An analysis on Kitab al-Muwafaqat with an annotated translation of the first part

Abstract

This study is intended to analyse al-Muwāfaqāt, the book of Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm b. Mūsa, well known as al-Shātibī (d.790A.H). The book by itself is a work on Islamic legal methodology. What makes the work distinctive is its discussion of the legal methodology on the basis of the comprehension of the universal principles of Sharīah. Thus this study is carried out by critically examining this literary contribution on Islamic legal methodology in view of the comprehensive understanding of the universal principles of Sharī ah together with translation of thirtee muqaddimāt (premises)of the book which are considered the prerequisites, as the author has emphasized, in contemplating the composition. Besides, a comparison with other prolific legal theorists, those before and after him, is not to be neglected that by such incorporation the study is to be more comprehensible and significant. The findings of this analytical study are that the nature of al-Shātibī’s Islamic legal thought based on the comprehensive perception of the intentions of Sharīah is not that of initiating the new spheres to interpreting the sources of Sharīah but a sort of the inherent contemplation on Sharīah. And also the concept of flexibility applied by al Shātibī in his exertion to face the challenge of the social change is the theory established on the apprehension of correlation between the general and particular meaning of Islamic legal proofs, not by the separation understanding.