This course is designed for students who can recite the Holy Qur'an with a general level of competence, but have not formally studied the principles governing pronunciation of the Holy Qur'an. Known as the rules of tartīl and tajwīd, these principles aim to guide students towards improving their recitation of the Holy Qur'an. Students will be taught emission points of letters (makhārij-ul-hurūf), the manner of articulation (sifat-ul-hurūf), emphatic consonants, prolongation, and other concepts revolving around the distinct Qur'anic style of elocution.
Students are introduced to the sciences of the Holy Qur'an that are concerned with words, meanings, rulings and the reasons for revelation. Moreover, the students are acquainted with the connections between verses and surahs (chapters), the collection of the Holy Qur'an, the arrangement and order of the chapters and verses, as well as the differences in the interpretations of the Holy Qur'an.
This series of courses is designed to also incorporate word for word literal and metaphorical meanings of the Holy Qur'an. All thirty parts of the Holy Qur'an are covered. The basic necessary Grammar of Arabic language is taught along the way to foster Qur'anic understanding.
Students are introduced to Arabic language through spoken and written media. Basic conjugation and sentence structure is taught. The course focuses on all language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
This course works on the enhanced elements of the Arabic language, spoken as well as written, with due regard to the cultural context of Arabic expression, and continued enhancement of the cultural awareness intrinsic to those skills.
This course continues practice in spoken and written Arabic and further development of reading and listening abilities in an authentic cultural context. It also develops more fluency in speaking, understanding, reading and writing Arabic with a concomitant heightened awareness of the cultural dimensions of the Arabic language.
This course is a systematic introduction to Urdu language for beginners. The course aims at developing listening comprehension and a real life interactive speaking ability in a variety of everyday topics. The Urdu script is introduced from the very beginning. The target language is presented in its total socio-cultural context for achieving a meaningful and operational control of the language. Students acquire basic rules for structural and socio-cultural appropriateness. Students are expected to learn a vocabulary of fundamental and most common words of the language including religious terminology for a continued progress in their religious studies from the core Ahmadiyya Muslim sources.
The curriculum focuses on the development of reading, listening and speaking skills. Authentic texts in the three skills include conversations, short stories, and presentations of current events, articles, films and plays. There is a continuous emphasis on vocabulary development and students are expected to add new words to their active vocabulary. The rules of grammar for structural accuracy and socio-cultural propriety are parts of the course objectives. Some original writings of the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and his Successors are introduced in this course as exercises for understanding and interpretation as well as for a comprehension of the religious terminology.
This course continues to build on the skills developed in Introduction to Urdu Language and Intermediate Urdu Language. In addition, selected portions from poetry of the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community are taught with linguistic, historical and theological perspectives.
This series of courses provides the student with an understanding of the reality of Sufism and the means to pass an impassioned judgment on it. It makes students aware of the difference between subjects and issues which have their source in the Holy Qur'an and Practice of the Holy Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him) and what is innovation (bid'ah) and outside the bounds of Islam. Particular emphasis is placed in the deep understanding of Islamic Spirituality as explained in the writings of the Holy Founder of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and his Successors.
This course presents an intensive review of the writing process intended to improve student's ability to write brief essays. It covers methods of developing ideas and emphasizes the importance of revision. Students learn essential rhetorical concepts so that they can write with a clear sense of audience and purpose. This course also provides a review of sentence grammar for those students for whom it is appropriate.
This course enables the students to deliver a confident and professional speech to any audience. With its continued emphasis on practice in public speaking, it helps the students overcome the fear and anxiety of speaking in public. The students learn some simple techniques to help them prepare, deliver and enjoy their speeches.
This course presents a survey of developments in Jewish practice, belief and institutions from the close of the biblical era to the present day. Students are introduced to the distinctive features associated with Judaism in various eras, and the major works of Jewish religious literature. Attention is devoted to the values, beliefs and rituals that developed within the diverse historical and cultural settings in which Judaism took root. Moreover, a brief overview of the geography of the areas important in the Jewish history, the fundamentals of Hebrew language and an introduction of the Old Testament is part of this course.
This course presents an examination of the nature of Christianity and Christian self-understanding in its multifaceted world context. The course will proceed thematically, exploring a range of beliefs and practices in theological, social, cultural, and historical contexts. Moreover, a brief overview of the geography of the areas important in the Christian history, the fundamentals of Latin language and an introduction of the New Testament is part of this course.
This course is intended to be an introduction to the major issues, figures, and texts of Islamic philosophy and theology. Philosophy and theology represent two main intellectual perspectives in the Islamic tradition and have produced a vast literature. We shall first attempt to answer the question of what Islamic philosophy and theology is and how they figure in the larger context of Islam. A comparison between the methodologies of Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama`at and the other sects in Islam concerning the belief system in Islam is provided.
This course entails knowledge of the Prophet's personality with regard to his guidance, wisdom, his method of preaching, and his kind treatment of all people; knowing him through his gentleness, humility, patience and forgivingness in his struggles as the prime example; correctly understanding this religion by planting love for him and to follow him in the hearts of the believers; and exposure to the evidences of his prophet-hood in order to strengthen and increase the faith of the students.
Students are acquainted with importance of this science, biography of the authors and their method of interpreting the Holy Qur'an. Detailed interpretation of various chapters of the Holy Qur'an is studied drawing reference material from the works of various authors and comparing and contrasting the interpretations in historical and geographical contexts.
This course will provide an introduction to the historical development of the literature of the New Testament and the social world of the earliest Christians. This course will examine the texts of the New Testament in the social, political, and religious context of the Roman Empire. The students will be required to read critically the texts as historical documents to investigate issues of central concern to the understanding of the origins of Christianity. The scriptural base for some of the fundamental beliefs in Christianity will be critically analyzed.
This course critically examines the fundamental Christian beliefs of Divinity of Jesus and Trinity compares those with the concept of Oneness of God in Islam. The course dwells on proving the falsehood of these Christian beliefs by drawing evidence from the Bible and logical reasoning.
This course gives an introduction of the science of hadith (tradition) terminology and the books written on this topic. The student learns about lives of the narrators, manners of narrating, conditions of bearing this knowledge, its methods, modes of delivery, as well as some peripheral issues.
Students are acquainted with the six authentic books of Prophet's Tradition and some other books. The biographies, methodologies and views of the compilers of these books are studied. Selected traditions are studied in detail and rulings are deduced based on the methodology of the experts in this field.
This course acquaints the student with the understanding of Islamic worship, its features, goals, references and fundamentals. It teaches the students the rulings Islamic law related to the three types of prayers (obligatory, sunnah and optional), congregation prayer, leading a prayer, Friday prayer, prayers of travel and fear, prayer of the sick, etc.; as well as their conditions, pillars, what invalidates them and how to make up missed prayers. The course explains the reasons for differences between scholars, their methodologies when deducing rulings, how they weigh between proofs; as well grow the student's ability to deduce using the correct methods of Islamic law.
This course introduces students to rules of the marriage contract and its effects, rules of divorce and its types and effects, and other similar topics. The course aims at enabling the students to perform family & social counselling, enlighten people on the ruling of family law in Islam and connect to the evidences from the Holy Qur'an & Tradition of the Holy Prophet which confirm with the methodologies used by scholars in this field.
This course introduces students to the meaning of the word tarikh (history), its importance and studies in it, how history was recorded by the Muslims during the early centuries. Some of the famous historians will be introduced. History of caliphs Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and `Ali will be studied in detail.
Students are taught the proper method of memorizing portions of the Holy Qur'an. Actual memorization of various parts of the Holy Qur'an is the major part of this course.
This course is an introduction to Buddhist Doctrine with a focus on its Indian origins, though all three scriptural traditions, namely South-East Asian (Pāli), East Asian (Chinese) and Central Asian (Tibetan) will be covered. Students will learn the basics of Buddhist philosophy and religious doctrine, and will also come across with topics on religious practice (e.g. meditation) and Buddhism as an institutional religion in a Buddhist Community (sangha).
This course focuses on the main developments and expressions of Hinduism in India. Following the cultural history of Hinduism in India, we will explore a number of different forms of Hindu religiosity. We will begin our study with an analysis of classical Brahmanism. This section will include a discussion of the pre-Aryan Indus Valley Civilization, the role and function of the Vedic sacrifice, the philosophical and ascetic literature of the Upanishads, and the development of key Hindu ideas about the relationship between the self, community, and cosmology. We will then turn our attention to the development and expression of devotional Hinduism. In this section we will examine the pantheon of gods and goddesses, the epic literature, and bhakti ritual and poetry.