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Understanding the Uṣūl: The Foundation of Islamic Sciences |
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Introduction |
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Many of us are exposed to the Islamic sciences[1] through brief intensives, conferences, short online videos, weekend schools, and other similar venues. Each of these modes of learning has an important role to play in our education. However, there remains the real and pressing challenge of institutionalizing systematic learning true to the Islamic intellectual tradition and relevant to the modern context. Many Muslims memorize only a few short sūrahs of the Qur’an, seemingly satisfied with a surface-level understanding for the entirety of their adult lives and thus only experience most of the Qur’an vicariously through the commentary of others. Many miss an opportunity to build their own relationship with the text and lack a holistic view of its message. Many also lack a broad appreciation of the Prophet ﷺ or who he really was, relegated to knowing only an assortment of anecdotes without their corresponding context in his life, historical condition, or noble character. Without this foundational knowledge of the Qur’an and Sunnah, one is left vulnerable, particularly as one matriculates through higher levels of secular education without congruent maturity in understanding the Islamic worldview. This Islamic illiteracy results from these disjointed, disparate educational pursuits, often “more edutainment than education, [doing] little to rebuild the original Islamic culture of constant religious study throughout one’s life. This has led to a generation of young Muslims who are highly educated in almost every other field but possess a fifth-grade level of Islamic education.”[2] |
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In this paper, we introduce how the bases of the Islamic sciences—the |
uṣūl |
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serve not only as a source of academic regulation for scholars, but also as a gateway and a map for the everyday Muslim to understand the fabric of Islamic thought. The uṣūl afford the ability to see the world through an Islamic lens and to compare and contrast worldviews. Familiarity with the uṣūl offers a person a grounding to understand the big picture, to |
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About The Author
