Maqasid al shariah and methodological crisis of contemporary Islamic law

This book begins with a discussion of the epistemology of contemporary Islamic law. It is because the main problem of the Islamic law today is how to make it capable of responding to the problems of modernity in all aspects of life. Therefore, in parsing the epistemology of Islamic law, it is necessary to study the sources of the law. This is important because it is to distinguish between which of both, al-Qur’an and Sunnah, function as a source of law and which function as Islamic law itself. At least, this stems from the confusion of understanding that occurs among Muslim scholars that al-Qur'an and Sunnah are Islamic law. This kind of understanding actually places both of them at the operational relativity level of Islamic law which demands changes as needed. In fact, as revelations, both have absolute truths that cannot be changed editorially. To make Islamic law capable of dialogue with changes, on the methodological aspect, it requires a rule called fiqhiyyah rule and usul al-fiqh. The scholars agree that an understanding of Islamic law must start from both in order to answer various problems that arise through the mechanism of ijtihad.