How to Retrieve the Light of Maqasid?

Abstract

In this issue, we intended to cover a set of topics that we, unfortunately, could not fulfill with further studies and analysis. However, we can say that this issue, as well as past issues, are the beginning of a series of topics we will address along the way, as we need a real pause for evaluation and assessment before we could advance; otherwise, we would fall short and validate what Al-Shatibi said in his “Muwafaqat” where he affirmed that “Before the advent of this light, we were rambling in randomness, and our minds were trying to seize our interests, both because of their weakness to carry these burdens, and sharing the urgent whims of our souls, which is between the two, a path for the worst. So, we put poisons on the ailments instead of medications, to seek healing like clutching on water, and we still swim between them in a sea of illusion and we wander, ignorant of proofs we wander through the dark night without guidance, and we deduce sterile analogies, and we want the outcomes of health from the sick body, and we walk with our faces cast down thinking that we are walking on the straight path”

This description mentioned in the introduction of Muwafaqat al-Shatibi, referring to the condition of the people in the jahiliyyah period, before the advent of Islam, to some extent, seems valid in our contemporary times. Isn’t it accurate that we are swirling in randomness today? Or do we have yet an intellectual wave that could achieve the interests of Islam and human beings alike?

In conclusion, the question that arises is:  What is the appropriate approach to retrieve the light of maqasid?

And it is for Allah to show the way.