Islamic Law at SOAS Q and A

Okay Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah. Dear brothers and sisters as salam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh. I hope you can all hear me fine.

This is your sister Fatima Baraka tila. And this live session is a live session that actually quite a lot of brothers and sisters asked me to do.

And that's because they've been asking me questions about studying an MA masters or an LLM at so us, which is the School of Oriental and African Studies, which is part of the University of London

in Islamic law, and so many brothers and sisters kept asking me questions about it, and, you know, comparing it to Islamic Studies, for example, whether it's the right thing for them, et cetera, et cetera, that I thought it would be really useful to do a video where I answered all those questions in one go. And if you have any questions, please also do post them.

In sha Allah, I'll introduce you to myself, and my own background in terms of Islamic Studies, and in terms of studying so as and then hopefully, two guests will be joining me this evening. One of them is hopefully Mufti of none of None from Pakistan, who he's actually a, he was a student, so as this year as well, oops, my camera is about to collapse.

So just give me one moment please.

So I hope you can see me there. No, sorry, I had a bit of a technical issue with my camera. This is my first time doing a live stream. So do bear with me. So hamdulillah as I said, this session is going to be all about the MA stroke, LLM that's so us University of London. And I think with the f9 is here. So in sha Allah, I'll just bring him in, and then we can start discussing the course and just going through some elements of the course so that if you're somebody who might be considering doing the course and sha Allah, you can

make a more informed decision, I guess. Right. So just one moment

so I'm on a call.

Can you hear me now?

Are you hamdulillah I'm fine.

If the afternoon I was just introducing our brothers and sisters to the reason why I was having this session today. And the reason for me is that a lot of brothers and sisters keep asking me about studying Islamic law at SAS and

especially brothers and sisters who are from

an Alameda black background right people whose

Study, like classical Islamic Studies, sometimes they have a lot of questions like, Is it really going to be beneficial for me to study something like this?

So what I thought is both of us could inshallah introduce people to, to the course and let them know from, I guess from our different perspectives, how we found it, what the benefits we found were.

So I'm just gonna go first, if that's okay, I'm just going to tell everybody that. So I've been doing the course part time.

So you do have the option of doing it. Over one year, two years or three years.

I've been doing it over three years, I took the maximum time so that I could balance it with my family life, I guess, and other projects.

And before that, I had I had studied in Egypt, I've completed my GCSEs and a levels as usual, studied in Egypt and then completed an Alameda degree here in the UK at a Bryan college. And another early me as it said, certification with Sheikh Mohammed Akram nadwi.

And, you know, whenever there was you coming into town, or whenever I could go and visit them, I would go and study with them. So I guess in that sense,

I didn't have a official degree from a university No, like a traditional

degree from a Western University. But Alhamdulillah I applied to so as I got a place

in the Masters, and that's becoming quite normal nowadays, you know, as long as you have studied at a reputable institution, and it's to degree level.

If you're a mature student,

I think even if you don't have that background, they will consider you, you know, they will consider you because they understand that you know, as a mature student, you will have other capabilities and experiences. And they take all of that into account.

So, I'm going to ask you,

if the f9 Like, what was your study background before you came to? So as and

what mode of study did you decide to do?

A lot of time, first of all, thank you for taking the initiative and inviting me as well. So very good opportunity, not for now just is for for future students, anyone who asks anyone who was interested in this course, very good, Mashallah. Secondly, my background. I graduated from alchemy in 2005 from the room Karachi. My story is seven years were from Jeremy Rashid, where I'm teaching for the last 14 years. I didn't matter hostels and Iftar, Mufti and getting 14 years and different fields, see Hadith

and Islamic finance and Islamic law. So I did my law degree, I graduated and 2015. And did that was from Karachi. So good credit institution as some law college and then postgraduate law from University of London distance learning. And that was in human rights law.

And then some workshops and courses in Germany in Geneva, international human rights Academy with that help a lot of what I was doing, actually, apart from the traditional classical Islamic law, I was merging it with

modern law in specificly human rights law

Well, I was advised to do a Western degree long ago by Dr. Muhammad Kazi and then a rigorous academic and it was the dean of Islamic University Islam, but back then is is not with us now. will bless him. So this was the best course with suited me in, in a reputable

western country. I think this is the only one in UK who's offering

institution who's offering this course

in UK, so yeah, so

he said, we encourage you to study why do you think he encouraged you to do this? You know, to go into like my Western institution, I guess, and

you know, study at this level, what why do you think he

encouraged you to do that?

Very nice question. I asked him this. And that's back. I think in 2008 When I graduated, I went to many all of mine.

Ask them. So he told me Look,

the dominance of knowledge is with the West. And you and me cannot change it right now. The only way we could make a difference is that joining that band and then finding a middle way. So

you should have a Western degree, you could you will have a global presence and a global acceptability. And then you could make your voice heard what you think, even if it's classical Islamic knowledge, or pure traditional?

Well, that's interesting, because I was encouraged. I was encouraged to do this class by my dad by my father, Mufti barkatullah. Yeah. And

when I was trying to decide whether I should do Islamic Studies, or Islamic law, one of the things that you've got to realize brothers and sisters is that they're completely different, right? Because Islamic law is basically from the law department. Okay, so as an Islamic Studies is more of the, I think it's called the Near and Middle East department. Right? And I would say it's more of a

it's not a law, subject, right? It's more like Orientalism would have been back in the day.

That's one thing. My dad, the reason why my dad encouraged me to do Islamic law as opposed to Islamic Studies. He said to me, Look, Fatima for the last years, what you've been studying in terms of Islam, and you know, FERC, and Hadith and all of the subjects that you study in Olympia,

in a way, they are a historical look at Islamic law, you know, in many ways, they're a historical look at Islamic law, you're basically looking into the past, right, to see what the great grandma said, what they laid down in the mother head, for example, et cetera, et cetera.

But now, when it comes to how Islamic law is being applied in the real world today, right?

He said that this will give you a really good insight into like, I guess, how Islamic or Muslim majority countries function, how Islamic law is actually interacting in real life in those Muslim countries and internationally. Right.

And I don't think I really appreciated that when I started. Because when I started, I kept treating Islamic law as if I'm studying.

Fit, right. Yeah.

And I think that's why I would sometimes have arguments with the teachers, you know, because some of the statements they would make.

I found them like, a bit surprising, or shocking, or even

annoying.

But then I realized that not when they're when they're talking about Islamic law, and this entire course, is really looking at it in a very legalistic way, you know,

not in a spiritual way at all, not in any in the way that we consider Sharia, right? Like, when we think of Sharia, we think of a much more holistic thing, don't we? Oh, in fact, we think of Islam as a whole when we think of Sharia. But here, when you can get how

the Sharia is interacting with real legal systems, and what role it has to play in real legal systems in the world today. So that's basically how I,

you know, entered into this class, I wanted to ask you off the cuff man.

Like, what was my questions for you?

Which modules did you take? And can you give us like a little, I guess, snapshot of what you how you felt about those modules?

Oh, actually, before you do that with the I think I should make clear to everybody so I'm going to add something

to the screen so that people can see clearly and easily

what we're talking about here

okay, can everybody see I hope everyone can see that. So this is basically the so as

is MA in Islamic law page,

on the SAS website. And I want I want to make clear to everybody that we're not officially from SAS, you know, when

not, we're not here in an official capacity like advertising. So us or even speaking for the university at all, you know, this is literally us just talking about this course from our perspective, our experience, so that brothers and sisters who are considering it, especially practicing brothers and sisters, I think you know, who might have lots of questions like,

or brothers sisters from Alinea backgrounds, they could they can get an insight into how how we experienced it. Right. So as you can see, this is the page and here

so MA and Islamic law.

There's an overview here. Okay.

The entry requirements you can see

it's quite straightforward, right. And this is the main convener, Professor Massoud bodhran. And hopefully, Professor Massoud brother is going to join us tonight for a little while, if you look here at the structure.

So I think the thing to point out here is that

there are 60 credits for the dissertation, right, so the dissertation that you do in Islamic law, Will, it takes 60 credits, and then you can actually be quite flexible, in that you choose, I believe, 60 credits from this list, okay, here of modules. So they're like your core. And then you can choose, I believe, 60, or even just 30 from here.

And then there are some open options here, you can see postgraduate Open Options. And so every year, there's a list of Open Options, sometimes from other departments, that you can actually take. So for example, if you did want to take some elements of the Near and Middle East,

class

classes, so that's from Islamic Studies, for example, you can see this huge list, you know, you could take Arabic, for example, you could take, I don't know, Persian, if you're interested, or Islamic, I did Islamic legal texts in Arabic, for example.

So in that sense, is quite flexible, right.

Just wanted to point that out. And so if you do it over one year, you would be doing all of that, you'd be doing all of those modules, as well as your dissertation in one year. If you do it over two years, you can be quite flexible, you could maybe leave your dissertation till the second year, and do some modules in the first year, some in the second, if you did it over three years, as I did, you could do all of your modules over the two years, and then just leave the dissertation for the final year, you know, so in that sense, you can make it quite flexible. And you can choose modules that appeal to you. Not necessarily only to do with Islamic law, they can be to do with law in general,

different aspects, or they can be from another department, depending on which ones are available. So I just wanted to make that clear for everyone.

So of the of nine, which modules did you take? And what were your thoughts on those modules?

Yeah, first of all, there are two channels. You took the Masters in Islamic law and I took it from LLM. Right?

Because I had a law degree. So there was from a lawyer's perspective, but many modules are different. Because a lot of brothers and sisters they asked me like, what's the difference between LLM and MA? I believe content wise is the same, right? Yeah, there are different optional modules that the difference is that you can take different legal courses. Secondly, it adds to your legal degrees and thirdly, LLM from from the from from UK or from an international university is equivalent to an MPhil Master's in philosophy. You could go for a PhD or right after Yeah.

So my

karmic law number one, that's mandatory a second human rights in Islamic law and third Islamic law and global financial markets. So the first two courses Islamic law is clamped on human rights were from Professor massage veteran

was from Professor Jonathan aren Brack, and Professor Lin Welchman also joined in to teach two or three modules of family law I guess.

What I had assumed was not what I got. I mean, I was, yeah, it was a very insightful surprise to me what I learned and a very good experience, really. I mean, I consulted many strong Catholics. They said, Well, you're all in you're a Mufti. You're practicing fatwa for the last 14 years, what have you got to know about this, this and that and your lawyer. But you know, this course opened new realms for me. For example, like you mentioned, the pragmatic approach, law in practice law in action, how is it and secondly, we all of us who have Garmin, from the Alameda background, we are setting apart from the state law and giving fatwas

we have a very idealistic approach of doing Sharia that this is ideal. And this there should be Ameerul Momineen. And there should be a qualifier that should be plumbing code. And this and that, that doesn't happen in the world is, the more is the merger of Western law. The secular codification codified law with Islamic law. And

another good thing was we studied the history, the fall of the classical Islamic law mode and the rise of purification, and that there was a rigorous

opposition from the traditional order mind the Ottoman time, but then they had to, because the wheel goes on and you cannot stop.

There was the adaptability and flexibility of Islamic law towards changing times, which I quite appreciate it. I mean, me and you, I think we were the most critical of these

articles. But at the end of the day, this was a great experience. This was the good things about that.

Secondly,

I think you were asking, should we recommend this course to alumier graduates are not? I will say I would only recommend this to Columbia Graduate, not anyone else. Because if

because old have a good background in classical and traditional Feck with the human Quran and Sunnah. And also the Fed.

Get into?

I mean, misguided, really, because there was things there were many things which,

which I think I consider it could have been better. For example, we studied a criticism on sorrel ship, okay? The moderns approach that there need to be a new soul. And we studied those colors. But we didn't study the real soul and

whom we are criticizing. So how can you criticize a science that had been built a 1200 years without studying this, and that was main thing, because ship is built on sort of

a Secondly, we studied the modernist views in many, many, especially in family law, some of those colors, I have no credibility in the mainstream Islamic scholarships. So I think there was a slight misbalance in some of those courses, somewhere I mean, we can agree to disagree.

Thirdly, the aspect of human rights were very interesting. I will suggest an all order mastering especially specializing in anywhere in the world during the course so should mandate pre human rights law, because this is the dominant if not, I think I think you've cut out I think we all cut out from

Oh, sorry, can you hear me now?

Hello.

I think I should come again.

Hello.

Connected.

Let me come again, please.

Okay, brothers and sisters, I think we've lost with the f9 for a little while there, but I'm just going to continue answering some of the questions that you guys have been sending. Okay, I've got muslin back some of the, if you can just repeat some of the points that you were making.

Yeah, so where did it get out?

Uh, I think you were talking about whether you recommend it to to other students and you said

you wouldn't you would only recommend it to people who've already studied Islam Islamic Studies. Yeah.

Yeah, that was a point because because they can hear you so

so sorry for the I don't know why the connection dropped. So, I was saying that I would recommend only to those Muslims especially those who have already studied with

classical fear with traditional olema

logic degree or they have taken a one year two year short course on that

for reasons because we are studying here Islamic law Islamic law, human rights, different approaches towards Islam. They are the ultra conservative approaches the middle rotors and modern approach well sometime I felt like the modernist scholars I have been given a special privilege which they don't actually have sometimes sorry sometimes you felt like

oh my god I mean

in

the modern

yeah

I'm a player now not

unfortunately maybe it's maybe the problem is my end you know but

okay, can you hear me now

my continue out try joining again from another connection I don't know what's the problem?

Yeah, let's do our best in sha Allah.

Kamath Teflon will, will continue inshallah we'll do our best in sha Allah. Do you continue?

Yeah. So you were saying about

people from an Islamic Studies background? Sorry, I missed

what you were saying.

I'm really sorry about the connection. I don't know, what's the problem? It could be could be my end, believe it or not.

Okay.

Yeah. So because Islamic law is, I think is from the fifth perspective, this is advanced subject, okay. You should first know the basics of fake, pseudo fake, and then how it's being applied in the world now. And because, you know, ideally, none of the countries is following any madhhab strictly, you're all picking and choosing from different mother hips. And also, there's a push from the international human rights law, because

all of the Islamic countries have signed most of the Islamic human rights treaties.

So they are obliged to follow the Islamic law, but many Islamic countries have already signed with reservations that we won't accept these are those articles or which are not inconsistent with this dynamic law. So now, there's, it gets quite complex because there are scholars who are very orthodox, they are scholars who are middle Roaders who want to merge have a pragmatic approach to walk with the world. And, yes, Sharia in the same

Time. And then there are modern scholars who want Sharia to adapt to everything what the Western world or Western was saying.

And there's no not so clear that quite gray areas, even I would say, even beyond them, there are secularists, and, you know, liberal, very liberal scholars, or, you know, when we say scholars, we mean, like academics as well, right there mix.

And I agree with you, actually, what I would say is, if you're, if you think this class is going to bring you spirituality, then it's not, you know, it's not, it's not there to make you spiritually aware of Islam and that kind of thing, you know,

but if you think so. So, even if you haven't studied Islam, like traditionally with scholars, okay, I would say you could do it, as long as you do. Alongside it, study Sharia with scholars, I feel like, you know, because there might be some students, some brothers and sisters who they're at that stage of life where they want to pursue a Masters, and they want to do this. So I would say, as long as you're not thinking of this as your source of Islamic knowledge that you're going to practice, you know,

and instead of that, look at it more as a

as a study, you know, a study of the real, the reality, the real kind of landscape of Islamic law in the world. I think you could be fine, because I think some you're right, like some people in our class, I felt like some of them had not had any Islamic background.

And I was a bit worried about them, because

I think, you know, it doesn't really

allow you to understand the Islamic worldview, right? Like as a holistic

worldview. It's very technical in that sense, right? It's very technical, it's very.

So if you don't have a background in it, you're not really going to understand the spirituality behind

any Islamic law. Right. So yeah, I would agree with that. So if I would say, if people are going to take it, you should definitely either have studied traditionally with scholars with Allama. Or you should be doing it alongside, you know, because there are certain things in the class that you might hear that could confuse you, you know, if you don't, if you don't have a good Islamic grounding in your fundamentals, it could be confusing. It could be

you could get the misunderstanding from it as well, I think. Yeah, I think that might be on the same page, either prior study of Islamic, classical Sharia or you're studying along with, you know, academically talking professionally, this is also not correct. Because Masters is advanced studies. I mean, if you're new masters feel you should have a prior bachelor's, great knowledge of that field, you know, so there are many students who are doing a master's in Islamic law, and they didn't have any prior knowledge of Islam and Islamic law specifically.

Yeah, one thing I just want to point out before we allow Professor Massoud on, I can see that he's here.

I just want to point out to people that if you don't have a if you don't have a background in law, okay, the good thing about the

classes, I hope you can see the screen, that there's actually a a course that you end up you do before. So for example, myself I did, I'm doing the MA, which means that I don't have a previous law degree or I don't, I'm not a qualified lawyer. Whereas Mufti f9, for example is, so he did the LLM. For me doing the MA. We did like this two week course, which is called preliminary law, legal reasoning and legal methods, which was really good. I must say it was a very good introduction to

the legal system, international law, and all of the kinds of basic things that you need to kind of get before you start any kind of course on laws, so I actually really appreciated that preliminary course. I'm going to

let professor in in sha Allah, if I can figure out how to do it.

Salaam Alaikum Professor Massoud

Can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Nice. Nice. Nice to see you, Professor, thank you so much for inviting me.

We, we made it, we made it clear to everybody who's on this live stream and like people who might watch it later that when we like myself and Mufti offline, we're not officially from SAS or anything like that, you know, we're just discussing this course, because a lot of brothers and sisters, they contacted us and, you know, sometimes they ask us, like, should I take Islamic law? Should I take Islamic studies?

You know, which, which is the better option for me. They ask questions like,

is studying Islamic law, so is going to confuse me, right? Is it going to be very Orientalist in its approach? For example, you know, I'm just sharing with you the types of questions that we get.

So we thought, you know, let's, let's in a really balanced and fair way, just give people our experience and our take. So, Professor, we're really pleased that you're here with us. And we'd love for you to

introduce yourself, first of all, and just like give everybody a bit of a idea of your own background, because I believe that apart from being a very accomplished academic, and you know, having so many mashallah books that you've authored, etc. I think even before that, you

you did have a classical Islamic Studies background, right? Yeah. That's right. I mean, thank you very much. I mean, I do

explain to students because it's usually very good for students to appreciate the background of the lectures, so professors, so normally I do, I mean, tell students this first class, I mean, anonymously, myself, and as almost lends my Islamic education started with, you know,

learning the Quran, and other Islamic sciences, traditionally, from the mosque and

additional schools, then, I mean, I was doing my Western education along that. But after that, I did also, I mean, after my secondary school, I did also enter what is normally called the

Nizami that is in the Islamic schools. The formal Islamic school that I attended in Nigeria, is called Daro, Dawa, and Islamic revolution. I mean, it's purely an Islamic school where, I mean, you learn about Islam, you learn about all the sciences. I mean, Sierra, I mean, all those sciences.

It's, it's, I mean, been in Nigeria, it's classically,

we concentrated on the Maliki school. And I mean, we did learn other aspects as well. Then when I feel it from my design, I then went to do Arabic and Islamic Studies in the university, one of the universities in the north in Nigeria, purely Islamic Studies.

After that, I then also went to another university in northern Nigeria, to do a double major in

common law, because Nigeria is a pluralist legal system in common law and Sharia, which is I mean, and after that, I qualified as a lawyer, I went to law school qualified as a lawyer in Nigeria. And then I came to the UK in the 1990s to do a Master's in Public International Law at the University of Nottingham. And I then went on to do my PhD in comparative law, that's Islamic law and international human rights law.

Actually not in him. And I mean, since then, I have been teaching I taught in Nottingham I taught in

University of the West of England, Southampton University of Brunel, before I came to swats in 2007. So I've been teaching for about 14 years now.

Mashallah, yes. So, Professor Badran is the convener of the Islamic law, ma and LLM. And I believe you teach the Islamic law class and the human rights and Islamic law class, right? Correct. Yes, that's correct. Yeah. And so Professor, like for people from a law background? What would you say? You hope they will get from from this class and what would you say people from a non law background would get from this class?

Well, I mean, Islam depends on what one wants to do.

Islamic law is very relevant. I mean, these days, both domestically and internationally, if a person has a law background, I mean,

the way we teach Islamic law in the law school,

also, perhaps, I mean, because law is law, and Islamic law is applied, we absolutely know we have Islamic law. I mean, we have common law. A lot of the time you find you remember, in the class, I do try as much as possible to sort of do comparatives with the common law system on many issues. So if a person has a law background, perhaps I mean, that will be easier for them to I mean,

they relate to when we give examples, because they see my perspective, I used to say in class, there are so many similarities. You know, a lot of the time we tend to see that, well, it's damn close, very different from common law. And from there are many similarities, as I do say, and many of the principles we talk about, for example, many of the principles we'll cover in class able to say principle of necessity, for example, the euro, you know, I mean, equity, for example, and so on and so forth. So you'll be able to now as somebody who does not have a law background, we do have

what do you call precessional? For those who do not have a law background who want to do this course, I mean, because we do with teaches us law. It's not the Islamic law course at Suez is not a doctrinal course. It is not to teach about religion. It's I mean, it's, it's not to teach you about religion, although Islamic law is based on religious norms. But you want to look at it from a jurisprudential point of view. So we critique it. I mean, we look and engage with it. I mean, we try as much as possible. I mean, to see the differences. When the jurists differed on a particular view, what were they thinking? I mean, what was in that we tried to look into that to see what they were

thinking, what they really unfenced. I mean, so

I think if a person wants to practice, for example, if they want to, because even in the UK today, many of the law firms in the city, they want people who are qualified, who understand Islamic law to be part of their team.

Oh, yes. Many of them, many of them write us a lot of the time asking whether I mean, asking if students will be interested. Now, for example, Islamic law, finance, for example, is very popular. Now. Family law, there are so many, I mean, elements of family law, people, I mean, contact law firms, and they want people who are experienced in Islamic law. I mean, sometimes we have people who will only come to the Islamic law associates, students, they just take one that only Islamic law calls, we have lawyers in town, who come to now for a person who is not a lawyer,

a person who is not a lawyer who just wants to learn doctrine, they might feel a little bit challenged, they might be shocked actually

mean in the class, because in a lot of the I mean, I do say if you remember vividly, that I mean, the jurist and everyone who tends to I mean, the presumption is that the jurist must do their jurisprudence, on the line by taqwa, you know, like God consciousness, you know, but the truth is, the jurist I mean, a human as well,

too. And only God can judge a person's Taqwa. So it's not a doctrine doctrinal class, whereby we say, Well, God has spoken, you cannot interrogate this, you can? No, we just want to see if law affects our lives. That's just the truth. It restricts us from doing certain things. And if law restrict from doing certain things, we want to know why why does it restrict us from doing those things? You know, so does the nature. I mean, and I am able to say this, because I did Islamic studies before I came come to come to the Islamic law. So I know the difference between the two now in Islamic Studies and Islamic Studies, plus don't want to ask too many questions. I mean, you don't

want to I mean, so me. Now I find that we've got a spoken. You mean, you mean, classical, classical Islamic Studies? Not? Not? Not, not Islamic studies that so ask right. You mean? Well, I mean,

well, depends on who is teaching it. I mean, so as, as you see, as you rightly said,

we look at everything, from a critical point of academics do that anyway. So is this an academy at the end of the day? Yes, it's an academic institution. I do, even PhD student. Look, I do tell my students because a lot of the time when you see it's not about challenging anybody's faith, but at the end of the day, by doing that actually can strengthen your faith. This is my own view. Yes. Because I mean, by my own training, I think it made me make me a lot more conscious. I mean, in relation to

Key, actually, this rule, you know, can be also rationalized. And it strengthens my I have had PhD students, I have students who have come, the PA students on the law called the who have come to really, when we are talking about each year, for example, and we blow it up and things like that. One lady came to tell me that well, I mean, her mother is really wanting her at home, because he's beginning to argue with the mother. Now, she's been warned that she will not she should be aware of her faith. Now, I used to tell you that that look interrogating these things cannot I mean, except your faith is weak. It cannot affect your faith. That's just the truth. And it does my own

perception. It cannot I don't think you cannot affect your faith. It just raises questions about certain things, and then you try to look into them. And

perhaps I mean, there are some that can be justified rationally. There are some that may not. And then just I mean, every every religion has its dogma, even Western law has certain dogmas certain rules, which sometimes may not make sense. I mean, this is the rule. I mean, and you follow you follow it, for example, in land law. I mean, we're talking about it the other day in western law, there are certain rules that and then people are arguing that should be removed, because they don't make sense any longer. Because that's law. In its in its in the way it operates.

Yeah, thank you. Just thank you, Professor for that.

Allow me, you're the host can I can ask questions, Professor, of course. Please. Professor, that's also practical question. I mean, you talked about people who have a law background, not what about the people who are Alleman who are minorities, I mean, there are practicing fatwa in institution. And we know the difference between fatwa is not non binding a personal opinion and legal opinion is monism is binding. So what benefit can move the practicing of the half from studying Islamic law, especially Islamic law? It at sauce? Yes, I mean, especially, I mean, you, you are in a better position to be able to answer that. I mean, from a learner's point of view, from this perspective, a

movie can really be because you see, if ta itself, one important aspect of it is I mean, one has to take into consideration the circumstances, you know, in relation to give him the fatwa. And sometimes it's very, very good to really Rob minds. Whereby, I mean, this year, we have people joining us from different parts of the world. You know, for example, on issues which a person may be thinking of, maybe one is confronted with a question, or in Pakistan, we are comfortable

with a question which you need to give fatwa on. Now joining the class here in London, I mean, you could receive some perspective that might be completely from Pakistan, which you might want to consider. And you could use actually, that to buttress your faith to adapt, for example, if it were to be in London, based on the circumstances, my photo might have been different. You know, so I mean, it gives room to be able to see the different perspective, by which I mean,

one uses circumstances in order to influence one's photo. So movies can really benefit from we do, for example, you know, in the first time, we cover the application of Islamic law, like Islamic law in practice, and do cover al Qaeda while on all those simulations. So you are in the best position to be able to win and because I knew I moved here, and I mean, perhaps, I mean, and that will help us as well to know I mean, that type of benefit. If you could say a few things about me, perhaps maybe what benefit Did you see? Or perhaps maybe it didn't really help in relation to your responsibilities as a Mufti?

Yeah, Professor, I told many things in the beginning before where you came at this specific thing, I would just agree 100% with you that you know, the fatwa is adaptable to Earth and Laura, and changing times so how would you know the changing times and different perspectives, for example, there are many thing we think that these are Kataria Atharva. But yes, I mean the 100% but actually there's not an agreement on that many parts of stomach world like in Algeria and Morocco in Malaysia. The practice is different so you know that this masala is not Qatari. This is Matera fee. This is much that fee, and there's mudgil for a different opinion. So I'm really quite, I mean, the

approach with this course was it made me quite flexible and adaptable and a new global perspective, I would say yeah, definitely.

Yeah, I think for me, it made me it stopped me from being naive, I think because, as I was mentioning to prefer to most of the time

under, you know, when you study in a confessional institution, and you study Islam classically, in a way you're studying Islamic laws history, right? You know, you're not really aware of how it's playing out in the world today. Right. And so I think it really gave us a crash course I think in like, in the way law works and Islamic law in particular in the world. And I think, especially with human rights and Islamic law, that was very eye opening, because, as we mentioned earlier, so many Muslim countries have signed up to human rights treaties, and in many ways Muslims benefit from those treaties, right. So I think, and for me, I think the

legal theory aspect was very eye opening as well. Just being able to study and see what the different approaches are that scholars are grappling with, you know, because at the end of the day, these are real problems that they're having to grapple with and find solutions for, you know, in, in our times, and I think,

if you don't, if you're not aware of the various issues and the the way the system works, I think you can have a very black and white kind of approach, right?

That's right. That's

very important. And I think I mean, English, I mean, Islamic legal theory aspect of it is usually very, very interesting. Sometimes people who have other background at all, from the beginning, they find it challenging. It's very abstract, but then actually, they build on into it. And I'm happy for you saying this. I mean, it reflected actually, I mean, if you remember the delay, I mean, you wrote a very, I mean, excellent essay, in that I mean, perspective, which I believe I mean, I mean, really challenge you to really.

And then I mean,

I mean, you didn't move you from

you understand of the classified cup as button perspective. But it pushed you to really, I mean,

come to, which was really very, very good. You know, and it's in the world, the reality of the world in which we live in an MFI. I've not also did mention that, that, you know, he, as he said that, and that's the world in which we live in, in relation to the fact that the way law works, you know, we just have to reflect. And because if Islam, if Islamic law, particularly, must be the law that applies for all times, then we have to be able to think about it in a way that resolves the contemporary challenges that faces us. I mean,

that's what we try to do, sometimes. Don't get it fully, right. But sometimes we do try.

I want to show show brothers and sisters, this is Professor Massoud book. It's, I've got a copy of it. So this is one of his books is

actually if you get a copy of this book from Amazon, Islamic law, a very short introduction, it's like Oxford University Press.

This kind of gives you a really good overview of what we're going to cover in Islamic law class, right, like, including the Human Rights class and, and finance as well. So yeah, I think if you really want like a good overview, if you get a copy of this book, you'll basically understand the content of the professor, is there anything that you want students to know, like, for the for the year coming? Like is, have there been any changes? I noticed that

Islamic law in global financial markets wasn't mentioned on the website, is it not? Yeah, we, I mean, it's not very sure whether it's going to run here, I mean, because sometimes, you know,

lecturer sometimes on sabbatical, and sometimes, when, by the end of the taught me to become very clear, which model

but as you rightly mentioned, I mean, the

the LLM both the LLM, and MA requires students to do a total of 180 credits. Yes, I wonder 80 credits, that means 120 credits of thought models, and then 60 credits for the dissertation. Now, we have I mean, five main Islamic law modules when they are running, that is the main Islamic law. Then we have human rights and Islamic law. Then we have Islamic law and global financial markets. As you mentioned, we have what we call the last minute, gender law and society in the Middle East and North Africa. So this relates to element different elements of Islamic law. Now, these are what they are, they are these are in the a list.

All students who wants to do either MA or LLM in Islamic law must do at least two of those. That is, I mean, 60 credits, you know, coming to from those, and then the remaining 60 credits, go take them from, we have open modules, you could actually even take courses from the Islamic Studies department like Quran like are these and exactly how

to make them up, and then you write a dissertation. So you have to do for full models, you know, for for model talk models, that is study each model full model Saturday credits, or you could do if you take 15 credit models, then you are doing more than four. So then after that you do a dissertation of 60 credits. So it depends on a person's interest. But normally, if you want to do

a program LLM in Islamic law, I mean Islamic law, you have to do the Islamic law module, which we are talking about now. And then you can do other modules to meet up your required credits. Thank you, professor. And, Professor, is there any advice that you would you could give to like, what kind of mindset would you like students to come to this class with, especially if they are from a practicing Muslim background? I'm mentioning this because you might have noticed that even some of us when we initially in the class, you know, some of the ideas, some of the kind of, you know, because if you're from a confessional Islamic Studies background, you've been to an Islamic

institution, then you're not really encouraged to question much, you know, like, in a way you're absorbing, right, you're absorbing, you're taking in and you're, you might be aware of some differences of opinion. But

obviously, you're not interrogating, like, you know, aspects of Islamic law in the in the same kind of way. So sometimes, it can be a little bit of a surprise, I would say to students, right, like, if they're not used to that.

So do you have any, because you told us that you yourself? You know, initially, it was kind of maybe it might have been a bit challenging even for you? Yes, yeah. Totally. I mean, I agree totally that I mean,

even myself, when I went into the university, I mean, it was really

challenging, because you feel you find yourself, if you're not very careful, being very defensive. Yes. To many of the issues that are being and so what I will, what I normally address police, I mean, there's no harm

in feeling that way. But gradually, I mean,

once you have an open mind,

it's not about challenges once faith, once you have an open mind. And I mean, as time goes on, one will be able to it one thing that it teaches is, you know, it's sort of teaches you to really create a balance in relation to perhaps because many of the materials that we read, and I mean, Mufti of none raised one of those points relation to the fact that perhaps maybe we use too many Orientalist materials. And

I feel that

I don't see much harmonic in the sense that,

you know, many of the questions that they raise, I feel like they are valid questions. Yeah, which perhaps, I mean, we need to respond to which Muslims need to, there are questions that I mean, normally a Muslim may not raise a Muslim, classical person with a classical Islamic law background may not raise that I mean, you take it for granted. That look, Allah has spoken, he has spoken. I mean, so you know, I thought you can question is, and, you know, but then when those questions are raised by Orientalist in their writings, it gives us opportunity to reflect over them, because these are things that we meet in the real world. Yeah, you know, I mean, people will challenge you will

ask you, and if you have not dealt with, it makes you actually feel at home, and it gives you confidence,

to be able to then relate to you are not shocked. So for example, you are starting to interact with such material. If maybe you go to a winter conference, or maybe you are in a meeting or you are confronted with it, you know, you're not very careful, you be taken off guard. Sometimes you can become very annoyed feeling that, well, you know, your religion has been challenged and things like that. So I think it's part of the training in the type of world in which we live, especially those of us who live in the West. You know, it's important that I mean, perhaps one gets used to that. So I will tell students who will be on it. I mean, they might feel challenged, but over time, they will

be able to see

Do that. Well, it's for the good. And I mean, it teaches you to be able to deal with such questions when you meet them in real life.

Thank you, Professor. I'm just looking at if anyone has any questions, they can just quickly type them in the chat. I've got one question here from one of our viewers. They're asking, Assam aleikum wa rahmatullah America, can you please touch on the areas of work you feel this qualification may lead to?

So a person with a mA or LLM in Islamic law, for example? How could that maybe benefit them in lines of work, I guess. Now, for example, if you're a lawyer, and you have an LLM in Islamic law, it opens. I mean, it's an additional, it's an it's an, it's a double whammy for you. I mean, for example, in the UK, I, you know, I mentioned in class these days, because I've stopped really doing them, in the sense that, I mean, it's, it comes nearly all the time, and particularly in the UK, and in the West, generally, you find out that in the UK, for example, a lot of the time cases come to court, whereby

it's admins of Islamic law, and there's need for experts opinion, I showed you some example of those. I mean, when we're doing the calls all the time, all the time, you find people saying that Muslims who are from Somalia, and poor, people who haven't, I mean, issues of marriages are diverse, so they want and it's good money, you know, and such, if you are a lawyer, you can be able to if you have studied stomach law, it's part of you know, people, there are many Muslims. In the UK, for example. I mean, in my own community, I help in that regard. Because I'm the resident, I'm also the resident Islamic, I'm in consult on the Muslim session of Nigeria, most cardio controlled.

Many, many Muslims, I mean, even though they've lived in the West, you find towards the end of their life.

They know they live in the UK, but raise concerns about their, about their estates, their wills, they want their wills, done in a way that satisfies Islamic law, and also that satisfies, you know, the UK law,

do it whereby, you know, so if you are knowledgeable within Islamic law, and you are a lawyer, I mean, it helps you for you to be able to help in doing that you, you write the will in a way that conforms with both, and it will be applicable. I mean, in the UK, now for Islamic Studies.

Now, I mean, it depends, for Islamic Studies. People who

teach law, for example, do an MA, an Islamic law, and you are not a lawyer. I mean, it increases your knowledge, people who teach, you could also do expert views in relation to the fact that you are qualified. I mean, you've done Islamic law. And perhaps, I mean, if I'm wants to actually also qualify as a lawyer after taking it, I know that for it to be applied as law, particularly in the UK, I mean, very soon, the next two years or so,

an LLB degree will no longer be required for you to be a lawyer, you know, they are trying to remove that off, I mean, just take the bar exam. So these are solicitors exams, as long as you pass them, you become a solicitor. You know, Islamic law can also be very, very useful in that industry. So there are various means by which one could use it teaching one, then I mean, practicing law two, then three, you know, many in IMC, you know, I have been I've have a have some spare when the United Nations, many international organizations want people who have expertise in Islamic law, as I says lemon law become really very relevant not only domestically but internationally. I mean,

unfortunately, you find out that I mean, many of the bad things that are happening in the world was humanitarian issues that need to be resolved, you find many of them in Muslim majority countries, and the EU and international system have been able to see that where they need people who are actually qualified in order to use an insider's perspective in order to resolve those issues. So Islamic law, so Islamic law becomes really very handy. So if you want to, I mean, it's a very good area,

within the international organizations, system, international finance, for example, Islamic finance, for example. It's really very hot now everywhere. So there are a variety of areas by which both MA or LLM, one hopes to be able to

to utilize the knowledge and I guess also people could go even higher into doing a PhD and

professorial lecturing, etc. Right? There's one more question, Professor, is there an option to study it?

Islamic law at undergraduate level at so as somebody's asking, yes. Now, for example, many universities are doing it now. But I mean, traditionally, Islam, you saw us used to be the only university that taught Islamic law in the UK in the 1940s. Because I mean, it's the only now up to today it is the only university within the University of London system is the only college within the University of London system that teaches it. So people do come. So we do it at undergraduate and postgraduate level. So people, it's a very popular optional, undergraduate course. So us people from

people from other University of London colleges, I mean, so it's available also for undergraduates.

And do they definitely, do they have to be part of the degree a degree? or can people come in and just do a module? Like? Yes, they can think they can do a model, we call them student, we call them associate students. If you look on the class website, there is I mean, not only for Islamic law, any of the models that will teach us so as if you just want to do that single module, they charge you for just a single module. And you get to pay for it after you get a

professor.

I just want to thank you. Thank you does Apple affair for coming and joining us? And there was one more question I had in my head that was quite important that people had been asking me.

Yeah. Is it going to be on site this year? Or do you have any idea if it's going to be online or on site? Well, at least we know that, for the first time, we'll still be online.

So first time will be online. So the national students, international students who can't traveled for example, they could still enroll, right? That's right. Yeah. They could take definitely they call. Yeah. And I mean, with the experience that we've had, actually, the discussion is ongoing. And if you look at all our lecture rooms, now, a lot of resources are being put in, by the time even when COVID, lockdown disappears, we'll be doing what is called blended teaching whereby I mean, teaching in class and people who are not who are international not able to come to London will also be joining us, I mean, through online.

Hmm, that sounds very good.

Thank you, Professor. We're gonna continue with our program to argue so much. Thank you very much for really giving me this opportunity to have this Thank you. Can I Can I just say to you, professor that I actually have learned so much from you. And

I actually learnt, I think, apart from law, and apart from Islamic law, I think I learned to write very, a lot better, you know, from through this course. And to be able to as a Muslim, I think, and as an academic, articulate my myself in an effective way in a more effective way, because I read a lot of your stuff. And that, that did really help me. So I just want to thank you so much for your compliments. I'm really thrilled about that. First one, let me ask let me seek something from you. I'm especially will read the

the short introduction on Islamic law, my short intercompany Islamic law, if you call go on

Amazon to leave a review on it. I have already have you Oh, sorry about that.

I didn't, I think I was one of the first people to buy it. And I actually actually bought three copies. And I sent one to move the afternoon as a gift and somebody else. So

very, very, very popular. It has been gone into more than two reprints already, you know?

Very, very fast. And actually, if you look on Amazon, now they've cut the price down completely, because I mean, it's really selling like, hot when I have to interrogate them when the price went, I thought I mean, is it no selection? No. They said, I mean, actually, it is selling really, really fast. This is what they could bring the price down in order for, you know, it's really

That's good. That's good, I think because it's written in such a in such a balanced way I feel and yeah, it's amazing actually how you managed to fit everything in to such a small. That was what they said. And it's really, I mean, I much I can't believe that at the end of the day, we're able to do it. So thank you so much for your time.

Hopefully, I'll see you next year.

Okay, so that was Professor Massoud button.

As you can tell he's he's a

really nice, guy, Masha, Allah is a very nice professor. He comes from an Islamic Studies background, as we said, himself in Nigeria, he also worked for the UN. So he's very, he's an expert really in human rights and Islamic law. And this was his book that we mentioned. Okay, Islamic law, a very short introduction. So if you want to know the contents of this class, that's pretty much the best way to know the contents. If you go if you get his book, you will. It's literally each of the chapters is everything that we studied during the Islamic law, ma class. So I'm just going to go back to my questions that people have sent me and continue answering them, I think if the man is

gone, now, if he wants to come back, he can. But I know that in Pakistan is very, very late at the moment. So thank you, thank you to him does Aquila, Heron off the off man for participating?

So

yeah, so we said, it's not a doctrinal class, it's not a class where you're going to learn about Islam as a spiritual subjects as a religion, you're going to learn about all the various aspects of Islamic law, and how they interact in the real world, how Muslim countries, for example, are applying them. If you do, for example, Islamic law in global financial markets, which is basically Islamic finance, about Islamic finance, it will be it will really give you an introduction to how the Islamic legal system was disrupted.

You know, so after the Khilafah, and you know, what happened in the Ottoman Empire, how

the Islamic legal system kind of fell apart, basically, and

slowly but surely, but then also how countries are now reintroducing Islamic law, that's been a very eye opening aspect, I think of this course, you know, how Muslim countries are reintroducing Islamic law, and especially when it comes to finance, because that's a very, that's probably one of the areas in which Islamic law is seeing

a huge amount of interest and growth, right.

Human Rights and Islamic law, that's a very interesting subject, because you get to see all of the treaties that Muslim countries themselves have created. So you know, that Oh, I see. If you're interested, for example, in Palestinian rights, I think that'll be really interesting for, you know, to study human rights and Islamic law. And to see how which countries have signed up to which treaties and you know, what the implications of that is, right? Because sometimes I think it's not very clear to us how the UN works, how human rights, treaties and regimes work, right? If you study it, you become much more aware. And you also get an appreciation for how what Islam says, about

freedom of speech, for example, it's not as black and white is sometimes it's presented to us, you know, and I think that's one of the things I gained from this class that a lot of the subjects that you know, sometimes you see Islamophobic people or

media attacking Muslims for. Sometimes we as Muslims, I'm not defending it in the right way. Because we ourselves are not very clued up about what Islamic law actually says about those issues. Right. So like, for example, when it comes to freedom of speech,

I've seen so many debates that brothers have done online, that really, I would say missed the mark, because they it's obvious that they themselves don't really know,

what has been said and what has been discussed by classical scholars as well as academics, Muslim academics, on that subject. Right. So and also, again, women's rights.

One of the things I noticed is that when it comes to women's rights, unfortunate, unfortunately, in Western academia, it's completely saturated with feminist voices right. Now,

that can be quite upsetting for a Muslim, right? When you enter that, and you hear the types of things that are said, right. So for example, in one of the classes, one of the professors said, you know,

according to this academic, you know, Muslim scholars throughout history, or the early Muslim scholars saw women as a sexual object, right? That's really upsetting to hear because it's not true. Okay? It's not true. Now, we can either get upset about stuff like that, or we can understand that actually, certain academics have written about these things. They've

engaged with it. And unfortunately, they end up being the voices for that subject and that topic. If we, for example, as Muslims were to enter that field, and contribute to that field, if we were to engage, and to learn to write excellently and, you know, engage academically and get things published, we could add nuance to that, right, we could add a counter view. And I don't feel that's really being done, you know, in our times. So, other questions?

Should I do Islamic studies or Islamic law, I think we've kind of answered that, if you want, you know, Islamic Studies, if you look at all the modules, on the website, you'll see slightly different modules more kind of engaged with textual study, I would say like, Quran, Hadith, and stuff like that Islamic law is from the law department, which means that it's very much about law, how it works in the world today. And there is a historical element. So we do study, you know, elements of a certain faith and

the historical Islamic law, right, and its formation and all of that. But the bulk of the class is about Islamic law today, and how it's interacting in different

working in different Muslim policies right around the world.

But also, you can, as I said, it's quite flexible. So you could potentially take, say, one module from the Near and Middle East department, you know, there's also the so you could take Hadith or Quran or, you know, one of those types of subjects, if you if you wanted, along with Islamic law, as long as you fulfill the core requirements, you know, there is some flexibility. And also, you can sit in on some on like one module, I think, every year that you don't take as an exam, you're not taking it officially, but you're just able to go to the lectures and benefit from that class. So for example, I did.

I forgotten what it's called. Now, I think it's called Islamic law in South Asia, Islam in South Asia. So got an introduction to how Islam came to South Asia. And you know, the history behind that. So, but I didn't set that as an official module for which I did an exam or an essay, I just attended the lectures in order to kind of benefit from that.

So it's really up to you. I mean, I found Islamic law to be a more challenging subject than Islam, Islamic Studies, Islamic Studies. For me, it was more like more of the same in the sense that if you've

studied, you know, anatomy a degree if you've been studying Arabic, you've been studying Quran and Hadith. And Islamic texts, there's a lot of translation work, for example, in Islamic Studies, there's it in some ways, it's more of the same, you know,

whereas Islamic law was, think outside the box, get a completely new perspective on how Islamic law is working in the world today. So for me, it was much more, it was more challenging, because it's a law subject, you literally have to get to grips with legal language, you know, legal research and stuff like that. So if you're, if you're keen on that, then I would encourage you to take Islamic law rather than Islamic Studies.

Other questions? How has it benefited you? Okay, for me, personally, as I mentioned, to Professor Budden.

I don't think doing a degree is all about the subject that you're studying. It's actually about learning to express yourself and articulate yourself well, in writing, I think that's one of the key things that you learn from academia, if you do it properly. Right.

And that's one of the things that I feel that I've really benefited from this class with. So I would say my academic writing has improved, probably tenfold. Right? Because not just because of, of, you know,

sorry, not just because of having to write essays. But also because when I wrote an essay, I would get feedback from scholars from the academics and I would improve it, right. Plus it. It's like a amazing opportunity to read. You basically. I think I've read more than I've read for like the last 10 years, right? In the last year and or two. I've read more than I read in the last 10 years. Why because you have to read there you have

To do a certain number of readings every week, so it's challenging, but you learn to read, you learn to read fast, you learn to, you can actually feel your brain kind of adjusting and adapting and being able to absorb much more than you would have before. Right. And that kind of practice, right? Also, there are workshops that you can attend. And that's what I really benefited from. So when I first started the class, I started I went to workshops. And the workshops would give you insights into, for example, how to write an excellent postgraduate essay, how to write your dissertation, how to get critical in your writing, you know, develop critical writing skills.

Also, there are certain software's you can get to know about that help you with footnotes, and bibliographies, and all of that kind of stuff, right? So I think you get out of it as much as you really want. If you're the sort of student who's just going to come to class, attend minimally, and then just go home,

you might not get so much out of it. Right? But if you're the sort of student who's willing to speak up in class, who's willing to question things, you know, because it's a safe space for you to ask whatever you want to challenge, even the professor's right.

And if you're the sort of student who after you write an essay, you, you follow it up, you you know, consult with your professors and say, Can you please

tell me where I went wrong? How I could improve this.

And really engage and seek to improve your work, you know, you're gonna really, really see, see yourself become a force to be reckoned with in terms of becoming articular.

Also,

what else did I want to say?

Those are the questions that people had sent me.

Another aspect is, you actually get a real appreciation for,

yeah, you get an appreciation for liberal views, you get an appreciation for even quite dodgy views, you know, but as Muslims, I feel like you have to engage with those views, right? If you don't want to, if you don't like that kind of thing, then this class isn't for you, you know, but if you are willing to engage, you are willing to listen to some of the very liberal views that are out there about Islamic law, people who, you know, in the past have tried, sometimes sincerely, right. But maybe taken the wrong approach. From our perspective, you know,

still, there's so much to benefit from that, because you at least get to appreciate what the different views were, and why they had those views. Right. So you don't you end up having a much kind of, I would say, nuanced and richer understanding of how, actually Muslim scholars had to grapple with quite

difficult circumstances, you know, can you imagine like, after, like, all these countries were divided into nation states, and then, you know, their legal systems were colonized. And English law was sometimes brought in. And then some elements of Islamic law were brought in French legal codes were brought in, you know, this is the reality of the Muslim world at the moment. And I think this course really was eye opening in that regard, you know, so it made you realize, oh, so that's how the Saudi legal system is. That's how the Egyptian legal system is. These are the kinds of great voices from the past who tried to influence that. And, you know, who are the modern scholars? So for

example, one of my essays this year was about eautiful, current use of God thou right Yusuf al Qaradawi, and his,

his legal theory.

And

that was, it was it was really eye opening. I absolutely loved writing that essay, and I loved researching it as well. And,

you know, the actually one of the best writers on use of use of al Qaeda with Islamic legal theory, is an Israeli academic. He's actually written an amazing book, on use of that way.

But, yeah, so I think those are really all of the questions that people have been asking me, let me see if there are any other

questions.

Yeah, the course is available online, like if you if you register, and you pay the fees,

you can access it online. And you know, if I can, I will show you what it looks like. Just give me a moment, I'm actually going to give you a sneak peek into what the

background is like, too.

So this is like, I'm logging into my area of the so ass

kind of space. Okay, let me just show you

I'm going to share my screen with you.

And you shall see.

This is Moodle. Right? So Moodle is basically like,

one minute, can you see?

Let me just see if you can see.

Yep, you can see, okay. So this is basically the space that you have as a student where you can where all your subjects are. So for me, for example, you can see I've got here, these are the modules that I studied human rights and Islamic law,

international protection of human rights, Islam in South Asia, Islamic law. So if you go to one of them, you can see, for example, you'll have

these are like student discussions that go on

all of your lecture notes, seminar sheets are posted here every single week,

any kind of information that you need your exams.

And then the lectures because, you know, after COVID, they went online, we've been having lectures like this, basically, which is you come to this page, and you click on so this was week one, for example, the the nature of Islamic law, you'd go to this link, and then you could attend the class online.

The year before that it was on site. So I got to experience both in that sense. And Professor Bredrin just said that, you'd probably the first term is probably only going to be online this this year, and then it will probably go back to being on site. So just to show you this was term one last year, the nature of Islamic law. So these are like the readings, all the stuff you have to read

for that class,

at least most of it should try to read. And then topic two was a revelation as legislation law in the Quran.

Topic three was the jurists and the law that early days, so you get like a historic overview as well.

And then a text and reasoning classical theories of the law.

So you can see you have readings from, you know, Western Islam assists, as well as

you know.

And kind of readings about what traditional scholars said

fatwas and con one, PLO post classical law and legal systems, and now it's bringing it back to the modern days, right to modern times.

Then we had pre modern developments and early codification.

So you know, how things started to change? How, you know, the medalla, which is basically

the I think it was the first codification of Islamic law codification means, like, making Islamic law into black and white law, rather than FIP. Right. So making it as a statement statements of law, which the Ottoman started to do

understand understanding what effect that had.

And then modern legal theories and legislation. Quite interesting. You learn about the modernists and what they tried to do. You learn about liberal approaches to Islamic law and also classical approaches. What I did actually, in this section when I studied this was, I created my own categorization mess. Another thing you can do, right, as an academic, you don't have to go by the categorizations that previous academics have put right? So if they've said like traditional scholars, and then they've had they have modernist liberals, blah, blah, blah, actually created my own typology. So my typology was conservative orthodoxy, and pragmatist.