An Understanding of the Texts and the Context

There is no true faith without understanding; for Muslims, this means understanding both the sources (the Qur’an and the Sunna) and the context in which they live. This has already been much emphasized in the first two chapters. Muslims’ responsibility rests on this twofold understanding: they must develop both an understanding of the texts and an understanding of the context in order to discover how to stay faithful to the injunctions of Islam. This is the fundamental teaching of Islamic legal practice, which has continued since the time of the Prophet and has never ceased to occupy the ulama through the centuries. It follows that Muslim identity is not closed and confined within rigid, inflexible principles. On the contrary, it is based on a constant dialectical and dynamic movement between the sources and the environment whose aim is to find a way of living harmoniously. This is why the development of intellectual abilities is so important in Islam and actually elevates the very foundations of Islamic teachings. A Muslim must not be satisfied with a hypothetical natural state of affairs : to be Muslim entails struggling to increase one’s abilities, seeking tirelessly to know more, to the extent that one might say in the light of the Islamic sources that, when it comes to the cultural dimension, “to be Muslim is to learn.” The Prophet said, “Seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim man and woman.”

More generally speaking, this knowledge is a precondition for understanding not only the Islamic sources themselves, but also the Creator, the Creation, and created beings. According to the Qur’an, which never stops sending human beings back to use their intelligence, knowledge and understanding are means of deepening one’s awareness of God. This is one aspect of understanding. The second is that Muslims, faced with the calling to act in conformity with the teachings of Islam, should use this ability when making choices between what is good and what is bad in order to find the best way to please God, no matter what the environment in which they are living. If it is clear that there can be no choice without freedom, as we have said, we have to add that neither is there choice without knowledge and, even more important, understanding. Choice and ignorance are antithetical. So the elements of Muslim identity that follow on immediately after faith and spirituality are understanding based on knowledge and choice based on freedom. These together make up the dimension of responsibility.
So, Muslim identity, in its second pivotal point, is seen to be open because it rests on an attitude of intellect that marries an understanding of the Texts and an understanding of the context. It is therefore distinguished by an active and dynamic intelligence that needs knowledge, freedom and a sense of responsibility.