New Course Added: The Historical Development of Islamic Law

Posted by Saudah Mirza, Outreach Manager on June 18th, 2008

assalamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullah,

We just added a new course—The Historical Development of Islamic Law: From Its Prophetic Origins to Modern Application with Shaykh Sohail Hanif.

In this short course, you wil examine the foundation of the legal schools through a historical analysis of Islamic law in the era of the Prophet, rightly guided caliphs, tabi’in, and the great imams. You will also explore the process of the development and refinement of a legal school and why following a legal school is the best option to implement Islam in your life.

The course will help you answer questions such as:

  • Did the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, intend Islam to develop different schools of law?
  • Why have differences of opinion existed and can they can ever go away?
  • Is ijtihad something for everyone?
  • What’s better—to follow the opinion of the founder of a legal school or a scholar that came after him?
  • Can “old” fiqh be used in a modern context?

This course is an important component of the Seekers curriculum as part of a series of courses that answer modern doubts related to Islamic Law, hadith, and Quran.

The course starts in July. To learn more, click here.



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Reader Comments

salams

Masha-allah, looks good. Can I just ask, how different is the subject matter of this course from Foundations of Islamic Law? On the face of it, unit one seems to cover quite similar materials.

Jazakum Allah
was salam
asim

wa ‘alaykum assalam,

Insha’Allah I’ll post a response to this question from Sh. Sohail here shortly.

Assalaamu alaykum

I was wondering the same thing. It seems as though Foundations of Islamic Law has been split into two short courses for the seekers curriculum. If we have taken Foundations of Islamic Law, then will that count in place for these two half courses?

wassalaam,
Jason

wa ‘alaykum assalam wa rahmatullah,

I apologize for the delay in responding.

To answer both your questions: you’re correct in that the theme is similar to Foundations of Islamic Law. However, the new course LMT101 is much more in-depth and provides historical detail that was not covered in Foundations of Islamic Law.

Thus, Foundations of Islamic Law does not count as a substitute for LMT101/LMT102.

I hope this answers your questions. If you need anything else, please let us know.

Assalamu alaykum,

Sh. Sohail Hanif is down as teaching GNL031 at 4:00 - 5:00 PM GMT, but this seems to be the same time as the new course LMT101. What’s the plan regarding the scheduling of these two courses?

wa ‘alaykum assalam wa rahmatullah,

I’m sorry about that, it was my mistake. LMT101 is on Saturdays, not Sundays.

wasalaam,
saudah