Shaykh Abdul Hakim Murad’s inaugural speech

We are pleased to announce that Professor Timothy Winter (also known as Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad) became the first Professorial Chair in a British Muslim higher education institution. He delivered a distinguished lecture entitled: How Islamic is ‘Islamic Studies’? The Troubled History of an Academic Discipline on Monday 19 November 2018 at Senate House, University of London.

The lecture outlined the challenge facing young British Muslims who wish to embark on the path of religious scholarship and how contemporary higher educational programmes were lacking in meeting the needs of Muslim students seeking theological understanding; and the challenges facing secular faculties of Islamic or Oriental studies when Muslim students with a confessional outlook enrol on to their courses. The professor demonstrated how institutions such as Cambridge Muslim College and Ebrahim College are at the cutting edge of innovative educational curricula and practices.

Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad teaches a module, Aspects of Islamic Civilisation, on the Alimiyyah course at Ebrahim College.