Maqasid Al-Shariah and Biomedicine

"Like Dr. Padela himself, this text straddles the worlds of Islam and biomedicine, aspiring to deliver a more morally upright healthcare. Merging nuanced analyses with expert ‘insider’ knowledge of the workings of Islamic law and the paradigms and practices of contemporary healthcare, the book is a foundational must-read for Muslim scholars and physicians alike. It takes a measured tone in critiquing the current use of Maqasid frameworks in Islamic bioethics but offers avenues for sophisticated right-ordering of Maqsid tools within a comprehensive Islamic bioethical framework alongside fiqh, and adab. Moving beyond deliberation, Dr. Padela also offers ways in which Maqasid values may inform health policy action and healthcare system design."

"It is great news that the seminal application of Maqsid thought to the field of medicine that Dr. Aasim Padela has been doing over the years is now expressed in a book. The way forward for applied Islamic ‘Ijtihad’ (i.e., original scholarship) is not to create a destructive conflict between scholars of tradition, who are beholden to inherited ‘older’ views of society and may not see their perspectives on present reality as limited, and scholars of specialization, who are trained within a secular worldview and consider that their knowledge is “technical” and/or “ethical” while it is not. Rather, the way forward is for the scholars of Islam:
(1) To have a firm basis in the foundations of Islamic scholarship: the Quran and the Sunnah,
(2) To be aware of the inherited Islamic knowledge related to their field(s) of investigation,
(3) To take a critical – and fair – approach to contemporary non-Islamic knowledge, and finally
(4) To develop a purposedriven, trans-disciplinary, comprehensive and integrative research methodology. I believe Dr. Aasim is doing just that."

Aasim I. Padela has a perhaps unique command over both Islamic thought and biomedicine. In this book he delivers precisely what the Muslim world needs to address contemporary bioethical issues credibly but faithfully, and also what bioethics needs from the Muslim world. It is written in a manner that is accessible to non-Muslims but deeply engaged with the highest standards of Islamic tradition and scholarship. This book is an impressive achievement, and it will prove an incredibly useful resource for years to come.

Dr. Padela’s pioneering work Maqasid al-Shariah Meets Biomedicine, is a much-needed scholarly contribution to the intersection of Islam and biomedicine. Written for Muslim professionals and clergy, policy makers and thinkers, civic leaders and students, this book maps the landscape of how Islamic biomedicine would fundamentally shape contemporary healthcare and outlines the theoretical tools necessary for an Islamic framework for addressing biomedical issues. Interdisciplinary in its scope, it’s also a contribution to the enhancement and development of the theory of maqasid, outlining the ways in which maqasid-based thinking and analysis may better shape decision making for improved public health outcomes to save lives. Practical in its appeal, bold in its pursuits, Dr. Padela’s work gets to the heart and spirit of the real-world implications of Islam and biomedical applications.

In this excellent book, Dr. Aasim Padela not only establishes himself as a leading thinker in Islamic bioethics, but also, and importantly, a voice at the intersection of religion, bioethics, and policy. This volume is essential reading for anyone interested in a learned and insightful examination of that intersection of topics. I hope this volume gets the attention it rightly deserves and also that Dr. Padela’s work opens new paths in bioethics.