Our Methodology
CILE has developed the following methodological approaches to guide its work:
- Reconciling spirituality and science, legislation and ethics, laws and objectives and emphasizing their complimentary relationship so as to revive the role of Islamic ethics in contemporary knowledge and practice.
- A broad and positive view of the Islamic sources of legislation and ethics, recognising the necessity to enrich our understanding of them with the fruits of human thought and values common to all people.
- A practical spirit that transforms the science of Maqasid al-Sharia (higher objectives of Islam) from theory to practice in all spheres of life, contributing to the establishment of an Islamic legislative and ethical framework.
- A trans-disciplinary assessment of contemporary legal and ethical challenges that considers the complexities of reality with the diversity of visions and means to address them.
- A holistic synthesizing approach whereby scholars of the Text from diverse Islamic traditions and scholars of the context from various natural and human sciences engage in an intellectual exercise that infuses the insights from one field to another.
- Critical self-assessment and reasoning that goes beyond short-term crisis management in favour of creative, long-term transformative solutions to world problems. It is only with this approach that the interests of people everywhere can be served, fulfilling the vision of Islam, its higher ethical objectives and its liberating mission.