“The Theory and Uses of Maqāṣid al-Sharīʿa“
The American Journal of Islam and Society would like to invite scholars and historians of Islamic law, legal theory, and practice, scholars of Islamic philosophy and ethics, and specialists in fields (economics, governance, family, etc.) where the notion of maqāṣid has been frequently deployed, to submit original research papers in any of the following areas:
- Critical accounts of current and/or past scholarly conceptualizations of the notion of maqāṣid, including debates between advocates and critics.
- Theory, critical evaluation, or re/constructive critique of maqāṣid in the conventional areas of Islamic fiqh as well as in novel areas such as public policy, political theory, economic theory, and family and gender norms.
- How the maqāṣid discourse has been politicized by various states, elites, and movements for contradicting ends, and whether such politicization shifts the purpose-oriented and teleological basis of this discourse to result-oriented and self-serving, utilitarian reasoning.
- How the maqāṣid discourse has contributed to framing reformist and feminist approaches to concerns about gender and sexual ethics in contemporary Islamic thought and Muslim societies.
(Abstract submission deadline: 19 January 2021)