As a registered charity, we charge course fees to cover our running costs. However, we aim to make our education accessible to as many people as possible and are therefore able to offer a 65% fee waiver. To make use of this fee waiver, please use the code AMI65 when purchasing your courses.

Students in need of further financial assistance should contact the education team at education@almahdi.edu to enquire about the possibility of further fee waivers. 

This course will provide students with extensive knowledge about the juristic process of deriving rulings regarding legal derivation (ijtihād) and juristic emulation (taqlīd). The course will familiarise the students with the language and terminology employed by classical jurists in the process of juristic inference (al-fiqh al-istidlālī) and will encourage critical analysis of how these rulings relate to the contemporary period.

Lesson Breakdown

Lesson 1      The Meaning and Definition of taqlīd

The evidence for the permissibility of taqlīd and the authority of the jurist’s statement for the laity

Lesson 2      The evidence for the permissibility of taqlīd and the authority of the jurist’s statement for the laity (continued)

Lesson 3      Conditions of marjaʿiyya

                    Puberty (bulūgh)

Lesson 4      Intellect (ʿaql)

Lesson 5      Faith (īmān)

Lesson 6      Faith (īmān) (continued)

Lesson 7      Faith (īmān) (continued)

Lesson 8      Faith (īmān) (continued)

Lesson 9      Righteousness (ʿadāla)

Lesson 10    Maleness (rujūliyya)

Lesson 11    Purity of birth (ṭahārat al-mawlid)

Lesson 12    Life (ḥayāt)

Lesson 13    The evidence for the conditionality of life (adillat ishtirāṭ al-ḥayāt)

Lesson 14    Evidence for the permissibility of following a dead marjaʿ from the outset (adillat jawāz taqlid al-mayyit ibtidāʾan)

Prerequisites

Please note that level four courses are only available to those who have completed all courses in levels one, two, and three. This is because the topics covered in level four require the historical and conceptual foundations which are built in the previous levels.

Hours of Study

20 hours

Assessment Method

Oral Exam (100%)

Course Instructor

Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain

Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain founded the Al-Mahdi Institute in 1993 and currently serves as its director and as a Senior Lecturer in Legal Theory and Philosophy. Shaykh Arif began his seminary education at the Madrassa al-Sayyid al-Khūʾī in London from which he graduated in 1988. He continued his seminary studies in Qom between 1989 and 1993 during which time he also had the opportunity to study privately under some of the leading scholars of Qom. Upon returning to the UK, after founding AMI, he continued his advanced studies (dars al-khārij) under Ayatollah Hussain Amini. He was awarded an ijāza of ijtihād from both Ayatollah Hussain Amini and Ayatollah Professor Sayyid Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad. He is the author of the Islam and God-Centricity series which presents the essential message of Islam through a fresh re-evaluation of religion and human purpose. In addition to these works, he has authored and translated numerous other books and articles. He is currently working on a translation of the second volume of Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr’s famous work of legal theory Durūs fī ʿilm al-uṣūl, having translated the first volume in 2003. He is the author and translator of several other works and a prolific public speaker to Muslim communities around the world. He has previously taught at Madrassa al-Sayyid al-Khūʾī, the seminary of Qom, and the Islamic College, London.