PhD in Contemporary Ijtihad

Goals and Outcomes

Program Goals

The program seeks to achieve the following goals:

1. Preparing researchers with advanced knowledge of the methods, tools and fields of contemporary ijtihad, who are able to renew consideration of them.

2. Developing the ijtihad faculty of the researcher at doctoral level, qualifying them to derive Sharia rulings and apply them to complex cases according to a disciplined methodology.

3. Developing a scholarly critical stance toward contemporary ijtihad output, qualifying the researcher to evaluate it against disciplined criteria and to propose original alternatives.

4. Qualifying the researcher to consider matters of general impact, taking into account the public interest and the consequences of rulings for society and institutions.

5. Qualifying the researcher to exercise ijtihad in matters of citizenship, the nation state and identity, taking into account the particularities of the United Arab Emirates and the needs of its society.

6. Preparing researchers capable of producing original scholarly research that contributes to the development of jurisprudential and usul knowledge and addresses related societal problems.

7. Consolidating commitment to academic integrity and the ethics of research and publication, and preparing research leaders capable of managing projects and scholarly teams and contributing to institutions of fatwa, research and education.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, the graduate is expected to:

1. Identify the method of ta'lil (reasoning by effective cause) adopted in a given case, its rank, and the justification for its adoption.

2. Verify the ground of a ruling in a complex case, distinguishing its influential attributes from attributes that are incidental or disregarded, and explaining how a change in an attribute changes the ruling.

3. Trace (takhrij) a contemporary case back to its foundational principle (asl) and its evidentiary basis (ma'khadh), identifying the defects (qawadih) that can undermine such derivation.

4. Critique contemporary ijtihad in terms of its representation of the case, its method of inference, and its consideration of consequences (ma'al).

5. Evaluate a contemporary religious discourse in terms of its arguments, its frame of reference and its impact, and distinguish its moderate expressions from its extremist ones.

6. Formulate an ijtihad-based treatment of an issue of general impact, establishing the representation of the case with the assistance of specialists, weighing its benefits and harms, and assessing the consequences of the ruling for society and institutions.

7. Legally characterize (takyif) a new development in his or her field of specialization and determine its position relative to existing jurisprudential and legal treatments.

8. Design an original research project, whether single-discipline or interdisciplinary, and manage its sources and data independently.

9. Complete, defend and publish the results of a doctoral dissertation in a refereed scholarly venue.

10. Document sources and preponderant opinions (tarjihat) in accordance with the standards of academic integrity and intellectual property rights.

11. Present research results and ijtihad findings and discuss them in rigorous scholarly language, directing them to academic circles and to institutions concerned with Sharia and societal issues.

Alignment of Outcomes with the National Qualifications Framework

Program Information

Downloadable Files