The Maqasid-based Exegesis (Al-Tafsir al-Maqasidi)

The CICW is announcing an agreement and a collaboration with a world-renown scholar of Maqasid, Dr. Jasser Auda. Dr. Auda is working on a multi-year project, to produce a multi-volume commentary on the Quran titled: Maqasid-based Exegesis (Al-Tafsir Al-Maqasidi). The project introduces a novel approach to the Quran based on Dr. Auda's several decades of research in Maqasid, i.e., the higher objectives of Islam. He recently published a treatise on the same approach to the exegesis under the title: Re-envisioning Islamic Scholarship: Maqasid Methodology as a New Approach (Maqasid Institute, USA, and Claritas, UK, 2021). The highlight of this methodology is to centralize the Quran as a formative source of knowledge and analyze it via a logic of purposeful connectivity in order to build 'composite frameworks'. The higher objectives of centralizing purposes, correcting concepts, classifying groups, aligning with universal laws, following values, establishing proofs and applying commands are the basis of understanding the Quranic text and applying its formative theories and principles. Thus, the commentary aims at establishing a basis for the expansion and re-structuring of Islamic scholarship in all fields of knowledge, without differentiating 'Islamic' from 'secular' fields.

 "We are most pleased that Dr Auda has made a 10 years long commitment dedicating himself to this unique and very much needed project first of its kind and will benefit the humanity for many many years to come."
                                                                                               Dr. Yaqub Mirza, CICW Trustee and President

The commentary also moves from a disciplinary or multi-disciplinary approach to Islamic scholarship towards a phenomena-based trans-disciplinary approach as a strategy of applying the Quran to today's realities. Another major objective is to re-classify the narrations of the Prophetic Hadith based on the Quranic text and themes, and thus to critique the Hadith narrations/interpretations based on the Quranic firmly constructed signs. We are honored that Dr. Auda had chosen the CICW as a partner in this exciting and ground-breaking intellectual project. The CICW is looking forward to working with Dr. Auda in creating new research and teaching programs based on the material developed, in collaboration with the Maqasid Institute.

Dr. Jasser Auda's presentation on the Qur'an and Maqasid

About Dr. Jasser Auda
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Dr. Jasser Auda is a scholar of Islam who is currently undertaking the production of an 8-volume objective/maqasid-based commentary of the Quran. He is a member of several fatwa councils, university boards, and scholarly bodies worldwide. Dr. Auda has a rich multi-disciplinary academic background, in addition to early formal studies of the Quran, Hadith, and classic Islamic sciences. He previously worked as a professor in a dozen countries and lectured on Islam in many others. He authored 25 books in Arabic and English, some of which have been translated into 30 languages. ​