Jamāl al-Bannā writes that any theory regulating society must consist of two elements: preservation of unchangeable principles and basics is one. The other is movement, which he decribes as essential to preventing preservation from becoming stagnation.

Al-Bannā cites Shaykh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī's approach to the matter and compares it to his own:

"The difference between our definition and that presented by al-Qaradāwī' is that we made dogma the symbol of preservation and sharī‘ah the symbol of movement, while his definition stems from the system of Islamic knowledge left by the forbears. While he presents it in a manner with a certain amount of modernity it is still rooted in the bases they laid down.

"Our definition is more genuine, general, and comprehensive. While it emanates from a Muslim origin, we still treat the matter with the light of reason and assist ourselves in understanding it by resorting to the diverse aspects of human thought so that it is not restricted or dominated by Salafī thought."

It is not the letters of a text that count, al-Bannā says, "but the understanding of a text."