Dean's Message
Message from the Dean
Imam Malik College of Sharia and Law in the United Arab Emirates is an academic and scholarly institution of which we are all proud.
It is a distinguished and leading university community..
Excellence is a hallmark by which the College has been known since the moment of its establishment by its founder, Professor Dr. Issa Al Humairi, and by its current chief executive, by virtue of its combination of the Sharia sciences and the legal sciences. This combination of the Sharia and legal spheres is grounded in Article 7 of the Constitution of the State, which states that "Islam is the official religion of the Union, and Islamic Sharia is a principal source of legislation therein."
Leadership is a quality the College has acquired over the years, because it has never ceased to achieve its noble objectives. First, it leads through its graduates: wherever one goes, one finds the College's graduates in every part of the State, and they are an exemplary model of competence, responsibility and productivity. Second, it leads in scientific research: whenever one visits university libraries, one discovers how rich they are with the publications and research that the College has contributed to specialists, thanks to the competence of its faculty members.
It is a College that works quietly and profoundly..
Quietness is humility in its purest form, and humility is a praiseworthy quality in scholars. It is a virtue that reflects the secret of the College's success over many long years.
Profundity is first and foremost human and religious depth, because working with depth is an indispensable quality, as it is the surest way to ensure the quality of scientific and academic work. This quality is among the first of the College's noble objectives.
It is between this quietness and this depth that the academic and scholarly refinement of the College arises, and refinement is the mark of authenticity.
It is an influential and open university institution..
Imam Malik College of Sharia and Law is one of the influential colleges in the national university landscape, by virtue of its role in creating and developing academic content from time to time, in accordance with the requirements of society and the requirements of the general policy of the Government of Dubai and of the Union as a whole.
Furthermore, over the years the College has shown openness to its external environment, out of conviction that higher education and scientific research together represent a fundamental driver of societal and economic development, and that this path is unavoidable, because a university can in no way remain isolated, otherwise it loses its reason for existence.
When the Dean writes words such as those above, it is not in defence of his College or in promotion of it, but in defence of the societal values and principles that he promotes with all his strength, because the Dean is, at root, a societal value or he is nothing. He believes in the university's role in achieving three fundamental goals:
- Ethics first and always. Ethics are the spirit of society. If society is sound, it is thanks to its ethics, and if its ethics deteriorate, it collapses immediately.
- Social peace and coexistence among all members of one society. Hence the College's role in spreading the noblest Islamic values that establish tolerance, mutual affection, cooperation, brotherhood, solidarity and the rejection of hatred. The College also works to spread the highest international and national values that the Constitution of the State established, which its legislation elaborated, and which its regulations and organisations put into practice.
- Happiness. The preamble of the Constitution records the desire of the State's founders to make Emirati society "an Arab Islamic society free from fear and anxiety"; that is, the State seeks to make this society a happy one. In harmony with Islamic values, happiness in Islam is, as the scholars have agreed, founded on the causes of sound creed, enjoining good and forbidding evil, obedience to the ruler in what is right and judgement by God's law, and giving thanks to God Almighty for His blessings. On the basis of these causes, Islam calls for pride in God, ease in life, and the pursuit of knowledge and work.
My dear male and female students,
Your choice of Imam Malik College of Sharia and Law is a choice of all these values combined. In the future you will have a role in further establishing, consolidating and defending them, for these values are, first, the true foundations of every successful society and the necessary mindset for building the State and working to develop it. Second, they are the essence of worship, for we seek nothing from this world but the pleasure of God, and it is Him alone whom we worship.
Prof. Dr. Al-Muntasir Al-Wardi
Dean, Imam Malik College of Sharia and Law
