This course presents the students with an introduction to the religion of Islam, its normative creed, practice, and ideals. We intend to examine the normative scholastic tradition, largely Sunni, but also some Shiah views when relevant. This course will cover some descriptive approaches when useful. We will examine the original Islam of the prophetic period, the Quran as revelation, the oral tradition known as Sunnah, and the we will look at the development of a tradition that emerges from the original sources: Quran, Sunnah, and the practice of the companions of the Prophet. This includes the three creeds that emerge as normative: the Ash’ari, Maturidi, and Athari respectively and the juristic schools of shariah as well as the spiritual schools that emerged out of the creedal and juristic approaches to the faith. The course will follow the book “The Vision of Islam,” which uses faith (iman), practice (islam), and spiritual realization (ihsan) , derived from the famous Hadith Gabriel, as a wholistic approach to the major concerns of the religion. We will cover the five pillars of Islam, the six articles of faith, and the doctrine of gnosis (ma’rifah or ‘irfan) as understood within the dominant schools of Islam: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali, and Ja’fari.
This course is designed to provide students a wholistic understanding of the Islamic faith through understanding the three dimensions of the religion: truth (iman) , goodness (islam), and beauty (ihsan).
Core concepts include:
Students are expected to follow and keep up with the reading assignments. Required postings must be submitted by the deadline time/date. All postings should be around 250 words, well-organized, and follow the standard rules of grammar as defined by the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). This is a pass/fail course. All students must attend the on-campus weekend portion, April 26-27, to receive a grade .
Date | Day | Details | |
Apr 02, 2019 | Tue | Hadith of Gabriel, Islam, the Five Pillars, and Concept of Judgments in Sacred Law | due by 05:59AM |
Apr 09, 2019 | Tue | Tawhid, God and His Attributes, and the Angels | due by 05:59AM |
Apr 16, 2019 | Tue | Divine Decree, Prophecy and the Message; Rational Proofs | due by 05:59AM |
Apr 23, 2019 | Tue | Islam and World Religions; Life and Death | due by 05:59AM |
Apr 26, 2019 | Fri | On Campus Session 1 | due by 07:00PM |
Apr 27, 2019 | Sat | On Campus Session 2 | due by 02:00PM |
May 07, 2019 | Tue | Reflections from On Campus Sessions | due by 05:59AM |
May 14, 2019 | Tue | Intellectual Schools of Thought; Ihsan | due by 05:59AM |
May 21, 2019 | Tue | Islam and History | due by 05:59AM |
May 28, 2019 | Tue | Islam and the Modern World | due by 05:59AM |