Re-Envisioning Islamic Scholarship: Maqasid Methodology as a New Approach
Author: Jasser Auda
Publisher: Claritas Books
Year of Publication: 2021
Print Length: 284 pages
Genre: Islamic Studies / Science, Dawah & Applied Science, Qur’anic Studies, Hadith, Sunnah & Sirah; Non-Fiction / Educational Theory and Practices
Topic: Muslim, Islam, Qur’an, The Muslim World, Culture & Society, Education, Islamization of Knowledge / Dewesternization of Knowledge, Leadership, Maqasid al-Sharia / Maqasid al-Syariah, Organization, Scholarship & Knowledge
Re-envisioning Islamic Scholarship is a pioneering and timely contribution that deserves wide readership. Jasser Auda masterfully focalises the Quran and Sunnah in a work that integrates scholarship across time and disciplines to demonstrate the connectivity of human thought and action within a purposeful universe of infinite possibilities.
Through a five-step holistic methodology, he urges scholars and practitioners in all fields of knowledge and endeavour to seek revelational guidance by performing continuous cycles of reflection on the revelation that reveal this connectivity.
Here, the maqasid or objectives of revelational guidance manifest through a process of emergence that is premised on deep understandings of the concepts, objectives, values, commands, universal laws, groups and proofs that implicitly or explicitly shape our understandings and help re-envision research agendas, educational institutes and organisational strategies.
In a world that has become accustomed to individualism, inequality, fragmentation and loss of meaning this book is a paradigm shift, a beacon of light and a very welcome guide to a better future for humanity.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Introduction
Connectivity, wholism and emergence / Why Maqasid? / Future orientation / Critical orientation / Comprehensive orientation
2. Limitations of Contemporary Approaches in Islamic Scholarship
Identification of limitations versus schools and trends / Imitation (Taqlid) / Partialism (Tajzi) / Apologism (Tabrir) / Contradiction (Tanaqud) / Deconstructionism (Tafkik)
3. Re-orienting the Islamic Worldview
Scholarship: Applying knowledge to reality
3.1. Knowledge: source, logic and conceptualisations
Source of knowledge / Basic logic / Conceptualisations
3.2. Reality: past, present and future
Re-defining Islamic history / Assessing lived reality / Envisioning the Future
3.3. Scholarship: scope, scholars and outcome
Scope / Scholars/Mujtahids / Outcomes
4. The Methodology
Discovering Methodology from the Revelation / Difference between methodology and framework / Enhancing the research capacity of the scholar/mujtahid / Qur’an and Sunnah / The Arabic language / Purpose / Cycles of Reflection upon the Qur’an / Linking with the Sunnah / Critical studies of literature and reality / Critical engagement with Islamic Scholarship / Critical engagement with non-Islamic Scholarship / Critical engagement with lived realities / Formative theories and principles
5. The Composite Framework
Cycles of Reflection to discover the framework / Overlaps and connections / Discovery of Concepts in the Revelation / Discovery of Objectives in the Revelation / Discovery of Values in the Revelation / Discovery of Commands in the Revelation / Discovery of Universal Laws in the Revelation / Discovery of Groups in the Revelation / Discovery of Proofs in the Revelation
6. Re-envisioning Islamic Studies via the Maqasid Methodology
The need for a new classification of disciplines in Islamic Studies / Classical classifications of disciplines – Greek and Islamic / Contemporary classifications of disciplines – secular and Islamic / A proposed preliminary classification / Usuli Studies / Disciplinary Studies / Phenomena Studies / Strategic Studies
The Way Forward
Notes
Collection of Cited Hadith
Bibliography
Glossary of Arabic Terms
Index
Jasser Auda is the President of Maqasid Institute Global, a think tank based in the USA, UK, Malaysia and Indonesia, and has educational and research programs in a number of countries. He is a member of the Fiqh Council of North America and the European Council for Fatwa, and a fellow at the Fiqh Academy of India. 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 memorised the Quran and studied at the Study Circles of Al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt. He worked previously as a professor at the universities of Waterloo, Carleton, and Ryerson in Canada; Alexandria in Egypt; International Peace in South Africa; Islamic University in Sanjaq, Qatar; the Faculty of Islamic Studies, American University of Sharjah in the UAE; and University of Bahrain. He lectured on Islam and its law in dozens of countries and authored 25 books in Arabic and English, some of which have been translated into 25 languages.
Source: https://www.claritasbooks.com/books/reclaiming-the-mosque
More from Jasser Auda in this library, click here.