DEPARTMENT OF ISLAMIC STUDIES
- To place Islam in the context of other world religious traditions, most especially those that relate to Islam;
- To prepare students with intellectual capabilities and imaginative thoughts who will progress to postgraduate level;
To produce graduates that would adequately fit into establishments such as administration, Islamic Preamble
This University Student Handbook contains valuable information that will guide students, and even staff, to know, first, about Umaru Musa Yar’adua University and the rules and regulations governing the studentship. Second, it provides the required information about the Islamic Studies Department: its historical background and development; philosophy and objectives; admission and graduation requirements; the courses on offer as well as their status and credit weighting.
The Department has so far recorded giant strides in many aspects. It received full accreditation during the last NUC accreditation exercise. Seven of our academic staff are pursuing their PhD in Nigeria and abroad; two of them have just completed and returned from Sudan and Malaysia respectively. We hope that in the next 2-3 years we will have less problem of staffing.
In terms of academic development, the Department has also gone as far as establishing M.A and Ph.D programmes in Islamic Studies. Currently, the Department has graduated twenty five (25) M.A students. We hope to graduate more in the 2015/2016 academic session. Also in the pipeline is the introduction of a degree in Qur’anic Studies and Shariah as well as Postgraduate Diploma in Islamic Studies. We also aspire to establish a centre for Islamic Studies and a local Islamic manuscript repository which will serve as centres of research for local and international scholars of Islam.
We are proud of our current students and those that we have graduated. Most of them are doing wonderfully well and we thank Allah for all the blessings. We equally pray for continuous guidance.
We welcome you all to this great Department.
Dr. Lawal Yusuf Malumfashi
Head of Department
Brief History of the Department
The Department of Islamic Studies was eastablished in January. 2007, and was one of the pioneer departments in the Faculty of Humanities. Dr Musa Ahmad Karkarku was appointed as the first Head of Department. He was succeeded by Prof. Ja’afar M. Kaura, who joined the Department in 2008 on sabbatical from Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto. After his tenure in 2009, Dr. Karkarku was reappointed to head the Department. Dr Sa’id Usman Alkali succeeded Dr Musa in 2012. Dr. Karkarku was reappointed for the third time in 2014 after the successful tenure of Dr Alkali. Dr Alkali was also re-appointed as HOD in 2015. Currently, the HOD is Dr. Lawal Yusuf Malumfashi.
At inception six (6) Graduate Assistants were recruited to run the Department in the 2006/2007 academic session. These 6 GAs were all sponsored by the University for their Masters degree in different sister universitites across the country. A Professor and two (2) Senior Lecturers also joined the Department on sabbatical appointment in the 2006/2007 session. Currently, the Department has twenty six (26) lecturers of different ranks and specialization.
The Department has a total student population of 336 at different levels of undergraduate and postgraduate studies: 69 at 100 level; 58 at 200 level; 60 at 300 level; and 110 at 400. There are at the moment 35 M.A students and 4 Ph.D students.
Philosophy
Our guiding philosophy is to develop the human mind by instilling in it the noble traits of Islam; traits that would make our students more responsible and useful to themselves and humanity. We believe that such development will be the catalyst for the ideological, socio-economic and political rejuvenation needed particularly in this millennium.
The Department promotes Islamic learning – which Katsina is notably known for – through teaching and research. It also participates in finding solutions to multi-dimensional problems confronting humanity and the Muslims in particular.
In a country where Islam is a way of life for a large proportion of its population, the study of Islamic Studies as an academic discipline is not only significant but also required for all believers. A high level of competence in the religion and its jurisprudence becomes a great service needed by the Nigerian society.
Because Islamic primary sources are in Arabic, a proficiency in the language is crucial. Students should be able to read and digest these primary Islamic sources, the Qur’an, Hadith and Fiqh, as they are in the source language.
Proficiency in the English language is also crucial for the purpose of participating in modern Islamic trends, which are advanced studies in secondary European sources. A good graduate of Islamic Studies is one who is capable of obtaining knowledge from source material and impart and marshal arguments using a world language.
Objectives
The Department of Islamic Studies has the overall vision and mission of Umaru Musa Yar’adua University in mind. However, it particularly has the following key objectives:
- To acquaint students with the broad outlines of Islam as a religion and culture;
- To prepare students to understand Islam as a culture and civilisation;
- To describe Islam to students according to its own sources (particularly the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet);
- To maintain a rigorous scholarly approach to problems of contemporary Muslim communities, with a particular reference to Nigeria.
- legal departments and foreign service, as well as students who will teach at various levels;
- To produce good intellectuals, professionals and scholars by integrating the qualities of faith (Iman), knowledge (Ilm) and character (Akhlaq) to serve as agents of comprehensive, balanced progress and sustainable development in Nigeria and the world at large.