Course Descriptions

This course addresses the methodologies for analyzing contemporary religious discourse as a subject of study rather than merely a procedural tool. It covers contemporary religious discourse in its broad sense (pulpit, fatwa, media and digital discourse), and the concepts, arguments and societal effects on which it rests. It introduces students to the most prominent methods of analysis (rhetorical, jurisprudential and usuli, structural, deconstructive and hermeneutic), presenting them as tools of analysis, critique and evaluation rather than as ends in themselves. The course trains students to apply these methods to actual examples of contemporary religious discourse, with the aim of critiquing their arguments, frame of reference and impact, and of distinguishing inclusive, moderate discourse from divisive, extremist discourse according to disciplined scholarly criteria. It also trains students to trace (takhrij) a contemporary case back to its foundational principle (asl) and its evidentiary basis (ma'khadh) while identifying the defects (qawadih) that can undermine such derivation, to verify the ground of rulings in complex cases related to religious discourse, and to formulate balanced ijtihad-based treatments of discourse issues of general impact.

This course addresses questions of citizenship and the nation state from a contemporary ijtihad perspective. Beginning with an examination of historical milestones in the development of systems of government in Muslim societies, it sets out the foundations of the nation state, inclusive citizenship, and national belonging, together with their rights and duties, and their place within Islamic jurisprudence and the objectives of Sharia (maqasid al-shari'ah) in preserving public order and the public interest. This is done in a manner that takes into account the particular experience of the United Arab Emirates in building the nation state and in strengthening citizenship, national identity, coexistence and social cohesion. The course dedicates a section to critiquing misconceptions that affect the integrity of society and the nation state (such as Dar al-Islam, the caliphate, loyalty and disavowal (al-wala' wal-bara'), and divine sovereignty (hakimiyyah)), and to deconstructing their structure and historical arguments. It also analyzes the doubts and fallacies raised about citizenship and the nation state. The researcher is trained to verify the ground of established rulings in light of changes in the form of the state, to examine their consequences, to characterize new developments in citizenship and national belonging, and to formulate balanced ijtihad-based treatments of their issues of general impact, in keeping with the particularity of the Emirati context and the needs of its society.

This course develops the researcher's ability to study contemporary ijtihad and issues in an applied and critical manner, revealing their premises, methods and evidence, and measuring their consistency with societal and legislative particularities (particularly in the United Arab Emirates). It also trains the researcher in the principles of jurisprudential debate and disputation for dismantling opinions, and in applying the rules of verifying the ground of novel cases, leading to the formulation of sound alternatives and Sharia-based treatments for the most prominent issues in the fields of financial transactions, family and social matters, and food industry and halal controls.

This course provides an in-depth study of ta'lil (legal reasoning by effective cause), covering its nature, the distinction between the effective cause ('illah), the cause (sabab) and the wisdom (hikmah), its conditions and methods (masalik), and the derivation and verification of the ground (manat): types of effective causes, reasoning by wisdom, and the defects (qawadih) relating to the effective cause, the source (asl) and the derived case (far'). It also covers the specification (takhsis) of the effective cause, the reasoning of Sharia rulings and the explanation of the wisdom of legislation and the benefits of reasoning rulings, the consideration of circumstances (al-hal) and of consequences (al-ma'al) in the application of the Sharia text, and the combined consideration of circumstances and consequences. Further topics include the principle that a ruling revolves with its effective cause in existence and in absence, the reasoning of rulings in the chapters on analogy (qiyas), ijtihad and juristic preference (istihsan), and public interest (maslahah mursalah), the method of ta'lil that the mujtahid must follow in seeking to derive rulings through these methods, and the objectives of ta'lil.

This course addresses the concept of public fatwa, its characteristics, controls and fields, and the difference between it and individual fatwa, judicial rulings, preaching discourse and personal opinion, taking into account the general audience addressed and the variation in their circumstances. It introduces the researcher to the Sharia, usuli and objective-based foundations that govern the formulation of fatwas concerning public affairs and societal issues, and to the powers of the authorities officially competent to issue them. The course focuses on developing the researcher's ability to represent contemporary societal issues, to verify their grounds while taking into account the variation in the circumstances of those addressed, to draw on specialist expertise, to analyze evidence, and to consider benefits, harms and consequences, while taking into account the change of time, place and circumstances, and distinguishing between established Sharia rulings and ijtihad tied to reality. The course also addresses applications of public fatwa in matters of family, health, economy, media, technology, artificial intelligence, citizenship, coexistence, environment and social responsibility, highlighting the importance of institutional fatwa and of scholarly and legal reference in the United Arab Emirates. The course adopts an applied methodology based on case studies, analysis of fatwas, simulation and collective research, culminating in the researcher preparing a comprehensive public fatwa file on a contemporary societal issue, formulated in a manner that removes ambiguity and reflects moderation. A– Program specialized elective requirements

This course addresses religious discourse as one of the constituent elements of national identity. It examines the role of religious discourse in consolidating identity, belonging, moderation, tolerance and social cohesion, and then analyzes and evaluates the discourses that influence these elements. The course is concerned with the effect of the national context and societal particularity on the subjects, formulation, implementation and impact of religious discourse, starting from familiarizing the researcher with the foundations and components of national identity and the foundations and components of national religious discourse, and drawing on the methods of religious discourse analysis the researcher has acquired in the standalone course, applied specifically to the impact of discourse on national identity. The course culminates in proposing a generalizable scholarly framework for producing sound religious discourse consistent with the national context, rather than merely formulating an ijtihad-based view on a single specific matter. Within this, the course also analyzes and critiques examples of discourses that oppose the nation state as one aspect of its broader field, alongside a study of the experience of the United Arab Emirates at the end of the course through the analysis of specific discourses and products issued by its specialized institutions, rather than an introduction to those institutions themselves.

This course addresses the transformations that the digital economy has brought to contracts, transactions, and financial products and instruments. It analyzes the nature of the changes in forms of contracting, the subject matter of contracts, payment methods, and novel assets that have no direct counterpart in the jurisprudential corpus. It equips the PhD researcher with the tools of methodical ijtihad to address these, through the application of methods of composite characterization (takyif murakkab), reasoning from public interest (istislah), or partial assimilation (ilhaq juz'i), leading to the construction of well-founded Sharia rulings for digital economy transactions (such as electronic contracts, smart platforms, and virtual assets), and an assessment of their impact on contemporary reality.

This course addresses the theoretical and methodological rooting of the concept of "interdisciplinary studies", setting out the frameworks of knowledge integration between Islamic jurisprudence and the various humanities, social and empirical sciences. It is concerned with the applied training to employ this knowledge (such as economics, medicine, sociology and technology) as supporting tools in the process of contemporary ijtihad, through their use in defining the subject of dispute, conceptualizing complex novel cases, verifying their grounds, and constructing their rulings. The course also focuses on establishing the precise epistemological standards that govern the limits of benefiting from these interdisciplinary methods, in a manner that preserves the authority of the text and the centrality of the jurisprudential frame of reference.

This course addresses the accounting foundations and standards governing Islamic financial institutions and products, and their connection to Sharia rulings and standards. It examines the standards issued by the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions and the established practice of disclosure, presentation and measurement standards, together with their position relative to International Financial Reporting Standards, and the accounting treatment required by the nature of Islamic contracts.

This course focuses on the practical craft of the science of takhrij (derivation), starting from principles, rules, sources of derivation (ma'akhidh) and evidence, and methods of inference, and covering the disagreement of scholars on whether a rule is to be taken into account or not, and valid and invalid takhrij. It begins with the foundations by setting out the reality of takhrij and its types, the meaning of takhrij of subsidiary rulings on foundational principles and other types of takhrij, the origin of the science of takhrij of subsidiary rulings on foundational principles, the stages it went through, the relationship of this science to jurisprudence and its principles, and the methods of scholars in writing on the takhrij of subsidiary rulings on foundational principles. It includes exercises in the takhrij of subsidiary rulings on foundational principles across a number of usuli questions, namely those related to the topics of rulings, the topics of the sources of rulings, the topics of the implications of linguistic expressions, the topics of ijtihad and taqlid (following another's opinion), conflict of evidence (ta'arud) and preponderance (tarjih), and their applications in some matters of acts of worship, transactions, personal status and penalties, together with the contemporary application of Sharia rulings.

This course provides an in-depth study of the philosophical and value-based foundations of the human rights system and its manifestations in contemporary legislation and charters. It then examines its relationship with the objectives of Sharia and universal values, and concludes by evaluating the problems involved and building perspectives that take into account the Sharia frame of reference, national legislation and international charters. Starting from the concept and historical origin, the course compares the system of rights with the Islamic maqasid, the foundations of human rights, the five universals (al-kulliyat al-khams) and their correspondence with the system of rights, and the shift in the objectives from protecting the universals to developing the human being and his or her rights. It covers the right to life and human dignity, doctrinal and intellectual freedom and the objective of "preserving religion and reason", economic and social rights and the objective of "preserving wealth", the rights of women and the family and the objective of "preserving progeny and the family institution", personal status issues in Muslim societies from the perspective of rights and objectives, environmental rights, third-generation rights and the objective of "vicegerency and development", and the rights of vulnerable and fragile groups. It also demonstrates how these are set out in Sharia references, the legislation of the United Arab Emirates, and international charters.