TY - JOUR AU - Opwis, Felicitas PY - 2021/12/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The Ethical Turn in Legal Analogy: Imbuing the Ratio Legis with Maṣlaḥa JF - Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies JA - JAIS VL - 21 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - 10.5617/jais.9374 UR - https://journals.uio.no/JAIS/article/view/9374 SP - 159-182 AB - <p>Al-Ghazālī’s articulation that the purposes of the divine Law (<em>maqāṣid al-sharīʿa</em>) are to attain <em>maṣlaḥa</em> for the five necessary elements of human existence was not only novel but had long-lasting influence on the way Muslim jurists understood the procedure of analogy (<em>qiyās</em>). The correctness of the <em>ratio legis</em> was determinable by its consequences in bringing about <em>maṣlaḥa</em>. This shift was possible only by intellectual shifts in understanding the relationship between ethics and law. This paper traces the development in conceptions of ethics and its impact on the procedure of analogy in three 5<sup>th</sup>/11<sup>th</sup> century predecessors of al-Ghazālī, namely al-Baṣrī, al-Dabbūsī, and al-Juwaynī. It shows that al-Ghazālī’s definition of the purposes of the Law was developed based on previous conceptual shifts in the <em>ratio legis</em> from being a sign for the ruling to reflecting the ethical content of the divine injunction.</p> ER -