Ibn Ashur – quite courageously – also addressed the sensitive topic of the intents/maqasid of Prophet Muhammad behind his actions and decisions. He introduced criteria to differentiate between the Prophetic traditions that were meant to be part of the Islamic law and the Prophetic actions/ sayings that were meant to be for the sake of specific purposes such as political leadership, court judgment, friendly advice, conflict resolution, etc. But Ibn Ashur’s most significant contribution in this book has been the development of new maqasid by coining new (contemporary) terminology that were never formulated in traditional al-fiqh. For example, Ibn Ashur developed the theory of the ‘preservation of lineage’ into ‘the preservation of the family system’, the ‘protection of true belief’ into ‘freedom of beliefs’, etc. He also introduced the concepts of ‘orderliness’, ‘natural disposition’, ‘freedom’, ‘rights’, ‘civility’, and ‘equality’ as maqasid in their own right, and upon which the whole Islamic law is based. This development opens great opportunities for Islamic law to address current and real challenges for Muslim societies and Muslim minorities.
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