Description:

Is Islam a rigid set of rules and regulations that struggles to cope with the modern world? Or are there inherent mechanisms within the rich tradition of Islam that allow for the adaptation of understanding and behavior for rapidly changing times? This course seeks to introduce students to the methodologies regarding the explication of Islam’s sacred texts, the Qur’ān and Ḥadīth (Prophetic reports), and their interpretation for changing circumstances.

Muslims have experienced a string of catastrophes that have included the trauma of imperialism, colonialism, and economic stagnation, amongst others. But perhaps the greatest modern catastrophe is the assault on Islam’s system of transmission of knowledge and learning – established by the Prophet Muhammad himself – but has suffered successive attacks from both internal aberrations and external pressures. Such an eventuality was prophesized in the ḥadīth literature, as narrated by al-Bukhari: “Allah does not lift knowledge forcefully, but rather via the death of its scholars, until not a single scholar is left, and people are left to take the ignorant as their leaders, who are themselves misguided, and in turn, misguide others.” Such a bleak picture seems to befit our current circumstances, but the Prophet was not one to let his charges fall into despair. In another equally authoritative ḥadīth narrated by al-Bukhari, he also states: “There will always be a segment of my community upholding truth; they are not harmed by those who betray them.” This latter report has been understood to mean that the corpus of Prophetic knowledge, as diffused into the various Islamic disciplines, will be preserved and accessible, albeit in diminishing fashion, until the end of days and the hour is nearly upon us. It is then that the actual words of the Qur’ān will be lifted from the pages of the scrolls and the breasts of humanity.

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Dr. Walead Mohammed Mosaad is a teacher and researcher of the Islamic sciences. His lectures and podcasts are found on the SeekersHub portal, an online teaching platform reaching students worldwide.

He has studied the classical Islamic tradition and its various disciplines with the ulama of Damascus, Cairo, Yemen, and Morocco, in addition to completing academic degrees from Rutgers University, the Fath Islamic Seminary in Damascus, al-Azhar University in Cairo, the University of Liverpool, and a PhD in Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter in the UK.

He has lectured on various topics of interest, including Muslims as minorities, interfaith understanding, and the importance of purification and spirituality in addressing the human condition.