Learning and Culture

As the religious and social experiences of the Muslims deepened through contact with other people, the community was obliged to reflect on itself and confront issues pertaining to God and the world. What should be the ideal conduct of a Muslim in public and private? What is the object of Creation and how does one know what God wants from His creatures? How can one understand the mysteries of the universe?

Answers to such questions came from learned Muslims who acquired and organised knowledge of different kinds to strengthen the social identity of the community as well as to satisfy their intellectual curiosity. For religious scholars ( ulama ), knowledge ( ilm ) derived from the Quran and the model behaviour of the Prophet ( sunna ) was the only way to know the will of God and provide guidance in this world. The ulama in medieval times devoted themselves to writing tafsir and documenting Muhammad’s authentic hadith . Some went on to prepare a body of laws or sharia (the straight path) to govern the relationship of Muslims with God through rituals ( ibadat ) and with the rest of the humanity through social affairs ( muamalat ).

In framing Islamic law, jurists also made use of reasoning ( qiyas ) since not everything was apparent in the Quran or hadith and life had become increasingly complex with urbanisation. Differences in the interpretation of the sources and methods of jurisprudence led to the formation of four schools of law ( mazhab ) in the eight and ninth centuries. These were the Maliki, Hanafi, Shafii and Hanbali schools, each named after a leading jurist ( faqih ), the last being the most conservative. The sharia provided guidance on all possible legal issues within Sunni society, though it was more precise on questions of personal status (marriage, divorce and inheritance) than on commercial matters or penal and constitutional issues.