Course
Requirements:
Since this is an intensive
five-day course, full attendance and participation are absolutely necessary.
Students will be graded for participation and will lose points for
unexcused absences from class.
Students will be required to
keep a “Qur’an Journal” in a notebook that will be submitted to the
instructor in August. The journal
will have two sections. One section
will be a glossary, in which students will write down new and unfamiliar terms
and their definitions. To this end,
the student should bring the journal to class each day.
The other section of the journal will be reflective and based on
independent reading of translations of the meaning of the Qur’an.
Students are required to submit a journal with at least twenty
entries—each made on a different day. The
entries can be as short as two sentences; there is no maximum length. The entry consists of reflections and questions about what
the student has read.
The research paper must be
on a topic approved by the instructor. An
outline and bibliography must be submitted to the instructor on the designated
date or points may be deducted from the final grade.
In addition to any monographs the student may find on the paper topic, he
or she must also consult the Index
Islamicus, the Religion Index or another source to search for
relevant scholarly articles. The
student is encouraged to submit a draft of the paper before the final due date.
Students should follow Hartford Seminary guidelines for writing research
papers. A copy of these guidelines
are available from the course instructor or the Dean of Students.
Students are also permitted
to submit a project instead of a paper. The
project should be a creative exercise designed to help the student further
explore the Qur’an in Muslim society. Students
wishing to submit a project must obtain prior approval from the instructor.
***All
students must have read the Introduction to the Sells book by the start
of the first class.
Grading:
Participation
20%
Qur’an journal
30%
Research paper or project 50%
Deadlines:
Qur’an Journal and final paper/project due
August 20
Course
Texts:
- The
Meaning of the Holy Quran. Translated
by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Maryland: Amana Publications.
- Fazlur
Rahman, Major Themes of the Qur’an.
Malaysia: Islamic Book Trust, 1989.
- Michael
Sells, Approaching the Qur’an: the
early revelations. Ashland,
OR: White Cloud Press, 1999.
- M.M.
Al-Azami, The History of the Qur’anic Text:
from Revelation to Compilation (a comparative study with the Old and
New Testament). Leicester,
UK: UK Islamic Academy, 2003.
*Pre-reading:
- If
this is your first Islamic Studies class, you may want to read a general
introduction to Islam. I
recommend Marston Speight’s God is One, the Way of Islam.
This is available at the Hartford Seminary bookstore.
- Before
class, visit the following website and look around:
http://www.uga.edu/islam/primsourcisl.html.
Daily
schedule (except Friday):
Friday
| Period 1
9:00-10:30 |
Period 1
9:00-10:30 |
| Break
10:30-10:45 |
Break
10:30-10:45 |
| Period 2
10:45-12:15 |
Period 2
10:45-12:30 |
| Lunch
12:15-1:15 |
Lunch
12:30-2:30 |
| Period 3
1:15-2:30 |
Period 3
2:30-4:00 |
| Break
2:30-2:45 |
|
| Period 4
2:45-4:00 |
|
*Please
note the Friday schedule is different from the other days in order to
accommodate Islamic congregational prayers.
*A
schedule of daily readings will be available on the website two week before the
class begins.
