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12 N.Y.U. J. Int'l L. & Pol. 219 (1979-1980)
Towards Reformulating the Methodology of Islamic Law: Sheikh Yamani on Public Interest in Islamic Law

handle is hein.journals/nyuilp12 and id is 227 raw text is: TOWARDS REFORMULATING THE METHODOLOGY OF ISLAMIC LAW: Sheikh Yamani on Public Interest in Islamic Law FAZLUR RAHMAN* In his presentation The Eternal Sharia, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani has laid great stress on a principle of the classical Islamic law which is called by various names by different schools of law but for which probably the best English term is the one the Sheikh uses, public interest. The following article is an inquiry into the meaning and scope of this extremely important principle and into whether the principle can be given a fresh but valid Islamic conceptualization today which will be more systematic and hence more comprehensive than its conceptualization in the classical lit- erature of Islam. Although Sheikh Yamani's presentation is remarkable in its liberal orientation and its highly generalized statements, the actual examples he cites from the classical Islamic law, although illustra- ive, do not measure up to the magnitude of the generalization. There appears to be a basic need for a methodology which will make this general orientation more concrete. Note, for example, the instance of Abfi Yfisuf's substitution of measurement of bar- ley by weight for measurement by volume. One is struck by the gap between the generality of the Sheikh's statements and the paucity of actual exemplary instances provided. Discussing the distinction between the 'ia (cause) of a law and the hikma (purpose) of that law, Sheikh Yamani states that this distinction holds with respect to devotional rites only and that in secular and commercial cases the two are identical. In view of the almost universally accepted principle that the distinction be- tween the religious and the secular does not exist in Islam, how- ever, a term like the social sphere would be more proper than secular. * Professor of Islamic Thought, The University of Chicago; Director of the Islamic Research Institute, Pakistan, 1962-1968. Ph.D., Oxford University, 1950; M.A., Punjab University, Lahore (Pakistan). 219 Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics

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