Maqasid Al-Syariah Thought in Mainstream Islamic Economics: A Review

Abstract

Maqasid al-syariah is a discipline of knowledge in the field of usul al-fiqh that has currently gained much attention. It has been applied in various fields of human life, such as politics, economy, education and Islamic jurisprudence. The main factor that encourages its use is that this discipline of knowledge includes all aspects of human life and is suitable with the expanding globalization era. Lately, various branches and trends in maqasid al-syariah have emerged. Some lines of thoughts have used maqasid al-syariah based on the presumption that Islamic religious decrees issued by previous ulama are behind time and not suitable anymore. Hence, this kind of line of thought also exists in Islamic economy, which takes the approach of accepting and improving conventional economic thought and adapting it as Islamic economy. The question is whether this line of thinking applies maqasid al-syariah only as a following or as a trend in recent times. Thus, this study aimed to examine the maqasid al-syariah line of thought in mainstream Islamic economics. This qualitative study had used secondary data that were analysed using the content analysis method. The findings showed that Islamic economy wholly based on maqasid al-syariah could produce a true Islamic economy.