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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 is the first of a three-part course on Islamic theology (kalām) based on Kashf al-murād, al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī’s renowned commentary on the final part of Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī’s Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād, one of the most important works of medieval Muslim theology in Shīʿī and Sunnī seminaries. In this course, students engage with themes regarding Prophethood and Imāma. It will enable students to engage in a critical textual analysis of this text dealing with topics such as the necessity of sending Prophets, their infallibility, and miracles and following on from this, the necessity of Imāma and the infallibility of the Imams. By the end of the course, students will have a firm grasp of the language and arguments employed in such texts and will be able to critically engage with the ideas presented by classical theologians.

 

Lesson 1      Introduction

                    Chapter on Prophethood (kitāb al-nubuwwa)

                    Issue 1: On the Goodness of Sending Prophets (fī ḥusn al-biʿtha)

Lesson 2      Issue 2: On the Necessity of Sending Prophets (fī wujūb al-biʿtha)

Issue 3: On the Necessity of the Infallibility of Prophets (fī wujūb al-ʿiṣma)

Lesson 3      Issue 4: On Ascertaining the Veracity of the Prophet (fī ṭarīq ilā ma fī maʿrifat ṣidq al-nabī)

                    Issue 5: On Miracles (fī al-karāmāt)

Lesson 4      Issue 5: On Miracles (fī al-karāmāt) (continued) 

Lesson 5      Issue 5: On Miracles (fī al-karāmāt) (continued)

Issue 6: On the Necessity of Sending Prophets in All Times (fī wujūb al-biʿtha fī kull waqt)

Issue 7: On the Prophethood of our Prophet Muḥammad (fī nubuwwa nabiyyunā Muḥammad)

Lesson 6      Issue 7: On the Prophethood of our Prophet Muḥammad (fī nubuwwa nabiyyunā Muḥammad) (continued)

Lesson 7      Issue 7: On the Prophethood of our Prophet Muḥammad (fī nubuwwa nabiyyunā Muḥammad) (continued)

Lesson 8      Issue 7: On the Prophethood of our Prophet Muḥammad (fī nubuwwa nabiyyunā Muḥammad) (continued)

Lesson 9      Chapter on Imāmate (kitāb al-imāma)

Issue 1: That the Appointment of the Imām is Necessary upon God (fī anna naṣb al-imām wājib ʿalā Allāh taʿālā) 

Lesson 10    Issue 2: That the Imām must be Infallible (fī anna al-imām yajib an yakūn maʿṣūm)

                    Issue 3: That the Imām Must be Better than Others (fī anna al-imām yajib an yakūn afḍal min ghayrihi)

                    Issue 4: On the Necessity of the Imām being Designated (fī wujūb al-naṣṣ ʿalā al-imām)

                    Issue 5: That the Imām after the Prophet is ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (fī anna al-imām baʿd al-nabī bilā faṣl ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib)

Lesson 11    Issue 5: That the Imām after the Prophet is ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (fī anna al-imām baʿd al-nabī bilā faṣl ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib) (continued)

Lesson 12    Issue 6: On the Evidence that Indicates that there was No Imām Other than ʿAlī (fī al-dalīl al-dālla ʿalā ʿadam imāma ghayr ʿAlī)

Lesson 13    Issue 6: On the Evidence that Indicates that there was No Imām Other than ʿAlī (fī al-dalīl al-dālla ʿalā ʿadam imāma ghayr ʿAlī) (continued)

                     Issue 7: That ʿAlī is the Best of the Companions (fī anna ʿAliyyan afḍal min al-ṣaḥāba)

Lesson 14    Issue 7: That ʿAlī is the Best of the Companions (fī anna ʿAliyyan afḍal min al-ṣaḥāba) (continued)

Lesson 15    Issue 7: That ʿAlī is the Best of the Companions (fī anna ʿAliyyan afḍal min al-ṣaḥāba) (continued) 

Lesson 16    Issue 8: On the Imāmate of the Remaining Twelve Imāms (fī imāmat bāqī al-aʾimmat al-ithnay ʿashar)

                   Issue 9: On the Rulings for Those who Oppose the Imām (fī aḥkām al-mukhālifīn) 

 

Prerequisites

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

 

Hours of Study

21 hours

 

Assessment Method

Essay (100%)

 

Course Instructor

Professor Seyed Mohammad Seyed Ghari Fatemi

Professor Seyed Mohammad Seyed Ghari Fatemi spent thirteen years studying in the Ḥawza ʿIlmiyya of Qom between 1981 and 1994, completing his advanced studies (dars al-khārij) in Arabic literature, legal theory, jurisprudence, philosophy, and Islamic theosophy under prominent scholars such as Ayatollah Ḥusayn ʿAlī Muntaẓarī, Ayatollah Sayyid Muḥammad Rūhānī, and Ayatollah ʿAbd Allāh Javādī Āmulī. Alongside his seminary studies, he also completed an LLB (1984) and LLM (1991) in Public Law at the University of Tehran. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Law at the University of Manchester in 1999.

He has been working with AMI since 1995 and currently lectures on Islamic legal theory. He is a Professor of Comparative Human Rights, Islamic Hermeneutics and Legal theory, and Philosophy in the Faculty of Law at Shahid Beheshti University (Tehran) where he supervises masters and doctoral students researching a range of topics. Seyed Fatemi is also a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Iran and a member of the Department of Biomedical Ethics at the Iranian Academy of Medical Sciences. He has previously taught in the Ḥawza ʿIlmiyya of Qom, at Mofid University (Qom), the University of Birmingham, and was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter.

He has numerous publications to his name in Persian and English and has organised and presented at dozens of conferences in the fields of law, Islamic studies, and bioethics. He is the author of Human Rights in the Contemporary World (Ḥuqūq-i bashr dar jahān-i muʿāṣir). The first volume of this work (An Introduction to Theoretical Issues: Concepts, Foundations, Scope and Sources) was first published by the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights and Shahid Beheshti University and is now in its eighth edition. The second volume (Analytical Essays on Right and Liberties) is in its fifth edition, and a third volume (Islam and Human Rights) is forthcoming.