The BA program in Islamic Studies is an interdisciplinary field that integrates Islamic theology with general disciplines in the humanities, cultural studies, and social sciences. The course is designed to equip students with the skills to engage with religious source material on an academic level, address religious practices and their communication, and critically and systematically reflect on faith. Traditionally, the study of Islamic theology encompasses the classical canon of Islamic scholarly disciplines: Quranic exegesis (tafsīr), Ḥadīṯ studies (ḥadīṯ), Islamic law (fiqh) and its methodology (uṣūl al-fiqh), systematic theology (kalām), the biography of the Prophet (sīra), Islamic history (tārīḫ al-islām), and the history of ideas. The minor in Islamic Studies goes beyond traditional Islamic theology to explore the Islamic religion within the European and particularly German context.
The main objectives of the Islamic Studies major include:
- Acquiring the necessary language skills to access Islamic source material,
- Gaining knowledge about the origins, development, content, and scholarly approaches of Islamic theology to its canonical texts, the Quran and Ḥadīṯ, including Quranic exegesis, Ḥadīṯ studies, and Islamic law and its methodology,
- Developing the ability to engage hermeneutically and exegetically with Islamic source material,
- Building the capacity for source criticism, methodological reflection, and independent interpretation of Islamic written sources,
- Achieving foundational theoretical-methodological, historical, and comparative competencies in both historical and contemporary issues,
- Developing the ability to contextualize historical and contemporary social manifestations of Muslim life,
- Acquiring analytical skills to address content and empirical methods related to the topic of "Muslims and Islam in the European context,"
- Cultivating the ability for critical reflection in an interdisciplinary context.
The minor in Islamic Studies provides not only an internal perspective on the Islamic religion but also intercultural and interreligious competencies:
- Contextualizing and advancing the methods and teachings of Islamic theology (such as Islamic law, philosophy, ethics, and systematic rational theology) in the modern pluralistic world,
- Comparing Islamic theological concepts with other religious, secular, and intercultural ethical frameworks.
The Frankfurt Institute for the Study of Culture and Religion of Islam is dedicated to conducting Islamic Studies in an academic and non-denominational manner.
While practical training objectives are not the primary focus, the institute prioritizes the establishment of a scholarly Islamic theology. Topics such as human rights, environmental protection, genetic engineering, and bioethics are just a few of the potential areas to be explored from a theological perspective. The primary aim of Frankfurt Islamic Studies in research and teaching is the acquisition, analysis, and critical examination of classical Islamic knowledge based on primary sources, utilizing established research methods and argumentation structures from the humanities.