The most important means by which scholars sought to restore the intimate contact between Muslims and the Qur’an was to study the objectives of Islam, the causes behind legal rulings and the intentions and goals of the Islamic Law. This book, translated from the original Arabic, represents a pioneering contribution presenting a comprehensive theory of the objectives of Islamic Law in its various aspects, as well as a painstaking study of objectives-based thought as pioneered by the father of objectives-based jurisprudence, Imam al-Shatibi. The author presents us with an important study of al-Shatibi himself, which offers a wealth of new, beneficial information about the life, thought and method of this venerable Imam.