Advanced Islamic Theology (‘Aqidah) and Philosophy Program

“The theology course isn’t only recommended but in my honest opinion mandatory for every graduate of any Darul Uloom institute. Especially in contemporary times where so many Muslims are confused and challenged with regards to the orthodox Sunni approach to theology.

The teachers for both the theology and faith foundation classes will always try to ensure students understand everything properly and will never shy away from taking questions.”

Asad Ahmed

A comprehensive course on Islamic theological beliefs and creed (‘aqida) and the Western intellectual tradition – philosophy, theology and history. This course is to provide a better understanding of the world we live in, the beliefs and ideologies held by people, and the method of dealing with modern ideological challenges such as atheism and liberalism.

This is the ideal course for imams, teachers and any Islamic scholar or leader wanting to understand the modern-day ideological challenges.

The Advanced Islamic Theology (‘Aqidah) and Philosophy Program will consist of two parts which can be taken separately or all together:

Part 1: Classical Islamic Creed

The Classical Islamic Creed and Theology module will introduce the students to the Islamic theological tradition through a detailed study of two major primary theological texts namely a commentary of al-‘Aqida al–Tahawiyya by Imam Abu Ja’far al-Tahawi al-Hanafi (d. 321 AH) and Sharh al-Kharida al-Bahiyya of Imam Ahmad al-Dardir al-Maliki (1204 AH).

The study of both these celebrated classical Maturidi and Ash’ari texts will cover some of the following issues:

• What Muslims must believe about Allah, the Prophets, and all that is transmitted
• The underlying methodology of mainstream Islamic beliefs
• The centrality of Allah’s transcendence
• The key arguments and doctrines related to the proofs for the existence of God
• The essence and attributes of God
• The subject of prophetology, inimitable nature of the Qur’an, angelology, eschatology, political theology, free-will and predestination.
• A chronological overview of the emergence, development and the key doctrines of the different major sects within Muslim thought.
• A brief overview of traditional Islamic spirituality (tasawwuf)

Sufficient Arabic comprehension skills required for this part

Part Two: Mastercourse on Islam, Philosophy, Science and Religion

This part of the program will introduce the students to the essential ideas, thinkers terminologies, texts, methodologies and debates within the Western intellectual tradition – philosophy, theology, history, polity. A comparative approach between Western and Islamic intellectual traditions will be elaborated where possible.

A brief overview of the syllabus:

Exploring the major philosophical trends, thinkers and texts.

• A chronological overview from the early Greeks, Neo-platonic Arabs, Scholasticism, Rationalists, Empiricists, Kantian thought, post-Kantian trends such as the continental and analytical schools.

Exploring the main sub-disciplines of western philosophy such as epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, ethics, philosophy of science.

• The focus will be through the key ideas within theism-atheism debate on theological problems, for instance, the arguments for the existence of God, divine attribute paradoxes, the problem of evil, divine hiddenness, morality, science vs religion, religious truth and epistemology.

Exploring contemporary case studies.

• To analyse and apply the content taught to current and unprecedented questions as well as provide cogent answers to controversial questions posed regarding the Islamic intellectual tradition.
• Case studies on questions related to tradition, modernity, postmodernity, relativism, feminism, gender fluidity, science (evolution, AI), ethics (sexual and biomedical), psychology, societal norms and political science.

No Arabic language requirements for this part

Click here for complete details of this part

This program taken along with the Advanced Islamic Jurisprudence Program is intended to create confidence in religious leadership, imamat, teaching and generally dealing with the wider intellectual, sociological and religious issues. A discount will be applied for taking the Advanced Theology and Jurisprudence Programs together.

*Every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained within this course is correct at the time of publication. Courses are subject to on-going development which could necessitate cancellation of, or alteration to, the advertised courses.