Sharıa as state law: An analysis of allal al-fası' s concept of the objectives of islamic law

This article presents and evaluates the legal thought of Muhammad Allal al-Fasi (1910-1974) with a focus on his discourse on the objectives of Sharia and the motives behind his reformulation of these objectives within the broader context of his political agenda. Al-Fasi s concerns were not purely academic. As a political leader who struggled for the independence of his country and as a decision maker within the newly established Moroccan state, his theorization of Islamic law departed from traditional and modern efforts to negotiate the supposed status of Shariaa within the institutional structures of postcolonial Muslim states. The questions engaged in this article are to what extent did al-Fasi s contribution to MaqasÌ£id go beyond its classical reformulations as represented by the Andalusian Maliki jurist Ibrahim Ibn Musa Abu IshÌ£aq al-ShatiÌ£ bi (d. AH 790/1388 CE) in his seminal work, Al-Muwafaqat fiUsuÌ£ l al-Sharia, and whether al-Fasi s work represents a turn in the ïeld of MaqasÌ£id when compared with that of other modern Muslim jurists, among them Muhammad al-TÌ£ahir Ibn Ashur (1886-1970). This article focuses on al-Fasii s book on MaqasiÌ£ d al-Shariaa, MaqasiÌ£ d al-Shariaa al-Islamiyya wa Makarimuha, and its contribution to the ongoing efforts to accommodate Islamic law within the corpus of modern secular laws.