Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah as an Interpretive Framework for Islamic Finance: Conceptual Evolution and Contemporary Practice

Abstract

This paper examines the doctrine of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah (the higher objectives of Islamic law) and its application to the theory and practice of contemporary Islamic finance. Beginning with the classical formulations of al-Shāṭibī, al-Āmidī, and al-Ghazālī, the study traces the conceptual evolution of maqāṣid from an implicit juristic sensibility into an explicit and systematized branch of legal theory, culminating in the modern reformulations of Muḥammad al-Ṭāhir Ibn ʿĀshūr, ʿAllāl al-Fāsī, and Mohammad Hashim Kamali. It surveys the five essential objectives (the protection of faith, life, intellect, lineage, and property) together with their textual grounding in the Qurʾān and their tripartite classification into ḍarūriyyāt, ḥājiyyāt, and taḥsīniyyāt. Further, this study traces their extension by later scholars into environmental, developmental, and governance-related domains. Particular attention is given to Ibn ʿĀshūr's articulation of specifically economic objectives, like circulation of wealth, transparency of contracts, justice in acquisition, and prohibition of ribā and gharar. Ultimately, the study presents the design and critique of contemporary financing structures, and the pursuit of falāḥ as the ultimate socio-economic outcome of Islamic financial activity. The paper argues that maqāṣid al-sharīʿah, rather than being a peripheral or rhetorical device, constitutes an indispensable interpretive framework for aligning the form of Islamic financial contracts with the substantive ends of justice and welfare that the Sharīʿah intends, while cautioning that the doctrine's credibility depends on its disciplined, textually grounded application. In contemporary practices maqāṣid al-sharīʿah are highly recommended as accurate tool to conduct ijtihad.