Using the Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah to Furnish an Islamic Bioethics: Conceptual and Practical Issues

The term maslahah can refer to different ideas within the Islamic ethical tradition. Most generally it refers to human interests or benefits, and this is the way Ibrahim and colleagues use the term. However, in the context of discussing the maqāṣid, the term can take on different meanings. The first is one that the polymath Islamic theologian-jurist Imam al-Ghazālī uses when he states “what we mean by interests (maṣalih) are those interests that conform specifically to the objectives of Islamic law (maqāṣid),” and harms are detriments to these interests (see his al-Mustašfá min ‘ilm al-usúl). In this way, benefits are those human interests that align the higher objectives of Islamic law. The second usage of the term maslahah is to refer to a specific ethico-legal device within Islamic law through which human benefits can ground Islamic legal rulings. This scope of this device as grounds is debated across the Islamic legal schools (see Opwis 2005; al-Būṭī 2000).

The term mafsada refers to human detriments and harms. In the context of the maqāṣid, a harm (mafsada) is that which harms the higher objectives or promotes what is contrary to them (see Ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, al-Izz al-Qawāʿid al-kubrā al-mawsūm bi qawāʿid al-aḥkām fī iṣlāḥ al-anām).