Arabic (مصلحة) for a juristic device that is usually used to promote public interest/ benefit/ welfare and prevent or repel social evils/harm/ corruption. Jurists understand maslahah as the seeking of benefit and the repelling of evil as directed by Shari’a. Al-Ghazali defines it as: “essentially, the acquisition of benefit and the repulsion of injury or harm, but what we mean by maslahah, however, is the preservation of the ends of Shari’a”. Examples of maslahah are tax collection, agricultural production, facilitating economic transactions, etc. In general, maslahah indicates not only social welfare, but also the measures taken to achieve it.

Al-Shatibi classified maslahah into three categories: the essentials (daruriyyat), the complementary (hajiyyat), and the embellishments (tahsiniyyat).