The Sunna and its Status in Islamic Law

"How exactly are the various proponents of contemporary Muslim reformist thought employing the concept of Maqasid al Shari'a for the purposes of their reformist agenda? How useful or effective is the concept of Maqasid Al Shari'a, understood as both as a classical legal hermeneutical construct developed by premodern Islamic legal theoreticians, as well as its contemporary re-conceptualizations in meeting the challenges Muslim reformist thought is responding and seeking to find solutions to? This volume is unique in critically examining the employment of maqasid al shari'a in contemporary Muslim reformist thought in relation to number of specific philosophical, legal, ethical, social and political issues"-- "The concept of Sunna, as one of the two normative fountainheads of the Islamic tradition, has fundamental importance in understanding nearly all of the branches of Islamic knowledge including Islamic law and politics. This book equips us with a comprehensive overview of the nature and the scope of the concept of Sunna both in pre-modern and modern Islamic discussions on the topic. In this context the discussion often focuses on the conceptual, epistemological and hermeneutical relationship between the concepts of Sunna and that of concept of a sound (sahih) hadith as understood in various Sunni madhahib as well as in early Islamic history and theology"--