Sh YASIR QADHI, AlMaghrib Institute Dean of Academic Affairs
It gives me IMMENSE pleasure to announce alMaghrib's latest project:
Ilm Summit 2008
The idea is simple.
We want to reward our 100 best students (yes, that's exactly one hundred), by giving them the oppurtunity to study with all of the Instructors, and many more guest speakers, for a period of two weeks, in intense morning-to-evening sessions, covering all the basic sciences of Islam, and then some.
Sh. Yaser Birjas and myself will be resident (on-site) for the entire two weeks. The other Instructors will come for stints, and other guest speakers will come as well.
We will cover: tajweed, tafseer, Uloom al-Quran, Mustalah al-Hadeeth, Hadeeth, Fiqh, Usool al-Fiqh, Qawaid, History, Dawah, and perhaps some aspects of Arabic language. Additionaly, we will invite speakers in other specialities (not necessarily 'Islamic') that are essential for us as Western Muslims to be familiar with. Tentatively, we might include workshops on khutbah/speech techniques, managing Islamic Centers, organzing conferences, and other practical information that we would expect these participants to find useful in their dawah.
Each of the 'classical' sciences will obviously not be covered in its entirety (except for tajweed). Rather, in each field, we will choose a sub-section and cover it to a level that our experienced and mature students deserve. Thus, for example, in fiqh, we shall cover all of the chapters of taharah up to shurut al-salat, in all four madhabs, from a standard matn in each madhab, then we will go back and do fiqh al-muqaran of those same issues. In Uloom al-Quran, we will cover in detail the compilation of the Quran between Muslim scholarship and Orientalist views. In history we will cover the rise and fall of Muslim Spain and the lessons learned from that experience. And so forth...
For Tajweed, if there is an interest, we might offer 'ijaazahs' in the Quran for those who are qualified (i.e., huffadh). For others, we will teach one-on-one to the greatest extent possible.
The program will be open for brothers and sisters (sorry, no babysitting facilities available!) who have taken AlMaghrib classes, and who will be committed to two solid weeks of learning.
SERIOUS STUDENTS ONLY - LAZY STUDENTS NEED NOT APPLY!!!!
Although all AlMaghrib students can apply, we will NOT accept students on a first-come-first-serve basis. Rather, there will be an application process and all students will be screened exhaustively, and ONLY the best students will be chosen.
Criterion that will decide who gets chosen are:
1) Number of AlMaghrib seminars attended, with exam, and high pass
2) Amount of Quran memorized
3) Level of activism in the community
Students from all over North America are welcome to apply, and our goal is to accept students from ALL Qabeelahs.
Cost and location of the program is still being formulated, but will cover everything, from room/board, to transportation from/to airport, etc. All that will be required in addition to this will be the plane ticket.
The date has been scheduled for the 1st to the 18th of August and the location of this years Ilm Summit 2008 will be in Houston, Texas.
All students are expected to arrive by Friday the 1st of Auguest, and leave Monday the 18th of August.
There will be exams and projects for these students as well, and MAJOR prizes will be given out to the top students.
Oh, and those who get chosen first time round and pass the exams will automatically get chosen next year as well.
Yes, you heard me right, this is an annual event.
YASIR QADHI, Dean of Academic Affairs
