This thesis examines Muhammad 'Abduh's ideas on Islamic Law, and the extent to which his writings influenced subsequent Muslim reformers in the sphere of law. The study focuses on 'Abduh's views on ijtihad and its application in modern society. / The principle of ijtihad, as practised by 'Abduh, was not dependent upon the opinions of previous scholars. A leading reformer of Islamic law (1849-1905), 'Abduh rejected taqlid which in nineteenth century Egypt was the rule of the day. Scholars in his day adhered to the books of their respective madhhabs to the extent of choosing to ignore the main sources of Islamic law, viz. the Qur'an and Hadith. For this reason, 'Abduh did not follow any particular madhhab in his ijtihad, but chose to be guided by whichever school of law he believed was best fit to deal with a particular contemporary problem. This practice has come to be known as talfiq. His use of it was the beginning of legal reform in Islamic law. / To facilitate legal reform, 'Abduh employed the Islamic legal principle of al-maslahah al-mursalah. This principle was an application of ijtihad which he invoked in order to deal with issues such as polygamy and bank interest. 'Abduh's fatwas were based on the sources of Islamic law, i.e. the Qur'an and the Hadith. Although his main concern was to rehabilitate the use of reason in law, he never strayed far from the traditional sources.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26336 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Taizir, Aswita |
| Contributors | Hallaq, Wael B. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001431291, proquestno: MM99938, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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