well, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala also gave us
commands
as in
fast or pray or give zakah
or
take a sadaqa or a zakah from their
wealth so that they could
purify themselves. And then the prophet
said, this purification
is for the poor
not
to be obliged to ask.
And when he said,
when you pray so that
you avoid
evil deeds and ugly deeds and so on,
and you fast so that you acquire taqwa,
and you do Hajj so that you remember
the akhira.
And you avoid,
you you know, all the
evil deeds.
The riba, you avoid usury so that you
avoid injustice and so forth. So all of
this
creates a way of thinking and that is
what I'm, you know, trying to explain here
is the way of thinking that
the ends and the objectives and the purposes
gives you as a Muslim.
When you have this kind of logic,
then you are moving your approach
to Islam
in a number of ways.
One of them,
you are taking
a,
let's
say, a futuristic
approach.
When you think about a purpose,
you are thinking about the future.
And when we think about our lives,
we are not supposed to be only driven
with the past,
but also thinking about the future.
I am going to fast so that
I acquire taqwa.
And taqwa or heedfulness
or,
awareness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is one
of those higher objectives.
Allah said, worship Allah so that you acquire
So so so many
objectives of Islam point to that. I am
going to fast so that I become a
better person.
I am going to give charity
so that I elevate
suffering.
That kind of future oriented thinking
is something that we need a lot
because
in
Islam in general and as Muslim cultures,
we tend to think in terms of causes
that come from the past to the present.
And therefore, our actions
individually and collectively,
organizations
and nations and states
tend to be kind of crisis management
reactive
kind
of action versus an action that is based
on a number of objectives.
If we say that
as humanity,
we have a number of objectives to worship
Allah, to rectify earth,
to dignify humanity,
to preserve life,
and preserve
people's dignity and so forth and put some
goals.
Therefore, our planning and our visions and our
work
would aim to achieve these things. And that
kind of futuristic
orientation
is very important
and is very lacking,
to be honest in the Islamic thought and
the Islamic
way of of life,
and and it's very important to keep the
objective.
Also, with the objective
in terms of the future,
you are also critical.
The question of why is a critical question.
When you say I am fasting for taqwa,
then I could critique my fasting
on whether I have achieved taqwa or not.
That's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said,
If you don't stop
lying and if you don't stop
the the fakeness
of your
behavior and action,
then Allah doesn't need for you to stop
eating and drinking.
Why? Because stopping of the eating and drinking
has a purpose,
so
we
have
a
consultation.
The
purpose
of
Shura is so we have a consultation.
The purpose of Shura is for everybody to
give their expertise and to participate
and so forth.
And therefore
that purpose would critique us if we have
an organization that doesn't have a shura
or a family that doesn't have a shura.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned
shura
in the context of family.
One of the verses, when he said that
the couple should make Shura
so that they have peace amongst them. They
have
harmony
on a family level. Allah forbid, even if
the family is falling apart,
there should be peace in that and there
should be harmony
and
care for
the, you know, the weaker side and the
younger side
and so forth, and therefore
this is a way to critique our approach
to the Islamic family.
If our approach, even if we call it
Islamic,
is an approach that is going to cause
injustice
and is going,
to cause lack of peace
and lack of tranquility that Allah
mentioned and lack of love and mercy, then
it is not a genuine family, Islamic family.
It is it's just that, you know, the
facade of it. But Islam is not about
the facade
of the family
or the state
or the individual. It's not about the facade.
Islam is about the content,
is about the purpose and the higher meaning.
And the higher meanings would allow us, in
addition to looking forward, to looking inward critically.
Also,
the higher meaning and the higher aim
would allow us to approach Islam in a
holistic way,
and this is very important because when we
talk about justice, for example,
we are connecting so many things in Islam
to be able to talk about justice. Justice
in Islam is not one thing.
It's hundreds of bits and pieces
that form the way of Islam
as a as a way that seeks justice
and points towards justice. When we talk about
mercy or common good, when we talk about
the preservation of dignity
or,
peace or tranquility
or any of these things balance,
we are actually integrating
and connecting so many things that Allah ordered
us to connect and not to sever.
Unfortunately,
we have so many
partialistic
approaches to Islam
that are quite problematic
that without the purposes we cannot overcome.
We take an ayah and we leave so
many other ayat
that would integrate with the ayah that we
are talking about in order to show us
a bigger picture. We take a hadith or
half of a hadith or a fatwa that's
given by somebody
in some century
in a partialistic way without the connectivity
that the Mahasid or the higher purposes would
give in the picture in the bigger picture.
And
therefore,
we we we miss
the,
what's called in fiqh al bayb, you know,
the whole chapter. Before you talk about
family law, you have to look at the
whole chapter
and the higher purposes and connect all the
details
so that the smaller details do not contradict
with the bigger picture, and they do not
defeat the purpose.
When you talk about food in Islam,
you cannot talk about each of the or
the commands we have for the food
in
isolation
of how Islam deals with animals, how Islam
deals with the environment,
how the higher purposes of the halal in
Islam
means something much bigger
than just saying Bismillah. Why do we say
Bismillah
before we slaughter an animal? And why do
we make the animal not see the other
animals,
being slaughtered for example? It's because the other
animals are communities like us and they would
be hurt psychologically, and they would be tortured.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, if
you put all the hadith and the ayaat
that have to do with the halal food
that we have in Islam in one chapter
and look at it and look at the
higher purposes then you see Islam differently,
And Islam
would reveal its beauty
and its proof that it's the truth
and would mean something very different
to a non Muslim instead of looking at
Islam as isolated commands here and there that
they don't understand.
And they ask about these commands because they
they really don't understand.
But if they link the hijab
with the chastity in Islam
and the whole social structure and family values
and community values
and so forth, then they understand hijab much
better.
If they
link the way we we slaughter animals or
the way we pray or the way we
give charity
or the way we we do
economics
supposedly theoretically
without usury
or the way we approach
other people
and so forth. If if they look at
Islam
in total rather than in disconnection
And they integrate the higher purposes
the way that the Maqasid of Islam, the
higher purposes
would like to integrate. It's a very different
picture of Islam.
Islam then becomes a call for humanity,
not just for Muslims, and Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam would be a rahma, would be a
mercy for for humanity
and for everything actually Allah said, not just
for Muslims.
And this kind of approach that I'm just
giving a definition for an introduction to in
the time allowed,
inshallah would make a big difference in your
approach to Islam.
I know that Imam Sahib teaches Maqasid al
Sharia
and, the higher purposes,
and I would encourage
his students here at Zalom Lawkayran
to integrate that.
The higher purposes when you are taught about
them,
Take them and link
everything Islam to them because they are not
isolated
commands. They are higher ends at a higher
level of thinking
of Islam and they would get us of,
out of many of our shortcomings
in terms of our approach, to Islam.
Ask Allah
to benefit us with knowledge.
Again, I'm really excited, to be here today.
I'm looking forward
to, the q and a. I'm even giving
more time
than, I was told for q and a
so that I have a discussion
with this wonderful group. Barakallahu alaykum. If you
can
send me the question, tell me where to
look perhaps in the chat or in other
places.
Back to brother Ahmed.
Is that clear for that? And we we're
just getting the questions sorted out, and then
we'll go ahead and start with the q
and a half.
So if you have any questions, feel free
to share it in our chat. Or if
you're in our Zoom room, feel free to
unmute yourself also
and share
your your
your questions.
Doctor. Jasser, thank you very much for your
insightful discussion. In fact, one of the things
which I appreciated
is the way how
you share the perspective of a broader
understanding
of instead of instead of fulfilling or doing
the rituals,
which kind of check off a checklist, there's
a higher purpose on how this connects to
us in our daily life. So
and how you can actually look at it
from, like, a broader a broader picture. So
that's something which is
appreciative and
interesting to kinda see how things all connect
together. So
we appreciate that vision
and that understanding
that you are sharing with us today.
God bless you. God bless you.
Oh,
Thank you so much. This was, excellent.
Oh, Allah bless you. Allah bless you.
Also for joining us on Facebook, if you
have any questions, feel free to write it
in our chat,
and we'll share it on our feed also.
So for our Facebook audience
Yeah. I'm not on social media. So, if
you can share with me here, then I'm
more than happy to. Someone just sent a
question actually to me,
If I can ask it, Shay.
They're asking,
what are some of the resources within the
English language that they can utilize to build
their
literacy on the idea of the higher principles
of Sharia.
There are there are so many resources depending
on,
how you would like to approach the topic.
If you need, like, some basic definitions,
there are a few,
you know, beginners guides kind of, books out
there.
I have a humble book on my website
called the Makhasid al Sharia, a beginner's guide
that you can read for the basic definitions.
If you come to that knowledge
more from
a usool or fit or like the higher
end of of this research,
then you could look at
a number of scholars from our time who
wrote in that I'm talking about the literature
in English.
For example,
Paribna Ashur,
I b n Ashur, a s h u
r, of Tunis, Shaykhuzaydouna.
And he has a book called Muqas al
Sharia,
Itredis
of Muqas al Sharia.
You could look
at
a number of books,
by Aristotle Sheftah Al Alwani,
our state, Sheikh Luzafar Qaradawi,
a number of,
contemporary scholars,
all our
our Ustad, Yani, anyway, and they have written,
on that topic in in a more Soul
kind of approach.
I have a number of books, I mentioned
after
my asatida,
on that. One of them on usool al
fiqh and its history
and the relationship between Maqasid and Usul called
Maqasid Al Sharia, systems approach.
And,
a number of articles
book coming out on the Maqasid of the
Quran
that's called the Maqasid methodology.
And
a, you know, a a number of
particular,
issues that talk about Maqasid.
You can go to maqasid.org
or you can go to my website
and you will find a database, inshallah, it's
still under construction, but you will find
there.
So that's what comes to mind.
Sheikh
Jash, I got a question came to me
here
is,
can we apply these to
other fields
in our daily lives outside of theology,
like social justice issues, environmental issues,
other issues which we face in our day
to day lives
here. So you have any thoughts about that?
Unless you actually, this is the main strength
of this knowledge.
The main strength of this knowledge
is, to
apply
to,
our
times and our knowledge.
In the Maqassid Institute
I've been talking about, we have a project
of restructuring
disciplinary studies. So, basically,
we are saying that we are going to
take a Mahassid methodology
to restructure
disciplines as we know them in Western civilization
as in politics and economics and psychology and
anthropology and so forth,
social sciences and humanities
and natural sciences too.
And we have an approach through the Mahkazit,
that has to do with
concepts and values and universal laws, and it
would be a different lecture altogether
to give an introduction to on how can
we
restructure,
the sciences
of today
instead of the philosophical basis
that were not based on Islam,
to restructure them based on Islam.
And that approach is not to Islamize them
as they say in the Islamic thought but
to
basically so it's not about the outlook of
the knowledge but about restructuring
the knowledge from the basic questions.
So the objectives of the knowledge
and the main concepts
would
be tied to the Maqasid.
So why study medicine? Why do we do
anthropology?
And therefore,
one of the Maqasid is to correct the
concepts.
The concept of the human being
in economics or anthropology or sociology or policy
is a very different concept from Islam.
And Islam has an objective to,
to to,
establish
a different concept of the human being. So
based on the of
correcting the concept,
we can restructure
our approach to psychology
or counseling or any of that. And I
believe that Maqasid
al Islam
are about the only tool
that you can
really take from the Islamic wealth of knowledge
in order to approach,
branches of knowledge of today. And then we
go beyond that
into interdisciplinary
studies
and then transdisciplinary
studies, and then we get into what we
call phenomena based studies which is
our Maqasid based proposal
for restructuring Islamic knowledge
around the study of phenomena
rather than the study of disciplines because disciplines
are economic based and long story. But what
you are saying,
Ahmad, is very,
right on what the Maqasid al Sharia could
do in today's scholarship.
Of course, it could make us more guided
dealing with issues as you mentioned of rituals,
you know, the way we do Ibadat or
we do the rituals in the family law.
It would be much more guided if we
have a Mahakassid approach,
but the main strength of this approach
is in actually
in what we classify
as non theology or secular sciences, and Islam
doesn't have these classifications.
Islam deals with biology and and physics and
engineering as much as it deals with psychology
and politics and economics. This is Islam. But
how can we deal with that?
That is through the higher purposes.
So just kind of touching on that same
subject, like if you were to if you
were to, like, for example,
an issue facing us today
is, like, poverty in the states. A lot
of people losing their jobs. The economy is
pretty much
around the world. So on a high level,
if you were to kind of make it
a little more practical for us, do you
have any short thoughts into kind of how
this Makassu can make it practical for us
and how it can relate to us in
that
sense. Yeah.
Short thoughts,
would be
to work on a number of levels.
One level
is
to understand Islam
through its higher purpose. So when we deal
with charity, for example,
the higher purpose
of charity
is to eliminate poverty or to come to
to go against poverty. And, therefore,
that would guide us through the way
we deal with charity in Islam.
When we deal with or the endowments,
what are the endowments for? And then we
look at the Maqasid of the
So in order to
direct our
Islamic rituals and Islamic life towards the higher
objectives,
when we deal with the higher objectives of
marriage, of community,
of every everything, that is one level.
A higher level, if you wish, is to
look for common ground
between us and others. So because once we
talk about justice or the environment, once we
talk about family
values, we will find higher objectives,
among so many decent people who would like
to cooperate with us in order to reach
these higher goals,
and this would be a platform
between us. The platform
doesn't have to be secular. You see, the
common
the common ground doesn't have to be secular
all the time. It could be religious, and
it's a common ground.
And then we we find a common ground
coming from an Islamic point of view towards
the,
service of the society or
causes of social justice and so on. The
higher level of that which works parallel
to the other levels
is thought and then action and plans and
strategies
for restructuring the system.
Because the only way out in my perspective,
and I live not far from
America here. I mean, we live in the
same civilization.
I see the the only way forward
for western civilization
is to restructure itself and correct its
shortcomings
towards some higher objectives.
And that takes research and strategizing and then
takes action
that fits with the common ground action and
the religious action, if you wish.
That's more of a long term
is to think about
how how can we
restructure the institutions
of knowledge
to to really be institutions of knowledge, not
to be, you know, economically driven and politically
driven? How can we restructure,
the,
the the economic
system,
which I know is a tall order. Speak
in America. It's a big deal. But in
order for it
to be more equitable and more humane and
and and now the pressure of COVID is
showing a lot of shortcomings,
a lot of strengths,
but a lot of shortcomings in in our
civilization here in the west.
And the only way forward is to think
a bit,
in terms of how to restructure the system.
And I believe that this is a good
tool for research.
This for researching this topic. Lyle?
Shekhna, question that we got,
from someone now
is what is the relationship between,
the old fiqh
and then this this idea of Maqasid. And
I think the questioner is assuming that
the fiqh of Maqasid is something the idea
of Maqasid is something new. So they're asking
specifically about the relationship between the 2, but
then at the same time, packed in the
question is, you know,
is is this Maqasid notion something that's recent
or is this something that is found
from say the time of the prophet till
now? Alayhi
Salaam. Salaam.
Yes. The I mean, the whole the whole
half an hour that I talked was about
the Maqasid in the Quran. I didn't get
time to mention hadith,
to back that. So the the whole notion
of Maqasid we call it Maqasid and we
call it in English objectives.
It could be, more adat, niyat.
There are many, you know,
terminologies
that that people use for this. So regardless
of the terminology,
the the meaning has been from day 1.
Day 1 Islam, not just day 1
post Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
This is how Islam is, and this is
the original fiqh.
But fiqh,
it's a long story, went through
a number of distortions,
distortions
along history.
Is a chronic term in the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam's talk.
The fiqh and fukaah is a Quranic and
prophetic word. This is not
fiqh
developed to become a discipline,
but fiqh is an approach, is not a
discipline in the original sense.
And fiqh
is a deep understanding,
of Islam.
And the people of fiqh
are not the scholars with particular dress. The
people of fiqh are the leaders
of Muslims.
In in the hadith of, you know, Sarud,
the
are the leaders.
Right, when Ali ibn Abi Talib
asked the prophet
what do we do if we find something
that we have no command
for? He said shawurul fuqaha.
Make sure amongst the fuqaha. He doesn't mean
by the fuqaha
what developed afterwards.
We went very briefly through 3 stages of
developing fuqa'ah.
The stage of the 1st century
Hijri,
the middle of the 1st century Hijri when
the Khalifa was
aborted
and you started to have an empire instead.
Some good kings, some evil kings, but you're
talking about an empire
that
put back fit
in the corner
of rituals
instead of fit at the top of the
system
making policies for everything
as it was during the Sahaba, during the
khilaf of Rashida.
And that is the first distortion of the
fiqh, the marginalizing
of fiqh. The second distortion
is the colonialist,
time
of the occupation
of every city and every town in the
Muslim land, a long history in different times
and different geographies.
But colonization,
everybody, the English and the Russians and the
Portuguese, everybody,
try to push fit
into a theology
bracket so that they secularize the Muslim life,
and that secularized our Islamic thought. When we
think about Islamic education today, we think about
something different from the education about life, about
economics and sociology, blah, blah. This is the
colonial impact after the tyrannical, if you wish,
impact. And then the third,
impact on the concept of fiqh
is today
when fiqh is nationalized.
Whether Muslims
are majority or minority,
fiqh is is a national thing. People
think about fiqh as a ministry
or as, you know, a
a some sort of an institute
that is not that does not belong to
the civil society, which is supposed to to
to belong and does not belong to Alqaf,
which originally it was. But the Alqaf were
abolished finally,
and therefore the Fuqaha are now working for
governments or sometimes companies and so forth.
This is a distortion of fiqh
that if we put in mind
then we realize
the relationship
between the original fiqh of Islam
where the Maqasid and the higher objectives
were,
reigning over the details
and the rules and the fatwas
versus
a number of stages that our fit went
through
where the ulama of the ummah and the
fuqa'ah of the ummah had to struggle
in order to be true to their higher
purposes.
It's a short answer for for now.
Sheikhna, we have another question from someone who's
in the university asking about
decolonialization
studies. I'm sure what you're aware of. That's
kind of a hot term now.
And they're asking how can awareness of the
Abbasid
take on the
rapid secularization of the Muslim mind as well
as contribute to the decolonization,
not only of Muslims, but of people?
It's kind of a good question, mister. Yeah.
God bless you. It's again one of those
big questions I'll answer in headlines.
The decentralization
and the decolonization
of the Muslim mind
is very important to go back to the
original sources.
It is essential to study the history of
the Islamic thought and the Islamic fiqh,
but it is more essential to go back
to the Quran and Sunnah
in order to put our history
in
the framework of the Quran and Sunnah.
That is the only way we can decircularize
and
deconstructionize
and and all of these things. We have
a lot of impact,
that we need to
get rid of by going back to the
original sources
and by allowing critical studies
to be part of Islamic studies in order
for us to be able to go beyond
that.
And also to call for the integration
of the Muslim personality.
Part of the problem of the symptoms of
secularization
and the the liberalization
of the Islamic studies, etcetera,
is the schizophrenia,
if you wish, in the Muslim psyche
sometimes and the Muslim thought sometimes. So we
deal with Islamic studies
and then we deal with Duniya, and
we call this Deen and we call this
Duniya, but Deen is everything.
Deen is not just a badat.
Deen is how we do economics and politics
and social justice
and how we eat and drink and how
we socialize. That is also deen.
So to integrate back
Islam,
the deen and the dunya
to be under the deen.
My life and my death is for Allah.
So to integrate and to connect
and to bring back Islam
to the realms of life
and not to buy this argument that Islam
is a specialization
or fiqh for that matter. It's only,
you know, you're doing Islam in this box,
but outside,
let's let's have the secular common ground or
the liberal common ground. That is not true
and that's not Islamic.
The common ground is Islam, is is the
higher purposes of Islam,
and we could give exceptions
to people
when they come from a different perspective
because Islam as a thought accommodates,
human thought and and human endeavors.
We have to be that strong
and that assertive
with Islam and that's the only way
I see to to decaculiarize
the way we we see Islam
and to criticize this dual personality that
many Muslims unfortunately
live.
You know, in the mosque there is a
personality and then at work or in life
even is a different to to bring back
Islam
as a
cohesive kind of whole, you know, to have
a holistic approach.
Michelle. Michelle, it's Shaykh. I'm just getting a
lot of questions. So I'm trying to Oh,
Michelle. Manage,
where they're coming from.
Hello. Let's see. Someone's sending me one here
off on I'm actually on my phone.
So I'm trying to juggle between
did you have a chance to talk about
how you yourself
got interested in the, the ideas of the
Mahals? No. That was a long time ago,
man.
Back in the, in the seventies,
when I was of the previous century, you
know,
precomputers
for those who you know,
for the new generation.
When when I was a a teenager, I
don't know, back in Cairo when I used
to memorize the Quran and sunnah and so
forth
and attend the
the lessons,
for the likes of, Allah Habu Sheikh Saeed
Sadiq and Sheikh Hamir Ghazali and and so
forth back in
in the Cairo of the seventies and Sheikh
Salazar Plata.
I realized that
and at the same time, I, you know,
I studied languages and mathematics and so forth.
So I I found that there was a
gap
between two
lives.
A life with Islam
where you you kinda live in a different
century
and a life that is contemporary
where Islam has nothing to say except, you
know, take a break and go pray and
come back kind of thing.
And I thought of how how can we
bridge that?
And when I memorized the Quran, our sheikh
didn't really
give us a lot of meaning. Allah hamo,
just, you know, the
and so forth and but not to integrate
how we memorize the Quran
with how we live life.
So part of that answer is the integration
of, you know,
Islamic studies and secular studies. My brother mentioned
that I did that all the way to
a PhD and
that the the integration
of east and west, it's you know, eventually
immigrated to Canada. I lived here,
most of my adult life.
And the integration of all of these schisms
that we have,
and and and so forth is to go
to the higher purposes and and look.
In addition to
sheiks of Islam that I personally learned
from
and have impacted me quite a bit, who
had this approach,
to Islam.
Our research, Sheikh Qarabawi, Sheikh Hassan al Turabi,
Sheikh Alwali. I mean, these are, you know,
previous generation of scholars most of you
knew,
new upcoming Muslims wouldn't wouldn't know about. But
but they they have taken this approach,
in order for them
to
to to think about Islam in the con
current context.
Many of them were students of Sheikh Muhammad
Abdulaz
of Al Azhar of back in the forties
fifties. And Sheikh Ras,
his commentary and his father on imam Shatabi,
who is a great imam from Andalusia
whose ideas are brilliant
but never materialize into fiqh.
The
Imam al Shawtabi was one of the revelations
and,
one of my ustaz, Allah
Ihkrimu, doctor Salahdin Sultan
was was
like insisting that I study Imam al Sha'atabi
more than others, and eventually
I
teach about the Sha'atabi now.
So, SubhanAllah, a number of factors,
but the higher objectives are not far
from the original source
and the genuine approach, if you wish, to
Islam.
So zakkullahu Khair.
Shaykhna Masha'Allah actually teach every Friday night
at 11:30
live,
Kunusman, Sunnah and Napawiya
of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah Duras.
Doctor Mustafa Amar, he told me like,
Oh, so he told me you have to
teach this book when you return to the
US. So we call it treasures from the
sunnah.
And did you mention Sheikh
Sadeq Raduhi?
Of course. Of course.
I love the FM. I used to go
to his home,
back in the eighties of Cairo of the
eighties. Uh-huh.
I still lived there.
And, yes, I I, you know, that's I
I memorized part of the Quran
in under him and then under Sheikh Mahmood
Farooq
and others. It's really, really special. He was
the people of the 80s and I studied
with him when he memo
when he explained Al Mu'ta
later and then before that, Al Bukhari
that was with him.
One of those hidden gems of of that
Yeah.
Of Egypt.
He was really a special special person,
Sheikh, we have we have another question. Is
it okay if I ask you? Absolutely, please.
From Sajjad Chaudhry. He's one of our amazing,
supporters, and his son Dawood is, like, such
an incredible student.
He's asking 2 questions. Who are the leading
scholars one can refer to in this age
when talking about Maqasid within the classical contemporary
framework?
Marrying the 2. And then also, how does
the Maqasid framework work with the idea of
akhlaq and so?
Like, at the and akhlaq. So who are
the
that people can refer to now, and then
what would be the application of within
the the framework of Tuskegee Tumas purification of
the soul?
Yeah.
Leading scholars if you are asking about scholars
who are alive,
we have He's asking, I believe, about living.
Living scholars and then even references that may
be dead. Sorry. Living. Yeah. Living and and
I don't know. Perhaps contemporary, but but let's
let's talk about living.
Living, he retired now a couple years ago,
at the age of 94, but he's still
writing
or Estanshi, Husaf Al Qaradawi.
Not so much of his writing is translated
in English and politics had, you know, give
given him a
bad name in in English
circles.
But he's one of the leading scholars that
you can refer to on Maqasid al Sharia,
as well as
the the whole school that he represents,
from Sheikh Mohammed Abu to Rashid Radha. Mohammed
Abu referred to Al Manaar or his tafsir.
Rashid Radha al Muhammedi
and as well the rest of the Manaar
until Surat Yusuf.
And then, Muhammad al Buzara,
and Mohammed al Ghazari, and,
Sheikh Shastut, and so forth. Like the whole
line of
Azharis,
on and Sheikh Jarrah Abdul Haqqar and so
forth. Azharis who really
represented Islam, you know, not not, you know,
not those who worked for the government,
but but those who represented Islam really from
that school.
That is one school.
Oh,
And
you are you are talking about also
Sheikh Ahmed al Raisouni,
who is the current head of the International
Union for Muslim Scholars.
He has a number of
books on Maqasids,
not sure in English.
Sheer Ta Jabal alwani.
And and and you have
a large number of scholars who are affiliated
with the Maqaseh Desai Center in London,
UK. I I was honored to be the
first director of that center back about 15
years ago, 17 years ago. You are talking
about,
doctor Mohammed Kamal Imam, Ramallah, just died a
couple days ago.
Doctor Mohammad Salim Al Awwa,
chief,
you know,
Ibrahim
Ghannim,
doctor Hassan Jaber, Sheikh,
Raisouni as well. And,
of course, you are talking about
the the main student of Al Joayni in
today's
world, Sheikh Abdulazim Idib.
And you are talking about Sheikh Huwab al
Zaha'i
in some of the topics he wrote on
that.
And you are,
also
with with Sheikh Taremiseh, prophet Taremisehawi
from Malaysia. That's that's now kind of my
generation
of scholars
and doctor Saif Abdelfattah
and,
a a number of scholars, really. And and,
of course, on Maqasid Institute, if you go
to our website, you will find a number
of scholars,
who are interested in that.
But I would I would say that scholars
who are interested in this topic
are more on the
scholarly side.
You know, you will not find
a lot of, you know,
perhaps
media around them. But inshallah, if you search,
you will find the books. And if you
send me particular questions, I can answer you.
And I saw another question here on Ihsan.
Actually,
that is an integral part of the study
of Maqaseh
because fiqh, my brothers and sisters, as you
know, and I'm sure Imam Sahib talked about
that, is 2 kinds of fiqh, fiqh al
kalb and fiqh al jayr. There is the
fiqh of the heart and the fiqh of
the body. The fiqh of the body, what
I do in the world and, you know,
family and agriculture and work and so on
and ethics. But
is is atasawf or what we call in
in Islam originally Al Hassan,
and this is an integral part of Muqasid
because
this is
higher objectives
that that I aim to with my heart
and the works of my heart,
and therefore what are these objectives?
To love Allah and to thank him
and to fear him and to rely on
him and to be patient
and
to, you know, have
a pure heart and so so much that
people of Tassa wuf are working with
are actually
higher purposes of Islam.
And
is one of the highest,
purposes of Islam.
It is the function of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam after reciting the Quran and
to do tazkiyah.
And therefore when we talk about Aymid Tazkiyah
or Aymid Tazawf, we are talking about higher
purposes
of Islam. This is not foreign,
and we should actually
bring back I'm talking about integration a lot
today. We should integrate
the fiqh of the heart with the fiqh
of the body, and therefore we should bring
back the to fiqh
and
to fiqh because fiqh is not a material
legal
kind of.
It is actually a legal material that is
mixed
with the spirit of Islam or ihsan
in that sense, and that that is how,
we we link.
Al Akhlaq
I differentiate between Al Akhlaq in Arabic and
ethics in English
because ethics in English is actually
a part of fiqh. So you can't, you
know, you can't say that Islam is about
ethics. That is a small part of Islam.
Practical,
you know, application of of fit in some
areas that you can call ethics. But Islam
is not just about ethics. Islam is about
the philosophy
of the discipline
that you apply the ethics to, not just
the ethics of it. But akhlaq is a
different story. I'm mentioning Sheikh Abdul Ladraz, he
has an incredible book called the akhlaq navariyatul
akhlaq in Quran.
The theory of akhlaq
in the
Quran and and moral theory of the Quran.