With the end of the early Islamic period, Muslim scholars came to sense that a rift had begun to emerge between the teachings and principles of Islam and Muslims' daily reality and practices. The most important means by which scholars sought to restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Quran was to study the objectives of Islam, the causes behind Islamic legal rulings and the intentions and goals underlying the Shariah, or Islamic Law. They made it clear that every legal rulings in Islam has a function which it performs, an aim which it realizes, a cause, be it explicit or implicit, and an intention which it seeks to fulfill, and all of this in order to realize benefit to human beings or to ward off harm or corruption. They showed how these intentions, and higher objectives might at times be contained explicitly in the texts of the Quran and the Sunnah, while at other times, scholars might bring them to light by means of independent reasoning based on their understanding of the Quran and the Sunnah within a framework of time and space.

This book represents a pioneering contribution presenting a comprehensive theory of the objectives of Islamic Law in its various aspects, as well as a painstaking study of objectives-based thought as pioneered by the father of objectives-based jurisprudence, Imam  Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi; in addition, the author presents us with an important study of al-Shatibi himself which offers a wealth of new, beneficial information about the life, thought and method of this venerable imam.

This volume is an excellent study of the ideas of al-Shatibi presented in an accessible language to help specialists and inform the ordinary interested reader. The author is a notable scholar and the work is a valuable addition to the literature on Islamic Law in the English language. - Professor Zaki Badawi, Dean, The Muslim College.

Al-Raysuni sheds light on al-Shatibi's inductive method, demonstrating both its value and importance. Sound approaches to understanding the Quran and Sunnah are promoted in particular by the author's discussion of the issue of ta'lil, that is, the practice of identifying the causes underlying Islamic Law and its rulings. - From the Introduction. Dr. Taha Jabir al-Alwani, President, GSISS (USA).