Maqasid Al-Shariah - Ibn 'Ashur

Ibn Ashurs famous and pioneering study of the Shariahs higher objectives and goals. To restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Quran scholars developed the study of the objectives of Islam. The Shariah is marked by a universal wisdom whereby every legal ruling has a function which it performs, an aim which it realises, an intention which it seeks to fulfill and all of this in order to realise benefit to human beings or to ward off harm or corruption.

Muhammad al-Tahir ibn Ashur (1879 -1973~)was an eminent figure in the institution of the Tunisian scholars for most of the twentieth century. He is also highly regarded as a Muslim reformist and his Quranic tafsir al-Tahrir wal-tanwir, is among the influential tafsirs produced in the modern era.
Since he lived during the colonial period, as well as the early period of Tunisian independence, Ibn Ashurs intellectual output reflects different forces and stands witness to the dilemma experienced by the ulama in a time of unprecedented change.
Influenced by Muhammad Abduh, and responding to modern challenges to Islamic traditions, Ibn Ashur called for substantive reforms in Islamic education. His work on the ultimate purposes of the Sharia represents not only an attempt to revive the maqasid theory of Shatibi, but also a significant addition to modern efforts to renew Islamic legal theory. Ibn Ashur, however, seems to have become disappointed with the independent states drive for modernisation and radical secularisation.