Reconstruction of the Concept of Maqāṣid Al-Syarīʿahin the Human Rights Frame: Jasser Auda's Perspective on the Renewal of Contemporary Islamic Law
Keywords:
Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, Human Rights, Jasser Auda, Islamic Law Reform, Systems ApproachAbstract
This study analyzes the reconstruction of the concept of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah developed by Jasser Auda as a framework for contemporary Islamic law reform, particularly in its dialogue with international human rights discourse. Maqāṣid al-sharīʿah has classically been understood as the objectives of Islamic law encompassing the protection of religion, life, intellect, lineage, and property. Jasser Auda, through a systems approach, reconstructs this concept by extending its scope from individual protection to development and reformulating the maqāṣid method from inductive-deductive inference to a multidimensional value system. This qualitative research employs a library research approach and philosophical-critical analysis using Ricoeur's hermeneutical model—encompassing narrative, semantic, and referential stages—applied to Jasser Auda's principal works, primarily Maqasid Al-Shariah as Philosophy of Islamic Law and Re-Envisioning Islamic Scholarship, alongside comparative perspectives from Tariq Ramadan, Mohammad Hashim Kamali, and Wael Hallaq. The analysis is further grounded in the Indonesian legal context, with reference to the Kompilasi Hukum Islam (KHI) and Constitutional Court jurisprudence. The results show that Auda's reconstruction offers a significant conceptual bridge between maqāṣid al-sharīʿah and universal human rights, particularly through the concepts of kulliyyat (universality) and maqāṣid ammah (general objectives). Comparative analysis with Türkmen and Hasaballah demonstrates that Auda's systems approach is the most comprehensive contemporary reformist framework, though Hallaq's critique of the foundational assumptions of modernist Islamic law reform demands serious intellectual engagement. However, several epistemological tensions between Islamic normative sources and secular human rights language need to be addressed through a dialogical approach that is non-reductive to either tradition.
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