Sacred texts as “works in movement”

Sacred texts as “works in movement”

The Quran and Sunnah to borrow Umberto Eco’s expression, are “works in movement” – they are works that leave themselves open to multiple interpretive strategies. This does not mean that they are open to any interpretation, but that they are capable of supporting a dynamic interpretive movement. If the Shariah is going to have a continued relevance through a variety of contexts and ages, Islamic law must embrace the idea of an active movement in the construction of meaning. In fact, as we discussed earlier, the juristic culture has insisted that the Divine Will is discoverable through a cumulative and evolving search, and that Islamic sources are subject to multiple interpretations. The open text, however, does not only support multiple interpretations, but instigates a process of engagement in which text occupies a central role. The text speaks with a renewed voice to successive generations of readers because its meaning is unfixed and actively evolving. The text remains relevant and central because its openness enables it to continue having a voice. As long as the text is open it can speak, and as long as it speaks it remains relevant and pertinent. Readers will constantly return to it because it can yield new insights and interpretations. If the text is no longer capable of speaking or the text is denied its voice, there is no reason for engaging the text, after all, the text is frozen in the state that it had at the last time it was engaged. Hence, the text is closed when it is frozen upon the meaning it possessed when it was last engaged. The closing of the text takes place when the reader insists that the text has a determined, stable, constant and unchangeable meaning. A source becomes a closed text when a reader is able to shut down the interpretive process, and is able to merge the text with a particular determination. So for instance, if the meaning of a particular hadith becomes forever settled, the text is effectively declared closed. (pg 146)

(Excerpted from Speaking in God’s Name by Professor Khaled Fadl)