PROGRAMME OUTCOMES
The programme has three inter-related aims:
- Enable students to understand how the modern world was shaped and to engage with contemporary debates about the role of religion in general, and Islam in particular, in modern society.
- Provide students with training in pastoral care to Muslims and others
- Equip students with practical skills to make them more effective leaders of Muslim institutions and to enhance their career prospects in all fields.
TEACHING METHODS
The programme offers a rigorous and enriching learning experience, guided by expert instructors who are leaders in their fields. They will use a mix of teaching methods, including direct instruction and interactive discussions, to actively engage students and encourage critical and analytical thinking.
Teaching will include lectures, tutorials, and seminars. As part of the programme, students will also travel nationally and internationally on trips aimed at broadening their knowledge through direct engagement with other religious, political, and civic leaders and institutions.
The programme is designed to develop a rich and engaging cohort of students who approach learning as seekers of sacred knowledge. As peers, they will reflect on what they have learnt and how best to contextualise it within the UK. To support this interactive and reflective approach, the cohort size is limited to 18 students.
PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
- The programme will be delivered over three terms, each 11 weeks in length.
- In-person lectures will take place Mondays to Fridays from 9 — 5pm.
- Trips are organised throughout the year.
- This is a residential programme and students will live and study together at Cambridge Muslim College’s facilities.
- The programme features a “Work Placement” component, contributing 20 credits towards the 120 credits required for completion. This placement will focus primarily on Chaplaincy.
ASSESSMENT
Students will be assessed through various methods that align with the objectives of each module. This may include, but not limited to class discussions, essays, critical dialogue, presentations, group projects, journaling progress or written examinations.
FIELD TRIPS
As part of the programme, students take part in a series of enriching excursions designed to complement their academic studies. These thoughtfully planned field trips visit academic, historical, and cultural landmarks across the UK, including iconic sites such as the Houses of Parliament, renowned museums, and the magnificent Canterbury Cathedral. These immersive experiences not only deepen your understanding of the coursework but also provide a unique opportunity to engage with the rich heritage of the United Kingdom.
The highlight of the field trip programme is the annual excursion to the Vatican in Rome. This once-in-a-lifetime journey includes guided tours of the Vatican’s majestic museums, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter’s Basilica, as well as the incredible privilege of guided tours and visits with important religious figures of the Catholic Church. This unforgettable experience is a testament to our commitment to providing a truly global perspective on religious studies.
MODULES
The programme comprises six modules which are concurrently taught over three terms. Each module will include lectures delivered by world-leading professors from Cambridge and other universities, as well as by our own faculty.
Focus:
- The natural world’s significance in the pre-modern world, particularly the Islamic tradition, including how humans have seen themselves in relation to both the natural world and the Divine.
- The emergence of science in early modernity, its intersection with technology, and their impact on human thought and societies.
- The social, environmental, and technological challenges facing humanity in the modern world and their underlying causes.
Purpose:
- To explore how Muslims and others have conceptualised the world and the societal and environmental implications of these worldviews.
- To promote critical thinking about the intersections of belief, science, technology and the natural world.
Outcomes:
- To develop the ability to critically analyse historical and modern perspectives on the natural world.
- To acquire the skills to address relevant contemporary questions, such as environmental sustainability, Artificial Intelligence, etc., from a faith-based perspective.
Focus:
- Theological and philosophical thought in major religious and philosophical traditions.
- The interactions within and between Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and key philosophical schools from pre-modern times until the present.
- The abstract and philosophical dimensions of belief, particularly within Islam.
Purpose:
- To explore how religious traditions and philosophical schools have addressed perennial questions concerning the origin of the world, the reality of knowledge, and the nature of God.
- To investigate historical shifts in thought during the pre-modern and modern periods, such as the emergence of Platonic and Aristotelian schools of thought in Antiquity, the Enlightenment, and Islamic revivalism.
- To engage with contemporary philosophical challenges to religious belief.
Outcomes:
- To understand the use of revelation and reason in shaping beliefs within and between major traditions.
- To gain insight into the development of religious and philosophical thought from pre-modern to modern times.
- To develop the ability to critically analyse contemporary issues, including the foundations of science and mathematics, epistemology, atheism, and the problem of evil.
Focus:
- The historical, societal, and philosophical dimensions of various knowledge traditions in the Islamicate world and the West, including their mutual interactions and influences.
- The development of different educational philosophies and approaches to learning, particularly in the Islamicate and Western world.
- The emergence of various learning institutions throughout history, such as the madrassa and the university.
- The connection of various knowledge traditions with particular conceptions of society and the self.
Purpose:
- To understand the evolution of various knowledge traditions across different historical periods and the notions of knowledge and truth that underpin them.
- To explore the integration of these knowledge traditions with societal needs, and their transformation in response to modern and contemporary challenges.
- To critically assess traditional Islamic approaches to learning and education and their relevance in addressing contemporary issues.
Outcomes:
- To gain an understanding of the historical evolution of different knowledge traditions and learning institutions, including the attendant transformations to conceptions of truth, society, and the self.
- To develop the ability to critically assess the relevance of traditional Islamic approaches to knowledge and learning in contemporary contexts.
Focus:
- The theoretical and methodological tools for studying world societies.
- The evolution of modern societies, including various forms of social organisation.
- The interaction between Britain and Islamic civilisation from pre-modern times to the present.
- The social challenges and problems affecting the Muslim community in Britain today.
Purpose:
- To understand the emergence of modern societies and the key ideas and societal/institutional dynamics that have led to the production of modern subjectivities and societies.
- To inquire into Islam in Britain, Muslims in Britain, and British Islam.
- To apply theoretical knowledge to address contemporary social issues within the Muslim community in Britain and beyond.
Outcomes:
- To gain an understanding of the historical and social forces shaping modern societies.
- To develop the ability to critically analyse the interaction between Britain and Islamic civilisation.
- To develop the ability to apply theoretical knowledge to tackle contemporary social challenges within British Muslim communities.
Focus:
- Equip students with the knowledge and skills required to effectively implement their learning in academic, community, and professional contexts.
- Training in leadership, counselling, and career planning, with a focus on service in multi-religious and multi-cultural environments.
Purpose:
- To build core academic and professional skills essential for success in a variety of contexts, scholarly and vocational.
- To develop students’ understanding of community leadership, particularly in the Muslim community.
Outcomes:
- To develop proficiency in academic writing, research, and critical thinking.
- To gain an understanding of effective community leadership and relational skills.
- To acquire knowledge of diverse career opportunities and how to prepare for them.
- To build a foundation for personal and professional growth in leadership and service-oriented roles.
Focus:
- Provide students with practical, hands-on experiences to apply academic and professional skills.
- Focus on reflective practice, pastoral care, and chaplaincy within various community settings.
Purpose:
- To enable students to translate theoretical knowledge into meaningful and effective practice.
- To develop practical skills in chaplaincy, pastoral care, and community engagement.
- To cultivate a deeper understanding of cultural, emotional, and spiritual dynamics in diverse settings.
Outcomes:
- To equip students with the ability to apply their learning in diverse community and pastoral contexts.
- To enhance skills in reflective practice, critical evaluation, and theological reflection.
- To foster an understanding of chaplaincy and pastoral care in multicultural and interfaith environments.
MEET THE FACULTY
Dr Salman Younas’ research focuses on Islamic law in the classical and modern periods with a specific focus on the history of law, legal philosophy, and contemporary legal thought. Dr Younas graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Political Science and Religious Studies. After completing his undergraduate degree, he moved to the Middle East where he spent half a decade studying Arabic and the traditional Islamic sciences. In 2013, Dr Younas completed his MA in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford with honours. He then went on to complete a DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford in 2018. His thesis focused on the formation and evolution of the Ḥanafī legal school during the 3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries. He was previously a researcher at the Oxford Department of International Development and the Hamad bin Jassim Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.
SENIOR LECTURER IN ISLAMIC STUDIES
Dr Ramon Harvey lectures in Islamic theology at Cambridge Muslim College. He undertook his postgraduate studies at SOAS, University of London, and also holds an ʿalimiyya qualification. His publications include monographs and articles in both Islamic theology and Qur’anic studies. Currently, his research focuses on kalām in early Māturīdism and on constructive Islamic theology, especially in conversation with Christian theology, analytic philosophy and phenomenology. He is Series Editor of Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology, which is published by Edinburgh University Press.
VISITING LECTURER IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
Amin El-Yousfi completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge looking at how everyday Muslim pieties encounter and operate through processes of secularisation and neoliberlisation. His research was based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in France and the UK looking at the intersection between Islam, neoliberalism and secularism. He is presently a Research Associate in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Chester. In addition to studying privately a traditional curriculum of Islamic sciences with ‘ulama in Morocco and the UK, Amin completed an MPhil in Economics and an MPhil in Sociology. He then worked for two years as a Research Associate at the Moroccan Centre for Social Sciences (MC2S) before joining the University of Cambridge with a full Cambridge Trust doctoral scholarship. Amin worked also for two years as a Research Associate at the Groupe Société, Religion et Laïcité (attached to the CNRS).
SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW
Professor Claire Gallien is Senior Research Fellow at Cambridge Muslim College. She received her PhD in English and Comparative Literatures and Studies at the Sorbonne. She also has training in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Inalco and abroad (Cairo, Damascus, Sanaa, Birzeit, Beirut, and Tunis). Prior to joining Cambridge Muslim College, she was research and teaching fellow at the Zentrum für Islamische Theologie (Tübingen University, Germany) and has had more than ten years experience of teaching and research at the University of Montpellier and the CNRS (France). Her research interests are in Islamic epistemology and Islamic intellectual and religious history, Islamic literature and Sufism, British early-modern orientalism, with a focus on the constitution of Islamic manuscript libraries in early-modern Britain, decolonial thinking and translation. She has studied with Muslim scholars in Egypt, Turkey and the UK.
LECTURER, ISLAMIC STUDIES
Dr Belal Alabbas is a historian of Islamic intellectual and legal thought (7th – 15th centuries) and his research focuses on the hadith corpus, hermeneutics, and Islamic law in the formative and classical periods. He graduated from Al-Azhar University with a degree in religious studies and completed his DPhil in History of the Islamicate World at the University of Oxford. He previously held lectureships at the University of Nottingham and the University of Bristol and was a British Academy International Fellow at the University of Exeter.
Is Contextual Islamic Studies and Leadership right for you?
The programme is open to individuals with a strong foundation in traditional Islamic studies. Specifically designed for graduates of ‘alimiyyah’ programmes, we typically require candidates to hold a certificate of graduation from a madrasa with a curriculum covering dars-i nizami or an equivalent qualification. A competence in Arabic and the Islamic sciences is a requirement. However, we understand that Islamic studies qualifications can be obtained through various pathways – if your background follows an alternative or non-traditional route, we’re open to considering your application on a case-by-case basis.
FURTHER INFORMATION
If you experience any issues uploading your supporting documents or personal statement, please email the documents directly to:
admissions@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk
General Requirements
- Minimum age of 18 years at the time of enrolment.
- UK citizenship or permanent resident status (non–EU nationals must have relevant visa status).
- Evidence of leadership abilities.
- Two references sent directly to Admissions department by the referees.
- Clear Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Academic Criteria
- Completion of an alim or alima course at a recognised institution of Islamic scholarship, or equivalent education in the traditional Islamic Sciences.
- Successful completion of at least 5 GCSEs (minimum grade 4) and ‘A’-Level qualifications, or equivalent of alim or alima courses (the College recognises that many students who could benefit from the programme may not have mainstream academic qualifications).
The College welcomes applications from men and women seeking to apply their knowledge effectively in the service of the Muslim community and others. The programme is suited to those who want to work directly in mosques and Muslim organisations, and those looking to gain higher-level qualifications. In order to apply, the following items must be submitted:
- An Online Application Form
- Copies of academic certificates and transcripts*
- Two references must be submitted directly by the referees to the College via email at admissions@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk. by the application deadline.
- Proof of English language ability if English is not your first language.
*If you experience any issues uploading your supporting documents or personal statement, please email the documents directly to:
admissions@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk
Application Guidance
All applicants should read the below documents carefully and send a copy of the Reference Guidance Notes to their referees.
Fees
Tuition fees for this programme are £6,250. Successful candidates must confirm their place on the programme with a £150 non-refundable deposit. Once committed to the course, students can pay for their fees in one-lump sum, or over three equal instalments, paid termly. For more details please refer to our Fees & Refund policy.
Scholarships & Bursaries
- Cambridge Muslim College endeavours to support successful students, regardless of their financial situation, and it is with emphasis we state that one’s financial need will not impact the admissions process.
- We work closely with individuals and institutions who are keen on funding students of knowledge.
- Students will be able to apply for financial assistance once they are offered a place on the BA programme.
- Offer holders will be asked to complete a financial aid application which will be assessed before a decision on the level of assistance (if any) is made.
- For further information about scholarships and bursaries please email: admissions@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk
Admissions open: 28 Jan 2025
Admissions close: 04 May 2025
Shortlisting begins: 06 May 2025
Interviews starting: 27 May 2025
Admission decisions: 02 Jun 2025
Induction Week begins: 15 Sep 2025
Cambridge Muslim College reserves the right to amend the content and timing of the programme or discontinue the programme. Where possible, notice of any changes will be communicated.
