Fourth Year: Learning areas include Fiqh, Qurʾān , Ḥadīth, ʿAqīdah, History and Tarbiyah
Learning Area 1: Fiqh (Islamic law)
Subject: Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Islamic legal theory)
Focus: A thorough study of Qiyās, Ijmāʿ and other major sources of Islamic Law
Textbook: Al-Wajīz fī Uṣūl al- Tashrīʿ al-Islāmī
Author: Hītū, Muḥammad Ḥasan
Objective:
This well presented text is covered methodically over the third and fourth years.
This text, accompanied by the guidance of a seasoned instructor in the science, gives the
student a well-rounded grasp of Uṣūl al-Fiqh in the Shāfi’ī Madhhab. The primary objective
of teaching this book is to give the student sufficient theoretical knowledge along with a
practical command of the science to better understand the workings of Fiqh.
Learning Area 1: Fiqh (Islamic law)
Subject: Qawāʿid Fiqhiyyah (legal maxims)
Focus: An introduction to legal maxims.
Textbook: Idah al-Qawaid
Author:
Objective:
Content coming soon.
Learning Area 1: Fiqh (Islamic law)
Subject: Furūʿ al-Fiqh (Substantive Islamic law)
Focus: Fiqh al-Usrah – family law comprising of nikāḥ and ṭalāq
Textbook: Mughnī al-Muḥtāj ilā Maʿrifati Maʿānī Alfāẓ al-Minhāj
Author: al-Shirbīnī, Muḥammad al-Khaṭīb (d. H/G)
Objective:
The institute prides itself with being dedicated to keeping alive the legacy of the Shāfi‘ī Madhhab.
This work, taught over four years from three to six, is used to provide a thorough basis for the
study of the madhhab by introducing the students to the development of the school from its inception
to the stage of crystallization. As part of the study, students are schooled with the knowledge of the
biographies of the scholars, their books and the principles of the school (how fatwā is passed).
The objective is to cover as much of the Fiqh content as is required to develop the mind
of the student to be able to think like a Faqīh (scholar of Islamic law). In this way students become
equipped to deal with legal problems using the framework of the Shāfi‘ī Madhhab.
Learning Area 2: Qurʾān
Subject: ʿUlūm al-Qurʿān
Focus: A contemporary study of the classical Qurʾān sciences (volume 2)
Textbook: Manāhil al-ʿIrfān
Author: al-Zurqānī, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Aẓīm (d.1367 H/ 1975 CE)
Objective:
Albeit contemporary, many scholars classify this work as the greatest piece of literature
written in the genre of ‘Ulūm al-Qur’ān. This two volume literary masterpiece, which is
covered over the third and fourth years respectively, provides the students with a thorough
command of the issues and sciences pivoted around the Qur’ān and its related sciences. One of
the unique features of this work, other than its superb philological value, is that the author
presents a list of allegations and objections as raised by Muslim scholars, Orientalists and Western
academics, at the end of each section, thereafter he proceeds to refute all false allegations and
responds to all valid objections.
Learning Area 2: Qurʾān
Subject: Tafsīr (Exegesis)
Focus: Selected passages based on the Prophets’ lives
Textbook: Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm
Author: Ibn Kathīr, Ismāʿīl (d. H/G)
Objective:
This well-known exegetical work deepens the students’ knowledge of the exegesis of the Qur’ān.
A specific study of the stories of the Prophets, from this work, is conducted to introduce the students
to Tafsīr bi al-Riwāyah (exegesis based on narrations) as well as grant them access to the
this level of Tafsīr literature.
Learning Area 3: Ḥadīth
Subject: Narrator criticism in terms of jarḥ (accreditation) and taʿdīl (discreditation)
Focus: Methodology, terminology and critical study of the Rijāl literature
Textbook: Al-Rafʿ wa al-Takmīl fī al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl
Author: al-Laknawī, Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥayy (d. H/G) and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah (d. H/G)
Objective:
This work takes the student into the world of narrator criticism. It discusses the nomenclature used
by the scholars when investigating the status of the Ḥadīth narrators. It also trains the student with
the skills required to judge between the various critical verdicts of the scholars to reach a conclusion
with regards to a particular narrator or chain of narrators.
Learning Area 3: Ḥadīth
Subject: Legal authority of the Sunnah
Focus: A critique of objections against the Ḥujjiyyah (authority) of the Sunnah.
Textbook: Al-Sunnah wa Makānatuhā fī Tashrīʿ al-Islāmī
Author: al-Sibāʿī, Muṣṭafā (d. H/G)
Objective:
Content coming soon.
Learning Area 3: Ḥadīth
Subject: Canonical ḥadīth reading
Focus: In depth study of the legal ḥadīth
Textbook: Sunan al-Tirmidhī
Author: al-Tirmidhī, Abū ʿĪsā, Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā
Objective:
The students’ first introduction into the primary sources of Ḥadīth comes in the form
of a detailed study of one of the six canonical collections of Ḥadīth (ṣiḥāḥ sittah).
The reading of this work is divided over the third and fourth years, covering the second
half (which focuses more on morals and virtues) and then the first half (focusing more on aḥkām [law])
respectively. The reading of this work provides an opportunity for the student to be exposed,
practically, to the concepts which have been covered, theoretically in ‘Ulūm al-Ḥadīth.
Another key aspect to this study is the introduction to the well-known narrators of Ḥadith
and the science of Jarḥ wa Ta‘dīl (Narrator Criticism), at a practical level.
Complimentary to this, students are introduced to the basic Rijāl works (Biographies of Ḥadīth narrators),
especially the Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb by the erudite Ḥadīth scholar, Ibn Ḥajr al-‘Asqalānī.
This format of study lays the foundation for a well-rounded Ḥadīth scholar who would be
capable of independently negotiating both the sanad (chain of transmitters of a ḥadīth)
as well as the matn (the actual content of the ḥadīth).
Learning Area 4: ʿAqīdah
Subject: ʿIlm al-Kalām
Focus: A study of ʿAshʿarī ʿAqīdah
Textbook: Kubrā al-Yaqīniyyāt al-Kawniyyah
Author: al-Būṭī, Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān
Objective:
Students complete the reading of this contemporary, kalāmī (scholastic) based, presentation of
the Ash‘arī, Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā‘ah creed. Though concise, the work is comprehensive enough to
critically cover all the major aspects of the Islāmic creed. The science of Kalām (Scholasticism) was
developed as a defense mechanism to serve the Islamic creed against attacks from foreign philosophies
and creeds, but not as a criterion for the Islāmic creed itself. This is a point which is emphasized
during the study of this work. The level of Arabic employed by the author also serves to improve the
Arabic proficiency of the students at the this level.
Learning Area 4: ʿAqīdah
Subject: ʿAqīdah ‘alā Manhaj al-Muḥaddithīn
Focus: ʿAqīdah based on the methodology of the classical Ḥadīth scholars
Textbook: Al-Iʿtiqād wa al-Hidāyah ilā Sabīl al-Rashād ‘alā Madhhab al-Salaf wa Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth
Author: al-Bayhaqī, Abū Bakr, Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn
Objective:
This classical work has been incorporated to present the naṣṣ (textually) based presentation of the Ash‘arī,
Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā‘ah creed. This work serves to balance out the nature of the students’ understanding
of the Islāmic creed. This is done in order to avoid straying from the true objectives of learning Aqīdah and
becoming too technical.
Learning Area 5: History
Subject: Post-Sīra History
Focus: From the caliphate of Abū Bakr Raḍiya Llahu ʿanhu, until the crusades
Textbook: Al-Mawsūʿah al-Muyassarah fī Al-Tārīkh al-Islāmī
Author: Islamic research team (headed by Qāsim ‘AbduLlah Ibrāhīm and Muḥammad ‘AbduLlah Saliḥ)
Objective:
This compilation aims to introduce the students to a comprehensive, yet concise presentation of Islamic history.
This will equip them with a critical understanding of the events and circumstances which continue to contribute to
the shaping of Muslims’ perspectives of the world and the worlds’ perspectives of Muslims. This becomes especially
important in a climate that has become rife with misinformation and malicious distortion of Islam’s historical development.
Learning Area 6: Tarbiyah
Subject:
Focus:
Textbook:
Author:
Objective:
Content coming soon.
Admission Requirements