
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Professor Dato' Dr. Mohammad Hashim Kamali is founding CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) Malaysia.
Maqasid (Higher Objectives) of Shariah
Islamic approach towards caning
IT is due largely to the al-Quran's emphasis on learning (ilm) that Muslim scholars explored child education and discipline at an early stage and made significant contributions to the subject. A great deal of stress is also placed on amal saalih (virtuous conduct), which is seen as a concomitant aspect of Islam's outlook on education.......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)
Islamic Banking and Finance
Afghan peace talks hit brick wall
IN recent months, Kabul, Washington and the Taliban have made overtures to work out a negotiated settlement for Afghanistan and plan the impending exit of foreign troops from the country. Yet those gestures have not been followed through and the prospects are not getting any better -- as the spate of recent violent episodes and perverse behaviour of some American soldiers over the war dead have shown......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)
Maqasid made simple
Transgenders and justice in Islam
THE untimely death of Ashraf Hafiz Abdul Aziz at 26 and the difficulties he faced put many in a reflective mood as to what could have been done better to address his suffering when he was alive. By refusing to grant Ashraf his plea to change and register his name as Aleesha Farhana, the courts may have adhered to the letter of the law but it is questionable whether they were compassionate enough. If one were to learn a lesson, it would be to find better answers through suitable legislation and grant of flexibility in the adjudication of intensely humanitarian cases such as Ashraf's.......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)
Is Peace Normative in Islam?
The absence of Islam in Arab Spring
The Arab uprising is still unfolding and uncertainties exist that may yet be clarified in the course of time. But one question that arises is over the relative absence of Islam in what has been seen so far.
Islam has been closely aligned with most of the reform movements in the Arab world during the independence and post-independence periods. Two other themes that have also featured, with varying degrees of consistency, are Arab nationalism (qawmiyyah Arabiyyah) and, for a brief period in the era of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, socialism........ Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)
Qawa‘id Al-Fiqh: The Legal Maxims of Islamic Law
This essay provides a brief introduction to legal maxims, an evidently important chapter of the juristic literature of Islam, that is particularly useful in depicting a general picture of the nature, goals and objectives of the Shari‘ah. Yet, for reasons that will presently be explained, legal maxims represent a latent development in the history of Islamic legal thought. A brief explanation of the background history of legal maxims will be followed by a discussion of developments in three other related areas ....... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)
Not easy to use laws against black magic

A SYARIAH High Court judge suggested at a seminar in Kuantan early last month that Malaysia should criminalise black magic and introduce a law to that effect, adding that the practice of black magic was becoming rampant, especially among the Malay community. This was not the first time such a proposal was made as a similar suggestion was advanced by the mufti of Selangor last December........ Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)