The Graduate Diploma in Islamic Studies builds upon the DIS program by bringing students into direct engagement with classical Islamic scholarship at an advanced level. Through detailed study of core texts across the major Islamic sciences, students develop proficiency in legal, theological, and exegetical reasoning while advancing their command of Arabic to read source works directly. Students also gain a comprehensive understanding of Islamic history across all major periods up to the modern era, along with a thorough grasp of Islamic theology that includes both classical discourse and contemporary theological developments and challenges. Graduates emerge with the depth and clarity needed to confidently convey Islamic teachings in modern contexts. They are prepared to teach adults and youth in community classes and ḥalaqahs, deliver Friday khuṭbahs, and contribute meaningfully to local religious leadership. The GD also provides the academic preparation necessary for specialized postgraduate study through the PGD program.

Note: Completion of the DIS is a prerequisite for the GD. All DIS credits transfer automatically toward the GD.

Course Code Course Name Description / Texts Hours Credits
QUR 310 Classical Tafsīr Literacy I Tafsīr al-Jalalayn Part I 48 3
QUR 311 Classical Tafsīr Literacy II Tafsīr al-Jalalayn Part 2 48 3
QUR 312 Classical Tafsīr Literacy III Tafsīr al-Jalālayn Part 3 48 3
QUR 300 Advanced Hermeneutics and Comparative Method al-Tafsīr wa al-Mufassirūn (al-Dhahabī, advanced selections) 48 3
QUR 400 Principles of Quranic Exegesis al-Fauz al-Kabir fi Usul al-Tafsir (Shāh Walī Allāh) 24 1.5
QUR 410 Classical Tafsīr Literacy IV Tafsīr al-Baghawī (selected passages) 48 3
QRM 300 Memorization Proficiency Sūrat adh-Dhāriyāt – Sūrat al-Taḥrīm, plus Sūrat al-Kahf, Sūrat al-Sajdah, Sūrat al-Dukhān, and Sūrat Yā-Sīn (3 ajzāʾ) — [Proficiency Exam, Pass/Fail] 3.5
HDH 300 ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth (Applied) Nuzhah al-Naẓar (Ibn Ḥajar) 48 3
HDH 310 Prophetic Persona Shamāʾil al-Muḥammadiyyah (al-Tirmidhī) 48 3
HDH 410 Thematic Ḥadīth Studies I Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ (al-Tabrīzī) Part 1 48 3
HDH 411 Thematic Ḥadīth Studies II Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ (al-Tabrīzī) Part 2 48 3
HDH 412 Thematic Ḥadīth Studies III Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ (al-Tabrīzī) Part 3 48 3
FQH 300 Intermediate Ḥanafī Law I Sharḥ al-Wiqāyah (al-Mahbūbī) pt 1 48 3
FQH 301 Intermediate Ḥanafī Law II Sharḥ al-Wiqāyah (al-Mahbūbī) pt 2 48 3
FQH 401 Advanced Ḥanafī Legal Reasoning I al-Hidāyah pt 1 (al-Marghīnānī) – ʿIbādāt and juristic reasoning 48 3
FQH 402 Advanced Ḥanafī Legal Reasoning II al-Hidāyah pt 2 (al-Marghīnānī) – Muʿāmalāt and contractual law 48 3
USL 301 Intermediate Ḥanafī Legal Theory I al-Manār with Nur al-Anwār pt 1 (Ibn al-Humām; Mullā Jīwan) 48 3
USL 302 Intermediate Ḥanafī Legal Theory II al-Manār with Nur al-Anwār pt 2 (Ibn al-Humām; Mullā Jīwan) 48 3
USL 401 Intermediate Ḥanafī Legal Theory III al-Manār with Nur al-Anwār pt 3 (Ibn al-Humām; Mullā Jīwan) 48 3
TJD 210 Tajwīd Theory al-Muqaddima al-Jazariyya (al-Jazarī) 24 1.5
ARB 220 Intermediate Morphology ʿIlm al-Ṣīgha (al-Tāwī) 48 3
ARB 230 Introductory Rhetoric Instructor’s notes on foundational balāghah 24 1.5
ARB 301 Advanced Applied Arabic I Qirāʾāt al-Rāshidah Vol. 3 (Nadwi) 48 3
ARB 302 Advanced Applied Arabic II Qaṣaṣ al-Nabiyyīn Vol. 4 (Nadwi) 48 3
ARB 330 Intermediate Rhetoric Al-Balāghah al-Wāḍiḥah (al-Jarīm, Amīn) 48 3
ARB 410 Conversational Arabic Al-ʿArabiyyah Bayna Yadayk Vol. 3 48 3
AQD 302 Classical Kalām Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyyah (al-Taftāzānī) 48 3
AQD 401 Advanced Kalām and Philosophy Selections from al-Mawāqif (al-Ījī) and al-Maqāṣid (al-Taftāzānī) 48 3
AQD 402 Contemporary Theological Issues and Modern Thought Selected readings from classical and modern theologians, Kalamization of Physics 48 3
TZK 301 Inner Dimensions of Worship Mukhtaṣar Minhāj al-Qāṣidīn (Ibn Qudāmah) 48 3
TZK 401 Spiritual Psychology and Stations Selections from Madārij al-Sālikīn (Ibn al-Qayyim) 48 3
HST 301 The Caliphate and the Formation of the Ummah Tārīkh al-Khulafāʾ (al-Suyūṭī) 48 3
HST 310 Theorizing Islamic History Readings from al-Muqaddimah (Ibn Khaldūn) and Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bālighah (Shāh Walī Allāh) 16 1
HST 320 History and Development of Tazkiyah and Taṣawwuf Sufism: The Formative Period (Karamustafa), selected excerpts from Saviours of Islamic Spirit (Nadwī) 16 1
HST 401 Later Islamic History and the Decline of Empires Selections from al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh (Ibn al-Athīr) 48 3
HUM 310 Political Philosophy and the Modern State Selections from Hobbes, Leviathan (Hobbes), Second Treatise (Locke), Social Contract (Rousseau), Restating Orientalism (Hallaq), Trajectories of the Indian State: Politics and Ideas (Kaviraj) 48 3
HUM 401 Modernity and its Discontents Cultural Pessimism: Narratives of Decline in the Postmodern (Bennet), A Secular Age (Taylor), Formations of the Secular (Asad), Islam and Secularism (al-Attas) 48 3
HUM 420 Islam, Modernity, and Decolonial Thought The Impossible State (Hallaq), Genealogies of Religion (Asad), Religious Differences in a Secular Age (Mahmood), Saviours of the Islamic Spirit (Nadwi) 48 3