Islam as Civilisation: Religion, Worldview and Civilisational Thought

Instructor:  Dr. Yakoob Ahmed

Date/times:

September 19 - December 5, Saturdays 10 AM - 12 PM US Eastern Standard Time

Note:

Final course registration is subject to a short application process, the instructor and/or AlQasas administration may refuse registration to any individual at their discretion.

Course summary:

This special 12 week advance course examines why nineteenth-century Muslim thinkers increasingly understood Islam not simply as a religion, but as a ‘civilisation’ and comprehensive ‘worldview’. Beginning with the concept of dīn, we explore how Islam encompasses not only belief and worship, but also ethics, law, knowledge, society, culture and ways of life. Particular attention is given to the distinction between the modern English concept of “civilisation” and the Arabic concepts of ḥaḍāra and tamaddun, as well as the Ottoman Turkish medeniyet, asking whether these terms represent equivalent ideas or reflect different intellectual traditions and understandings of human flourishing.

We will examine how Muslim thinkers developed and debated these concepts, particularly in response to the encounter with Western modernity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Alongside this, the course explores the importance of historical memory, arguing that civilisational consciousness requires an awareness of a shared past, intellectual inheritance and historical experience. 

Week by week, we will engage with some of the most significant thinkers in both the modern Islamic tradition and academic scholarship, examining their different understandings of Islam, civilisation, modernity and historical change. The course concludes by asking why this civilisational perspective remains relevant today, and whether recovering a deeper sense of historical and civilisational consciousness can help Muslims better understand their past, present and future.

Course schedule: