A significant theory of moral foundation of social well-being premised on the Shari'ah can be found in Imam Shatibi, who like Ibn Khaldun living in Tunis, lived in Cordoba (Spain). Imam Shatibi's contributions to the concept of Maslaha al Istihsan (theory of the public purpose) emanated from his interpretation of and led to extensions in the knowledge of Shari'ah. This section is taken from M.A. Choudhury's, Unicity Precept and the Socio-Scientific Order (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1993)

In Imam Shatibi's works (Al-Muwafaqat fil Usul al-Shari'ah) the concept of Istihsan is that of juristic preference; the concept of Maslaha is that of the benefit function as studied by the learneds in Shari'ah. We can then interpret the concept of al-Maslaha al- Istihsan as the use of Shari'ah rules to derive social well-being. Istihsan as a public preference based on inductive phenomenon was the method first of Malik. Indeed Imam Malik's collection of Ahadith, called Al-Muwatta, utilized the inductive method to establish the authenticity of the ahadith, and Malik emphasized those ahadith that were commonly in vogue in Madina during his time. The reliability of Istihsan as an inductive source of knowledge emanating from observed sources was debated by Shafei in the formation of Ahkam in Shari'ah. Shafei opposed Istihsan as a valid method for deriving Ahkam in Shari'ah on grounds that such a method according to him could lead to unbounded liberty of individualistic opinion (Ra'y) in law making. Abu Hanifa permitted Istihsan as a valid Ijtehadi process for deriving knowledge about and from Shari'ah.

Shatibi defined the concept of Maslaha as follows: Maslaha meant all that which concerned the subsistence of human life, the completion of man's livelihood, and the acquisition of what his emotional and intellectual qualities require of him, in an absolute sense. Such a broad definition of the benefit function is crucial in the formation and evaluation of the effect of a social contract on the well-being of mankind. It is also necessary to understand from the evaluation of such a benefit function the problems, potential and further reinforcement or improvement of the human comprehension of Divine Law.

Shatibi based his concept of Maslaha on three interactive forms of human needs and wants. These socially recommended goods under Shari'ah were seen to result from their demand by the individuals and the state obligation for the public provision of the goods. The three categories of goods considered were, necessaries, comforts and luxuries, taken in this order of importance. The benefit (Maslaha) is measured from the consumption and production of such goods in socially prescribed ways. The interactions in the output of the above three categories of goods is seen through the allocative and the consequential distributive processes that emanate from a given state of their allocation in society.

The form of allocation of such goods is a matter for decision- making. In the light of the Shuratic Process (developed in other chapters of this lecture series), it must be taken up by the market system and polity. The underlying concept of Maslaha thus involves comprehension and application of Shari'ah on the important matter of evolving the Shari'ah through the corresponding Shuratic Process. Shari'ah is thus seen not to be a static bundle of laws. Imam Shatibi writes that the consequential development of the knowledge of Shari'ah that so emanates, followed by the ethical transformation and well-being of society at large, manifests attainment of the supreme felicity of Hereafter (Akhira) and the temporal felicity of this world. This is how Imam Shatibi linked the mundane with the sublime in the framework of the Divine Law and the capacity for their increasing understanding by mankind. In all of these Imam Shatibi emulated the legacy of Imam Ghazzali, except that he extended the world-Akhira relationship to society at large and did not limit it to the individual self-actualization process towards Imam Ghazzali's Fana'.

Imam Shatibi's theory of Maslaha is seen to be substantive for the theory of Islamic social contract under the Principle of Ethical Endogeneity (see another chapter in this series). The interactive, integrative and evolutionary approach provided by the Principle of Ethical Endogeneity for the understanding and application of Shari'ah, followed by the linkage of a sense perception with the attainment of felicity in this world and the Hereafter, establishes the epistemic-ontic continuity in the comprehension of Tawhid as Oneness of Allah as a functional reality. The rational investigative spirit of polity-ecology relational process is promoted while the foundation of revelation acting upon human rationality is upheld in the theory of Maslaha. Contrarily, in the absence of the theory of Maslaha supporting the progression of Shari'ah knowledge, neither is the revelation- rationality complementarity exercised in substantively understanding the Qur'an and Sunnah nor is the applicative power of such understanding unveiled to society. While the Ijtehadi process is at once also impeded with the rejection of Istihsan and Al- Maslaha al-Mursalaha (Imam Shatibi's terminology for the objective of Shari'ah as promoting social utility while preventing evil), the profound socio-scientific light of Shari'ah is also not realized. These arguments point to the fact that no Islamic social contract can be formed in the absence of integrating Istihsan and Maslaha with the growing comprehension of the Shari'ah.

To briefly formalize the Imam Shatibi type social well-being function (benefit function) we proceed as follows: Let the variables, (X,P)[t(i,j,k)], agree with the three categories if goods and policies mentioned by Imam Shatibi. t(i,j,k) denotes the Taqwa-parameters, which are like the `technologically' inducing knowledge-variables of the production function that we referred to in the case of Ibn Taimiyyah. X,P are both qualified by the occurrence of t(i,j,k) outside the bracket. i denotes number of interactions, j denotes sequences of issues (systems), k denotes number of agents. t(i,j,k) carry with them the intensity of the individual, group and social consciousness of the relation between world and Hereafter. Thus comes about the Idea of Deen al-Muamalat wa al-Deen al-Akhira: the religion of this world and the Hereafter. Now the social well-being function denoting the Maslaha as the benefit function is given by, W(X,p)[t(i,j,k)]. It is used in the interactive-integrative-evolutionary sense to evaluate the efficacy of the (X,P)-variables as a cause and effect between Istihsan and increasing knowledge of Shari'ah.

Through the variables and t-variable as shown in the W(.) function, the applicative usage of Shari'ah is proven by linkages between the tenets of the Divine Laws and the political economy. Besides, in the formulation of the Maslaha function there remains no scope for utilitarianism, as the method of its formulation is distinctively different from the linear aggregation principle of utilitarian social welfare function, and the concept of happiness is conditioned by the complementary nature of moral-material attribute. In this way, individualism and sheer materialism are avoided in the W-function.

Through the categorization of the three forms of goods, necessaries, comforts and luxuries in the social economy in this decreasing degree of importance, while allowing for interactions among them and thus among the activities of consumption, production and distribution of such goods in society, Imam Shatibi can be seen as thought about the great social relevance of the basic needs approach to socioeconomic development. In this characteristic of his development process, Imam Shatibi came close to Imam Ghazzali and Ibn Taimiyyah. But he differed substantively from Ibn Khaldun, whose empiricist theory defined the positivistic picture of Arab development, but did not lay down the premise for a developmental social contractarianism in the Islamic context. The great minds of Shari'ah methodology can thus be said to be Imam Ghazzali, Imam Shatibi, Ibn Taimiyyah and Shah Waliullah.