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Imam Abū Isḥāq Ash-Shāṭibī

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Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā al-Lakhmī ash-Shāṭibī al-Gharnāṭī was one of the great scholars of Muslim Andalusia. A Mālikite jurist, specialist in the foundations of Islamic law and scholar of the Arabic language, he is best known for his major work Al-Muwāfaqāt, which has become a reference in the study of maqāṣid ash-sharīʿa, the purposes of Islamic legislation. He died in Granada in 790 AH / 1388. His origins and training Ash-Shāṭibī was born around 720 AH / 1320 in Granada, in Muslim Andalusia. His family was from Shāṭiba (Xàtiva), a town located in what is now the Valencia region. It is from this family origin that he received the name Ash-Shāṭibī. By this time, Granada had become one of the major intellectual centers of the Western Muslim world. Under the Nasrids, the city welcomed many scholars from Andalusia and the Maghreb. Ash-Shāṭibī therefore received a particularly broad training there. In particular, he began learning the Quran from Ibn az-Zayyāt al-Kalāʿī, then studied the Arabic language with the famous scholar Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Fakhkhār al-Ilbīrī. He also studied the seven Koranic readings with the latter. He then continued his training with Abū Saʿīd Faraj ibn Qāsim Ibn Lubb, then considered one of the great muftis of his time. It was from him that he acquired a large part of his training in fiqh. But his learning was not limited to Muslim law. He also studied ḥadīth, tafsīr, the foundations of fiqh, theology, logic, philosophy, Sufism, Arabic language and literature. This diversity would profoundly influence his way of thinking about Islamic sciences. A scholar who sought the principles behind the rules Ash-Shāṭibī was not content with accumulating legal opinions. His intellectual journey gradually led him to reflect on the way in which the different rules of the Sharīʿa are organized around general principles. In his study of the Quran and the Sunnah, he particularly attached great importance to a method which he based on the observation of numerous texts and rules in order to identify general principles. In other words, he sought to understand not only what the rule was, but also how the different rules related to each other and what general purposes of the Sharīʿa they manifested. This reflection would become one of the most characteristic aspects of his work. His thoughts on maqāṣid It was mainly through his work Al-Muwāfaqāt that Ash-Shāṭibī became famous. The term maqāṣid designates the purposes, objectives and general wisdom sought by Islamic legislation. Ash-Shāṭibī devoted a considerable part of his work to showing that the rules of the Sharīʿa are not a disorderly collection of isolated prescriptions. They are part of a coherent set of principles. His approach to maqāṣid is closely linked to uṣūl al-fiqh, that is to say the foundations and methods for understanding legal rules. He therefore did not seek to replace the texts with a simple personal search for what would seem beneficial. On the contrary, its objective was to understand the general purposes from all the sources and principles of the Sharīʿa. Al-Muwāfaqāt His most famous work is Al-Muwāfaqāt fī Uṣūl ash-Sharīʿa. This book occupies a special place in the literature of the foundations of fiqh. Ash-Shāṭibī examines the major themes of uṣūl al-fiqh, addressing them in particular through the question of maqāṣid. The work thus distinguishes itself from many classic works of uṣūl by its way of seeking a more global and coherent vision of the Sharīʿa. One of the important aspects of his method consists of using numerous texts and particular rules to identify general principles. This approach then allowed him to understand the different prescriptions within a larger whole. His work thus shows the importance, for the jurist, of not isolating a text or a rule from all of the legislation. Al-Iʿtiṣām Ash-Shāṭibī is also the author of Al-Iʿtiṣām, a work devoted to the question of religious innovations (bidʿa) and attachment to the Sunnah. In this work, he develops a reflection on how to distinguish what truly belongs to religion from what is added to it without foundation. The book demonstrates his attachment to the sources of Islam and the need to understand religious practices based on the principles established by the Quran and the Sunnah. A scholar who aroused opposition Ash-Shāṭibī was not simply a respected teacher who transmitted already established opinions. His research and some of his positions led him to question certain religious practices prevalent in his environment. He criticized in particular what he considered to be religious innovations. His attitude earned him opposition and accusations from certain circles of his time. He was notably accused of deviating from the traditional path and of supporting positions considered problematic by some of his contemporaries. These controversies also show an important dimension of his career: scientific research can sometimes lead a scholar to defend a position that does not…