Abstract
Social issues relating to the Muslim ummah’s permissibility of polygamy for males and obligatory veiling (hijab) for females have become polemic in Malaysia. This polemic is dealt with by using the argument of maqasid al-shari’ah (purposefulness of shariah). However, there is much confusion in presenting the argument of maqasid al-shari’ah whereby the role of reason is given priority over considerations of explicit meaning of the text or evidence in shariah when a social issue is submitted. Hence, this paper explains the confusion in order that any form of resolution to social issues is in accordance with the spirit of al-Quran and Hadith. The method used in this study is document analysis. Among the documents used is, The Relationship Between Islamic Human Rights And The Maqasidic Approach, Muslim Women's Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and Feminism, Feminist Movement, Gender Equality and Religious Understanding and Dawabit al-Maslahah fi al-Sharicah al-Islamiyyah (The Guidelines for Public Interest in Islamic Shariah). Research results find that the dawabit (parameters) control the application of maqasid al-shari’ah (the ultimate objectives or goals of Shariah). This is because dawabit plays a role in balancing between proof of Shariah text or evidence in partial (juz’iyy) form and maqasid al-shari’ah in general or universal (kulliyy) form. These dawabit (guidelines) are compiled to ensure that the application of maqasid al-shari’ah fulfils the true discipline of jurisprudence in the context of textual interpretation of al-Quran and al-Sunnah when issuing rulings extracted from these sources. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s5p369
Highlights
Malaysia has several social issues that have become polemic among the Muslims here
Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) is of the view that in order to achieve maqasid al-shari’ah, freedom should be given to women to abstain from wearing the hijab so that there is fairness between man and woman on the issue of clothing
After elaborating on dawabit or the guideline for maqasid al-shari’ahi; the polemic of the two issues raised earlier in the study, which is the issue of the need for women to cover their aurat and the issue of polygamy, could be resolved
Summary
Malaysia has several social issues that have become polemic among the Muslims here. For example, the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) (2014) cannot accept it that women would have to cover their hair from the sight of a ‘non-Mahram’ (marriageable individual). SIS is of the view that achieving maqasid al-shari’ah in a fair and harmonious marriage is not to practice polygamy From another aspect, the majority of Muslims, especially the religious authorities, do not forbid the permission for any qualified individual to practice polygamy. The majority of Muslims, especially the religious authorities, do not forbid the permission for any qualified individual to practice polygamy This group argues that achieving maqasid al-shari’ah is to practice polygamy with the intention of helping women experience the essence of marriage, especially when the ratio of unmarried women far outweighs men. Both these issues could be used as examples of polemic in Malaysia that is based on maqasid al-shari’ah. This is because the dawabit acts by exposing the meaning of kulliyy and at the same time becomes a binding force for the religious references (dalil) related to the rulings that are in the form of tafsiliyy
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