Welcome to Cordoba University. We live in a globally interdependent world in which Muslim relations with other faith groups and interaction with increasingly technologically sophisticated and secularized cultures have become imperative. Academic programs offered by Cordoba University through The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences give students the tools needed to begin to meet the challenges of the modern world while taking students through an in-depth exploration of the Quran. Our programs in Islamic studies focus on the pivotal position of the Quran and Sunnah, as sources of Islamic knowledge and on the need for developing methodologies to understand and interpret them to meet the challenges of modern times. The curriculum is focused upon developing an “ijtihad orientation” that is capable of overcoming the drawbacks of the classical Islamic legacy, while benefiting from the depth and richness of its contributions. Ijtihad is a creative but disciplined intellectual effort to derive legal rulings from the Islamic sources while taking into consideration the variables imposed by the changing and dynamic circumstances of the Muslim society.

Courses offered by The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences explore the nature of the classical Islamic disciplines and the circumstances that qualified their development, and linking them to the modern social sciences within the context of the 21st century life in the United States. The consequences of linking the higher moral values of classical Islamic sciences to the modern social sciences are explored throughout the curriculum.

The historical precedent for integrating, consolidating and building upon the best from classical Islamic values and Western scholarship is the scholarship of al-Andalus of the 10th century. Its capital, Cordoba, attracted the world’s most brilliant Muslims, Christians and Jews collaborating together in a rich intellectual exchange that later paved the way for the Renaissance. At that time the library of Corboda housed more than 500,000 books, while the largest libraries in Europe housed less than 50, still written on parchment. Collaboration among Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars was the norm, not the exception.

The Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences continues this tradition, becoming the first Muslim school to join a consortium of Christian seminaries, The Washington Theological Consortium. We are committed to building a dialogue that will contribute to a future in which the best from both cultures is exchanged and cherished, and a spirit of peaceful collaboration and respect prevails.

Sincerely,

Dr. Taha Jabir Alalwani
President