Reviving The Balance

Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi, who died in 1888, had sought an answer to the challenge posed by modernisation and change to Islamic law, by introducing maslahah, which forms the basis of his philosophy of Islamic law. In a fascinating way, the author leads us step by step to what he considers the true import of Shatibi’s views concerning jurisprudence.

This is the first book in Forensic Psychiatry that focuses on the application of psychiatry to legal issues connected to Islamic jurisprudence. It gives contemporary psychiatry in any Islamic country a broad spectrum of tools to work with, enabling the utilization of options specific to particular societal and cultural norms. This book will appeal to both the general as well as the academic reader.

This book offers a detailed presentation of the theory of Muslim law (usul al-figh). Often regarded as the most sophisticated of the traditional Islamic disciplines, Muslim jurisprudence is concerned with the way in which the rituals and laws of religion are derived from the Qur’an and the Sunna – the precedent of the Prophet. Revelation, which is given to man to restore unity and help him achieve a just and devout order in society as well as in the soul, must be interpreted so as to render it practicable in every culture, while not betraying its spirit and immutable provisions. To achieve this, additional sources of legal authority are recognized, including consensus (ijma), analogical deduction (qiyas), public interest (maslaha) and local customary precedent (urf). In employing these, the jurist guards the five principles which it is the purpose of Islamic law to uphold, namely, the right to life, sound mind, property, lineage and religion.

Remembrance and Prayer: The Way of Prophet Muhammad, was one of the first works of Shaykh al Ghazali’s to be translated into English. The book describes in vivid prose how the Prophet, upon him be peace, used to remember Allah and pray to Him. Not only are the exquisitely beautiful, deeply moving and penetrating words of the Prophet given in the English translation, but in the original Arabic as well, thus allowing those desirous of memorizing Arabic access to the original texts. The intimate relationship with Allah, which was the hallmark of the Prophet’s life, becomes clear and vivid. The book’s contents are immensely relevant. to the life and concerns of modern man, whose life has been made barren by the present secularist machinery.