This course is for students interested in comparative religions and interreligious dialogue.  Students will be introduced to the basic tenets of each tradition, i.e. rituals, doctrines, observances.  Students will explore the historical and socio-cultural contexts that structured their interactions.

This course will dissect contemporary questions regarding gender and Islam that saturate postmodern discourse.  Religious precepts coupled with the development of religious trends & understandings, the impact of colonialism and decolonization, and media representations, will be discussion points in the course.  A brief history of the effects the ever-globalizing world dictates will serve as a contextual paradigm for the study.

Students will be introduced to the major genres and masterpieces of Islamic literature and poetry.

This course will journey through Islamic history, focusing on significant female figures and their contributions to faith, education, art & architecture, activism, & other notable fields.

This course will introduce students to the different styles of Arabic Calligraphy while focusing on Thuluth, a style that emerged in the 11th century CE. Students will be coached on using the units of measurement for each single letter of the Thuluth style as well as the relationship between the various letters of the Arabic Alphabet. In the first half of the course, the students will be using special markers that are designed with a chisel tip, similar to the traditional reed pen (Boussa) that is used by professional calligraphers. In the second half, they will be introduced to the use of the reed pen with ink, and the technique of shaping and refining their own pens. By the end of the course, students should be able to produce a composition of their own and utilize the rules of measurement to check their work for mistakes. They will also be able to distinguish between various styles and judge the authenticity of each style while relying on the rules they have learned in class.

The course will focus on the use of the traditional reed pen (Qalam) for writing letters in the Thuluth style. The students will be coached on carving the pen and utilizing the technique required to produce the shapes of the letters.They will also be introduced to connecting the letters to construct words in this style. By the end of the class students will be able to produce a piece of their own calligraphy art. Students must have completed Calligraphy 101 or a comparable course as a prerequisite to Calligraphy 102.

This course will advance calligraphy skills from calligraphy 102 course. It will focus on the use of the traditional reed pen (Qalam) for writing letters in the Thuluth style. The students will be cached on carving the pen and utilizing the technique required to produce the shapes of the letters.

Students will be introduced to the history of Islam and music. They will become familiar with Arabic music and scalars in detail, as well as Islamic Anasheed. Students will receive training in playing the Middle Eastern instrument, Oud, as well as vocal coaching. Students will also learn about the relation between Makamat & Qur’anic recitations.

This course will introduce students to the grammar and classical styles of Arabic found in the Qur’an and other Medieval writings, such as extra-textual Qur’anic sources. The intention of this course is to help readers understand the classical Arabic language. This course will be intensive in reading, writing, and pronunciation. Students will learn Qur’anic vocabulary and classical grammatical structures. Students will be exposed to cultural components as an integral part of the course.

This course will cover the dynamics of Islamic Social Movements. Students will learn about Islamization movements, Islamic Revolution, and global networking, and consider examples of the transformation of Muslim societies occurring through individual acts of self-discipline and piety rather than engaging state power. In this regard, students will explore how Islamic social movements in Turkey, Iran, the Arab world, South Asia and around the globe are changing theoretical understandings of religious mobilizations and the role of religion in contemporary society. Included will be the consideration of major contemporary Islamic social movements such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamaat-i Islami, Nur Movements and Wahhabism as well as how these movements understand social justice, jihad, women’s rights and reform in Islam.

Ebru, often referred to as the “dance of color on water”, is an authentic Turkish art that has been considered a spiritual art for centuries. This unique art form is produced by sprinkling color pigments into a trough of oily water and utilizes special brushes to create various designs that are then transferred onto a sheet of paper or other surface. This class will cover a variety of techniques that participants will use to create their own masterpieces. Come join us and learn the techniques of this ancient tradition.

Farsi (Persian), the official language of Iran, also spoken predominately in Afghanistan, and Tajikstan, will be taught to students interested in reading, writing, and speaking in Modern Farsi.  Students will also be introduced to the culture and history of Iran.  This course is offered in elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Introduction to basic drawing materials and painting for all ages. The techniques and concepts will focus on still life as subject matter. This course examines the properties of colors and their interaction through different mediums.

This course will introduce the importance of sunnah and seerah in understanding Islam and the science and history of compilation of seerah and sunnah. The process of authentication as has been used by scholars throughout history. Terminologies used in the classification of hadith. An overview of seerah books and hadith collections available today will also be presented.

This course is an introduction to the long and interactive history of Christian-Muslim relations and will cover the medieval period to contemporary times. It will uncover issues of stereotyping, violence, and oppression; and will highlight contexts of collaboration, reconciliation, and interreligious and intercultural dialogue. Special attention will also be given to dissecting history through challenging historical analyses. Special guests from the Christian community of the Chicago area will present on a number of topics with Dr. Aasi throughout the course.

This course will trace Islamic history from the rise and spread of Islam, to the great Islamic empire, to the emergence of the great early modern Islamic states. It will provide a brief overview of Islamic history from 600CE to the present. In order to unpack the richness of Islamic history, particular attention will be attributed to the political, economic, social, cultural, and religious structures at play. Dive into the lives of those who lived in Mecca during Muhammad’s (pbuh) time and those who lived under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs. Travel to a place of cultural richness, diversity, and pluralism, advanced scholarship in science, technology, and architecture, such as Baghdad and Andalusia. Visit with the Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman empires. Learn about the struggles, challenges, the rise and falls, and the beauty of Islam’s vibrant history.

Imam Muhammad b. Hasan al-Shaybani’s transmission of Malik’s Muwatta is one of the earliest extant collections of hadith.  The work is also significant in that it shows the points of confluence and divergence between the influential legal traditions of Medina and Kufa that gave birth to the Maliki and Hanafi schools of law.  This course will consist of a close study of this fascinating text and explore the relationship between the concepts of sunnah and hadith.

The course will comprise a close study of the sections on ibadat (ritual law) in Mukhtasar al-Quduri, one of the earliest and most influential legal texts in the Hanafi school of law.  The aim of the course is to give a thorough introduction to the ahkam (laws) governing purification, salat (the ritual prayer), zakat (the obligatory charity), sawm (fasting), and hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca).

Students will utilize their knowledge of Arabic to gain deeper insight into major tafsir compilations. Students will look at important themes and trends in the Qur’an to gain a broader understanding of the significant meanings and their implications in a Muslim’s life. An intermediate level of Arabic knowledge is a prerequisite to this course as Arabic vocabulary and grammar will shed light on Qur’anic interpretations and reasoning.

Particular attention will be attributed to the political, economic, social, cultural, and religious structures at play. Travel to a place of cultural richness, diversity, and pluralism, advanced scholarship in science, technology, and architecture, such as Baghdad and Andalusia. Visit with the Safavid, Mughal and Ottoman empires. Learn about the struggles, challenges, the rise and falls, and the beauty of Islam’s vibrant history.

This class will introduce you to understanding how Islam has made dramatic changes to the implantation of Arabian scales in music.  You will experience various kinds of Anasheeds, melodies, secular songs, and Qur’anic recitations.

From its beginnings in the 7th century until today, spanning over multiple geographical, cultural, and linguistic regions, Islamic World has created a wealth of art and architectural treasures. This course will give an overview and introduce its participants to that rich heritage, focusing on religious art and architecture of the Islamic World. It will review a number of architectural examples from different periods and regions and discuss their artistic and architectural characteristics in conjunction with their historical and political background.

Due to the advances in critical care in modern medicine, artificial ventilation, patients are getting more complicated treatment options including transplantation of body organs. Initially these organs came from the dead (cornea, heart) but subsequently were provided from the living donors (kidney, bone marrow, liver etc). Every one should be prepared for transition to the life Hereafter and final days could be complicated by the illness requiring too invasive procedures for example tube insertion into trachea , artificial respirator, pace maker etc. Every one should assess his/her healthcare issues discuss with the doctor/s and decide about what to do in case of serious and complicated emergency situations (cardiac arrest or coma) from which the patients do not recover, need for CPR etc, (Advanced Medical Directives). It is now time that every one must learn about organ removal and donation for transplantation to the one in dire need. This course will address all these issues and more i.e Euthanasia, Reproductive technology, Cloning and permissibility in Islamic Jurisprudence and what is actually happening in the healthcare system.

This course will cover how Islamic Shariah (Islamic Law) treats financial transactions, business relations, wealth, interest, investment, borrowing/lending, in compliance with the Qur’an.  Examples of consumerism, marketing, business management, etc. will be given from the U.S. context and abroad.

Students will be introduced to the principles of Islamic Law and the application of Islamic Jurisprudence for the purposes of gaining insight into how the foundational sources of Islam have produced codes of responsibility for upholding a just and moral living.  The development of Usul al-fiqh, the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence, will be traced through its history in Islam.  The emergence of the four major schools of law and their influences throughout Islamic history, will be reviewed.  In addition, an analysis of contemporary jurisprudence will be discussed as the course will review the re-introduction of ijtihad and its relation with taqlid, as well as, the emerging discourse on shariah in association to the modern and postmodern contexts of today.

This course will introduce the importance of the prophetic oral tradition (hadith) and biography (seerah) in understanding Islam and the science and history of the compilation of seerah and hadith.

Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners.
This course intends to provide students the basics of the Arabic language, which they might want to learn for a variety of reasons. Whether for the purposes of interest in history, culture or religion, or for personal or business purposes, a basic understanding of the rules of the Arabic grammar is indispensable. Throughout the course, students will acquire the foundations of the Arabic grammar and build their vocabulary directed to reading and simple conversation, such as greetings and simple expressions of needs. This course will help students to acquire survival knowledge of Arabic and an adequate base on which they can progress according to their particular needs.

Focus areas:
Grammar structures.
Sentence construction.
Elementary reading and comprehension.

Prerequisite: Modern Standard Arabic 101 or basic Arabic

This course will continue to enhance upon the basic foundations of the Arabic script and language.  Students will build their vocabulary and grammatical structures.  There will be a focus on basic reading comprehension and sentence construction.  Students will also gain knowledge of Arabic history and culture.

Prerequisite: Modern Standard Arabic 102

This course will build on the grammatical structures and vocabulary covered in the first two sections of the elementary Arabic language course. There will be a focus on reading comprehension, sentence construction, and conversation.  Students will also gain knowledge of Arabic history and culture. Students will also complete Al-kitaab in this course.

Prerequisite: Modern Standard Arabic 103

This class will introduce the students to the art of playing the Oud. The students will be coached on the proper way to hold the instrument and the Plectrum. We will study the Arabic style tuning and western style notation system. The students will learn simple melodies from various parts of the Middle East and by the end of the course they will be able to perform these pieces in a group setting.

Practicing Islam is a course catered for students wanting to learn about the religious practices performed in the daily life of the Muslim.  This includes the significance of routine prayers, the meaning behind the prayers recited five times a day, how a Muslim prays; other rituals, such as wadhu (ablution), ceremonies for birth & death, etc.  The course will cover major Islamic concepts, such as, creation, afterlife, justice, zakat (charity), tawbah (repentance), reconciliation, etc. The course will also introduce Islamic holidays, the Islamic calendar, the 5 pillars, etc. This is an introduction to the praxis of Islam through religious rituals and principles via the Holy Qur’an, Sunnah, & Hadith.

This course will be an introduction to the Quranic studies. It will start with an overview of the phenomena of prophethood and revelation (wahi) as the origin of Quran and its historical and geographical setting. Then the history of its compilation and preservation will be presented. This will be followed by a discussion of structure and organization of Quran and the methodology of interpreting (tafsir) and understanding Quran. A brief introduction to select major interpretations of Quran (tafaseer) available today will also be covered. Then key concepts and major themes and characteristics of Quran will be presented as an introduction to the subject matter of Quran. The course will conclude with a discussion of some of the misconceptions about Quran.

The coloured glass is crafted into stained glass windows in which small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns or pictures, held together (traditionally) by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame. Painted details and yellow stain are often used to enhance the design. The term stained glass is also applied to windows in which the colours have been painted onto the glass and then fused to the glass in a kiln.

This course will examine topics in Muslim aestheticism through the various stages of the spiritual journey taken to the inner mystical dimension within Islam by its followers. Specific attention will be given to some of the key mystics, their writings, and their impact in society. Topics include: dhikr, the 99 names of Allah, Sufi orders, practice, and teachings. Its role within Islam, its perception by Muslims, and its impact on the West will be reviewed.

This elementary course will introduce students to the Turkish language. The course will enrich students’ understanding and knowledge of the Turkish culture and history.  Students will achieve foundational understanding of Turkish grammar, build vocabulary, and gain the skills to communicate common expressions and greetings.

This survey course covers the fundamental beliefs and practices of the Islamic faith, and the contemporary issues facing the Muslim community particularly in the United States. Participants will learn about the five pillars of Islam, and the significance of Muhammad (pbuh) and the Qur’an to Islam and Muslims. A brief overview of the various schools of thought and branches of Islam will be discussed, as well as their historical contexts and contemporary implications. Islam and its application throughout various cultures will also be covered. The last two sessions will look into the common misconceptions of Islam and their impact on the Muslim community in the United States.

The Urdu language, the official language of Pakistan, and one of the official languages of India, will be taught at the AIC for students interested in learning how to read & write the Urdu script.  Students will also focus on listening and pronunciation. Students will gain conversational skills and be introduced to the culture of South Asia.  This course is offered in elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels.