Alim Course Outline
The Alim course is based on the traditional Alimiyyah taught at Islamic seminaries around the world which ends with a year dedicated to the study of core hadith mutoon and ijazah from teachers.
The EC Alim course is a total of 7 years broken up in to three parts as follows:
Part 1 - Islamic Sciences Programme (ISP): 3 years with option to study AS/A levels in conjunction
First 3 years combined with A level Religious Studies (available to full-time students only) and A level Arabic. This is currently known as the Islamic Sciences Programme at EC. Full time 6th form students are able to combine this programme with 1 or 2 additional A levels of their choice from those offered at the EC 6th Form while part-time students focus on the Islamic Sciences. This is an excellent programme which leads on to the second (undergraduate) part of the Alim course and in terms of content covers everything a Muslim needs to be fully informed about faith and practice. It also provides an excellent grounding in the Arabic language. Ideally, every Muslim should study this programme. Those who wish to specialise or become Alims should then progress to parts 2 and 3 of the Alim course. Full details of the ISP are available here.
Part 2 - Alimiyyah: 3 years combined with 'BA Islamic Sciences and Society' (ISS)
These 3 years represent the 4th, 5th and 6th years of the our Alim course. These are combined with the above mentioned BA which has been designed by ECC and will be gradually validated by a British university. This means that the first year will be validated as a Certificate in Higher Education by July 07; the second year will be validated as a Diploma and the third as a BA Honours. The BA forms a necessary but not sufficient part of the Alim course. This means that the Alim course has additional content to the BA and the Alim certificate and ijazah is also separate and additional. Every Alim Course student will study the BA as part of the overall course. See course map for further details.
Part 3 - At-Takmeel: 1 year dedicated to a comprehensive study of core hadith mutoon (Dawrah Al-Hadeeth)
This is the final year of the Alim course in which students study core hadith texts such as Al-Bukhari, Muslim and the four sunan along with Muwatta Imam Malik and Sharh Ma'anil Athar. This year culminates in the students receiving ijazah in hadith (permission to transmit hadith from their Sheikh) after which they are regarded as 'Ulama.
To see course maps for the Alim course click here.