Confusion Concerning the Use of Maqasid Al-Shari’ah in some Social Issues in Malaysia

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.v6n6s5p36