Diploma in Islamic Foundations

ʿAqīdah is the name of the discipline which is concerned with the fundamentals of faith in Islam. Knowledge of ʿaqāʾid is necessary to conduct one’s life as a Muslim. The issues addressed in this discipline, such as the oneness of God, the institution of prophethood, and belief in the afterlife, form the core of Islam.

In this course, the goal is to teach the students the fundamental subjects and debates in the discipline of kalām (rational theology) and to guide them in analyzing the effects of these debates on the Islamic intellectual tradition.

This course is an introduction to the scholarly tradition of the Islamic Civilization. It will discuss historical development and key concepts and questions of main Islamic disciplines such as fiqh, kalām, ḥadīth, and tafsīr. The course aims to provide the students with a general intellectual map of the classical scholarly world. Within this framework, the course will also discuss subjects such as the hierarchy of the disciplines, the connections between various sub-fields, and the contemporary value of Islamic disciplines.

This course will build on the ‘Comparative Psychology’ and ‘Comparative History and Philosophy of Science’ courses to consider Islamic conceptualizations of human development and how these relate to the Islamic concepts of tarbiyah, taʿlīm, taʾdīb and tazkiyah. Conceptualisations of education rooted in these terms will be used to engage in critical evaluation of contemporary Muslim educational practice. Illustrative case studies of contemporary Muslim educational institutions, community projects and innovative models will help students appreciate the practical implications of Islamic educational theory.

This course provides a chronological overview and exploration of key themes and core principles in the development of Islam as a civilization over a vast geographical area, including intellectual, cultural, linguistic, socio-political and economic developments. It will begin with the formative period of the Prophet (SAW) in Medina and cover most of Islamic history until the period just before the Ottoman tanẓīmāt reforms.

One important focus will be to see how we can develop a contemporary Islamic worldview that brings together pre-modern and contemporary perspectives in a way that allows us to reach a deeper meaning of what it means to be a “world/universal/open civilization” today. As such, the course will explore the idea of an “Islamic civilization” itself, seeing how it can be rooted in the efforts of pre-modern Muslim intellectual figures but not confined to it.

Exegesis as a discipline aims to explain and interpret Quranic verses. This course seeks to read exegetical works with the aim of understanding the Quran correctly. In addition, the course will touch on different subjects regarding Quranic Sciences and the history of exegesis. Students will also explore important perspectives for understanding the Quran from the disciplines of rhetoric, law, creed, and, language.

The course examines the status of the narrator and the narrative and arrives at a qualitative judgment regarding their admissibility. The ability to distinguish between authentic and weak ḥadīth, as well as a sound understanding of ḥadīth based on strong foundations, can only be gained by studying this discipline. In addition, ḥadīth classification, terminology, chains of transmission, types of chains of transmission, and other aspects of ḥadīth sciences will be explored.

This course aims to establish a healthy relationship between prophetic traditions and the student. One of the significant objectives of the course will be achieved if the student gains the ability to critically evaluate the meaning and content of the criticisms directed at the discipline of uṣūl al-ḥadīth, which is one of the most frequently attacked Islamic disciplines in modern times. In this way, instead of adopting a position of wholesale denial or unthinking acceptance, they will develop a more scholarly and sound approach. It also aims to develop a loving relationship with the person of the Prophet (SAW).

Fiqh as a field is concerned with the practical aspects of religion. As emphasized by Ibn Khaldūn, who remarked that “fiqh is the carrier of civilization,” fiqh is a discipline that anybody who is interested in the Islamic civilization needs to know. At the same time, everybody who wishes to live their lives by Islam needs to learn the science of fiqh.

The objective of these course is to introduce students to classical fiqh texts, to improve their ability to read, understand, and interpret these texts, and to help them systematically approach fiqh issues. The course will be supplemented by contemporary texts on occasion. The courses aim to give the students the ability to understand fiqh problems that emerge on the individual and collective levels, to interpret them correctly, and to produce solutions using an appropriate methodology.

The first course addresses fiqh related to worship while the second course focuses on marriage, family building, and transactions. The subtitle ‘form and spirit’ highlights the Ghazalian approach of teaching the rulings (aḥkām) and the wisdom behind the rulings (ḥikmah).

*The courses are offered for the Ḥanafī school only.

This course covers several important masterpieces of Islamic spirituality (tazkiyah) including chapters from Imām al-Ghazālī’s The Revival of the Religious Sciences (Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn) such as: Marvels of the Heart (Kitāb ʿAjāʾib al-Qalb) and On Discipling the Soul (Kitāb Riyāḍat al-Nafs). Though the course is text-focused, it is nonetheless experiential requiring the student to engage deeply with one’s own interior life through self-observation (murāqabah) and self-accounting (muḥāsabah).

The discipline of uṣūl al-fiqh examines the sources of fiqh (law) and the method of deriving rulings from these sources. Even though this definition mentions the sources of law, the actual function of uṣūl al-fiqh is to equip a Muslim with a sound perspective on events, i.e. to teach how to think like a Muslim.

In this course, the student will be expected to comparatively analyze the opinions of Ḥanafī scholars with reference to a classical uṣūl al-fiqh text, to discuss issues from a perspective that is aware of the historical, social, and theological background on which uṣūl al-fiqh debates are based, and to form an authentic and correct understanding and perception of uṣūl al-fiqh.

Sīrah is a discipline that systematically studies the early period of Islam and the phases in the emergence and application of religious knowledge and practice by focusing on the life and excellent example of the Prophet ﷺ. Spiritual values like compassion, self-sacrifice, dedication, and generosity can only be intimately known through the guidance of the Prophet ﷺ. A close knowledge of his life is also crucial to have a grasp of issues like the relationship between revelation, Sunnah, and exegesis, the nature of religious rulings, and the wisdom behind these rulings. In this course, the life and character of the Prophet ﷺ will be studied to understand the birth of the religion and ethical values embodied by the Prophet ﷺ.

This course, following the well-accepted and well-commentated selection of ḥadīth compiled by Imām al-Nawawī, will build on the Sīrah course of the first term to provide students with a guiding compass. These 40 easily memorizable ḥadīth and their clear explanations will serve as anchors to ground students in the Prophetic paradigm.

This course builds on the first two suhba courses and the Islamic Spirituality course by taking students on a journey through several texts, contemplative exercises, and reflections on the theme of futuwwah. This suhba course is a culmination of sorts wherein all the knowledge the students have learned thus far is integrated. The journey weaves together law, ḥadīth, tafsīr, creed, ethics, and spirituality in the forging of the ideal Muslim who embodies nobility of character (makārim al-akhlāq).