Objectives of Shari’ah (Maqasid Al-Shari’ah): The Theory of Maqasid-Cum-Masalih and Their Application in Islamic Banking Products and Services

This paper is concerned with the role of ethics, morality, maqasid al-syariah and altruism in economic life. It is not concerned with welfare economics or related normative issues, but with the way in which ethics, morality and altruism influence the actual behavior of economic agents. The terms Ethics, Morality, Maqasid Al-Syariah, and Altruism have somewhat different connotations. Ethics refers to a set of moral principles or the science of morals in human conduct, or a rule–governed behavior. Meanwhile morality may have a more sentimental dimension – it may refer to the degree of conformity to moral principles or moral conduct in which the main characters are personified human qualities. Amongst the various motivations underlying moral behavior towards beings, human or otherwise, the following deserve explicit mention: sympathy, benevolence, fairness, duty and commitment. All those terms are discussed and compared from conventional and Islamic perspectives. In Islamic economics on t