An Original Theory of Natural Law in the Islamic Practical Philosophy

Natural law includes the most fundamental propositions of practical reason about human volitional acts. To discover the content of natural law needs two stages: recognizing the nature of humanity and distinguishing the goal of human creation. The author in this article suggests an Islamic view of natural law as an original and novel view on this issue. He argues that according to the Islamic philosophy, human soul has three stages: vegetative soul, animal soul, and human (rational) soul. The content of natural law (i.e. reason’s judgment about human actions) can be understood by taking the natural potentialities of each stage into consideration and comparing it with the goal of creation. He concludes that propositions of natural law are self-evident, and are understood through knowledge by presence by the soul of its needs.