Extending the Maqasid Methodology: Mediation through Revelation-Grounded Scholarship

Auda's Maqasid Methodology (MM) proposes a purpose-oriented, revelation-engaged procedure for Islamic research, remedying five limitations of contemporary scholarship through direct Cycles of Reflection on the Quran and Sunnah. The procedure is demanding, and Auda himself admits mediation at the applied level through reputable translation. This article extends the admission: revelation-grounded scholarship can serve as a mediating source to revelation. The extension (MM-E) preserves the MM's purpose-orientation, seven-element Composite Framework, critical engagement, and principles extraction; what it modifies is the path by which the composite framework is populated. To distinguish from taqlid (imitation), MM-E specifies three operations on the mediating work: identification of where each framework element is articulated, verification that cited revelation supports each derivation, and critical engagement with the revelation-grounded scholarship itself. MM-E is demonstrated on al-Qaradawi's Fiqh al-Zakah, producing a 192-element framework, substantive critique of the source, and resulting in the emergence of twenty-two principles for zakat assessment. The methodology generalises to other revelation-grounded works under the same qualifying conditions. The article's contribution is methodological: Fiqh al-Zakah is the demonstration; MM-E is the proposal it carries.