Sharia Law An Introduction - by Mohammad Hashim Kamali

Nature, sources and objectives of Sharʑah 37
The experiment in modernity and westernization in recent
decades has led to disenchantment as it failed to produce the desired
results in the Muslim world and has even added some new problems.
61 There is now an awareness on the part of Muslims of the need
to renew their links with their own heritage and find their own solutions
to the issues which concern them. The tendency today is not just
a return to the Sharʑah, which is a most tangible part of that heritage,
but to try to relate the Sharʑah to the living conditions of the people.
This would necessitate imaginative reconstruction and ijtihÉd entailing
revision and modification of the rules of fiqh so as to translate
the broad objectives of the Sharʑah into the laws and institutions of
contemporary society.
NOTES
1. Cf. ‘SharÊ‘ah, The Encyclopedia of Islam.
2. Cf. MadkËr, Madkhal, 11, al-ØÉbËnÊ, al-Madkhal al-Fiqhi, 20.
3. Joseph Schacht, An Introduction, 1.
4. Sa‘di AbË ×abÊb, DirÉsah fi Manhaj, 454.
5. Cf. MadkËr, Madkhal, 17, N.P. Aghnides, Muhammadan Theories of
Finance,1.
6. Cf. Muhammad Asad, The Principles of State, 12; A. A. A. Fyzee, Outlines of
Muhammadan Law, 22.
7. Cf. Fyzee, Outlines of Muhammadan Law, 16; Kamali, ‘The SharÊ‘ah: Law as
the Way of God’, in ed. Cornell, Voices of Islam, I, 149.
8. S. A. A. Maududi, The Islamic Law and Constitution, 69.
9. Muhammad Asad, The Principle of State, 13.
10. Cf. al-ØÉbËnÊ, al-Madkhal al-Fiqhi, 27; MaÍmËd ShaltËt, Al-IslÉm, 405.
11. Cf. S. Parvez Manzoor, ‘Environment and Values’, 155.
12. al-‘Attas, Islam and Secularism, 167.
13. Schacht, An Introduction, 200.
14. Cf. Humayun Kabir, Science, 56.
15. ShaltËt, Al-IslÉm, no.10, 494; KhallÉf, ‘Ilm, 32.
16. Al-ShawkÉni, IrshÉd al-FuÍËl, 250.
17. AbË Zahrah, UÎËl al-Fiqh, 80.
18. al-ShÉÏibÊ, Al-MuwÉfaqÉt fi UÎËl al-SharÊ‘ah, III, 219.
19. For more examples see BadrÉn AbË al-‘Aynayn, BayÉn al-NuÎËs, 2–3.
20. Ibn Taymiyyah, Al-SiyÉsah al-Shar‘iyyah, I.
21. For details see M. H. Kamali, Jurisprudence, 38 ff.
22. Cf. al-ÙÉhir b. ‘ÓshËr, MaqÉÎid al-SharÊ‘ah, 94.
23. Cf. KhallÉf, ‘Ilm, 34: AbË Zahrah, UÎËl, 71
24. For more examples see Kamali, Jurisprudence, 27 ff.
25. al-GhazÉlÊ, Al-MustaÎfÉ, I. 83.