Master of Arts in Islamic Studies

The Master of Arts in Islamic Studies is offered to thought leaders, administrators, educators, or professionals who seek a deeper understanding of the beliefs and values of Islam together with the needs of dominant faith communities that interact with the Christian religion in the Middle East North Africa region.

The instructional environment of our program provides a real-life context of living in an Islamic and Middle Eastern setting dealing with the experience of Christian-Islamic coexistence. It seeks to provide knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes that promote respect and dialogue in the context of Islamic religious understanding.

The program provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to Islamic faith and practice, culture and society, language, history, and ethics, from a biblical and Seventh-day Adventist perspective.

As the faith of over a billion of the world's people, Islam exerts significant influence as a religion and a civilization in the culture and politics of world history, and the globalized context of the modern world. The MA degree in Islamic Studies is offered to thought leaders, administrators, educators, or professionals who seek a deeper understanding of the beliefs and values of Islam together with the needs of dominant faith communities that interact with the Christian religion in the Middle East North Africa region.

Its instructional environment provides a real-life context of living in an Islamic and Middle Eastern setting dealing with the experience of Christian-Islamic coexistence. It seeks to provide knowledge, understanding, skills, and attitudes that promote respect and dialogue in the context of Islamic religious understanding. The program provides a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to Islamic faith and practice, culture and society, language, history, and ethics, from a biblical and Seventh-day Adventist perspective.

The program is delivered largely through intensive classes that are taught on campus in either four consecutive summer sessions of 9 weeks each, or four consecutive semesters of 15 weeks each (two summers plus a fall and spring semester).

Students whose mother tongue is not Arabic or who have not completed their secondary education in a school where Arabic was used as the language of instruction are required to take two prerequisite 4-credit Arabic language courses that are not part of the MA in Islamic Studies program. These courses must be taken in the order and in time sequence over two consecutive semesters.

The program will require considerable reading and study before and between sessions. Students will be supplied with relevant course outlines and textbooks at least six months prior to each session.

The teaching methods will vary, including preparatory reading, lectures, class discussions, research, case studies, tutorials, field trips, and the exegetical practice of the Bible and the Qur'an. Skills will be developed in the following areas that cover the respective topics:

Language

Communication or language skills are indispensable because, without language, effective communication of the gospel is very difficult. Students will develop a working knowledge of the Arabic language needed in everyday communication and a basic understanding of the Qur'an. For those who need it, proficiency in English will also be developed.

Religion of Islam

Students will develop a deeper knowledge of the Qur'an and the belief system of Islam, will know how this informs rituals and practices and will be able to better interpret the Qur'an. They will understand the history and belief system of Islam and the factors in its development within the Middle East and as a global phenomenon.

Ethics

Students will gain a biblically informed perspective of the moral themes, values, issues of human rights, and ethics in Islamic and Arabic culture and society.

Theology

Students will study key Adventist values and teachings together with a worldview in relation to Islam and compare Islamic thought with biblical revelation. They will become skilled in the exegesis of Scripture alongside the Qur'an and know the distinctive of the Adventist faith and values in relation to Islamic thought.

Culture

Students will study the various aspects of Islamic culture, patterns of society, and its organization from both a biblical and contemporary perspective.

Methodology

Students will come to understand cross-cultural interaction and to learn biblically informed approaches for meeting the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs of Muslims and those either living in or originally from the Middle East North Africa region of the world.