"It is He Who has sent amongst the Unlettered a Messenger from among themselves, to rehearse to them His Signs, to purify them, and to instruct them in the Book and the wisdom - although they had been, before, in manifest error." (62:2)

This process of teaching the Qur'an and the Sunnah created what we might call a civilized consciousness, or in other words, the Islamic term Civilized Fiqh. [Note: Among those who spread this term is our beloved poet `Umar Baha' Al-Deen Al-Amiri (May Allah bestow mercy upon him) That is clear in his discourses and books. However, he has not explained its characteristics and that is my own task here] 

By this Fiqh I mean the science that focuses on elevating man from the abyss of superficial and primitive perception to the apex of profound understanding of the universe in general, and life in particular. It revives his stagnant, imitative, enslaved, whimsical, superstitious, biased, pretentious, and presumptuous mind and turns it into an active, free, independent, realistic, empirical, tolerant, and modest one. As a result, it realizes the limits of what he knows and he does not feel ashamed to say: I do not know or does he feel embarrassed to admit his errors.

Imam Malik commented on this issue saying: Fiqh does not mean that acquiring much knowledge, rather it is a gift bestowed by Allah on whom He wills. He further explained: Knowledge is not acquired through learning by heart, for it is a light that Allah implanted into the hearts. [Note: See jami' Bayan Al-'ilm Wal Fadlih by Ibn `Abd Al-Barr, pp.20, 25] Therefore, perception and illumination is much more important than learning by heart.