The Muslim ummah stands today at a critical juncture as a result of its
unique position and responsibility. Geographically, economically, and
culturally, the Muslim world occupies the middle ground—a fact that
has led it to bear innumerable challenges and diffculties throughout
its history and into the present day. Despite this, it has always stood
resolute, proud of its distinctive culture and civilization. But today, the
Muslim nation is experiencing a civilizational and intellectual crisis of
a sort that makes it appear at odds with both history and the present
age. Over the past two centuries, it has come to been seen as incapable
of harmonizing between the universal demands of the age and the universality
of revelation and faith. The ummah stands in dire need to
refamiliarize itself with the essential meanings of its Shari‘ah, in order
to live at ease in the present age: capable of engaging with the requirements
of the times as well as with the timeless truths of revelation. For
the Lawgiver, in His simple and heartening address to His creation,
has apprised them that the fnal Shari‘ah seeks not to affict them with
suffering: hardships are meant to be alleviated; the moral responsibility
to observe particulars of the Law is lifted in the face of compelling
necessities; and anyone who does not enjoy true freedom of will bears
no such moral responsible ipso facto. But the question remains: how
are we to measure what accounts for as hardship? How do we evaluate
what constitutes necessity? And how do we do so with the honest
intention of arriving at God’s will as regards contemporary matters,
without abandoning, out of mere caprice, our own moral vision? The
value of the present paper lies in its providing answers to such questions,
and in its rooting these responses in the authentic jurisprudential
tradition and legal philosophy of Islam.