Tahir ibn Ashur

Muhammad at-Tahir ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad at-Tahir ibn Ashur (1296-1393 AH / 1879-1973 CE) was a Tunisian Maliki scholar, Grand Mufti and later Shaykh al-Islam of Tunisia, and one of the most important Islamic thinkers of the 20th century. Born into the illustrious Ibn Ashur scholarly family, he studied at the Zaytuna Mosque-University in Tunis and became one of its most eminent products.

Ibn Ashur rose to become the rector of Zaytuna University and later Tunisia's Grand Mufti. He taught generations of Tunisian scholars and was known for both his traditional grounding in Maliki jurisprudence and his reformist vision for Islamic thought and education.

His most important intellectual contribution is his work Maqasid ash-Shari'ah al-Islamiyyah (The Higher Objectives of Islamic Law), which became the most comprehensive modern treatment of the theory of the objectives of Islamic law (maqasid) — the idea that Islamic law has overarching purposes (the preservation of religion, life, reason, lineage, and wealth) that should guide legal reasoning. This work established him as the foremost 20th-century scholar of maqasid theory and made a major contribution to the development of Islamic legal philosophy.

He also authored Tafsir at-Tahrir wat-Tanwir (Liberation and Enlightenment), a comprehensive modern Quran commentary in thirty volumes; Usul an-Nizam al-Ijtima'i fil-Islam on social organization; and numerous other works. He passed away in Tunis in 1973. His Maqasid ash-Shari'ah and his Tafsir are his most enduring intellectual legacies.