ARABIC STUDIES UNIT
ISLAMIC STUDIES UNIT
BRIEF HISTORY
Islamic Studies has been a subject of study for over ten centuries in different parts of Nigeria. Scholars are still working on it with remarkable successes even outside the University settings. The levels of attainment of such establishments and scholars pose challenge and serve as a spring board for the academic study of Islam in the Universities. They also constitute study areas for the undergraduate students in the Universities. Interdisciplinary overlaps do exist between the discipline and others like Arabic, History, Sociology and Anthropology as well as Law. Economics is one recent discipline that has benefited from the cross-fertilization of ideas with Islamic Studies. Nigeria, indeed, is a favourable environment of Islamic Studies with other components of other religions for a degree in Religious Studies.
PHILOSOPHY
The philosophy of the programme is hinged on the convention that in a country where Islam is a way of life for a large proportion of the population, where its study is mandatory for every believer a study of its academic discipline becomes significant. A high level of competence in it becomes desirable as it is seriously needed by the Nigerian society.
Islamic primary sources are in Arabic. This explained why proficiency in the language is crucial to the proper understanding and competence in the Islamic Studies discipline. Students should be able to read and digest the primary sources of Islamic Studies, which are the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Fiqh as they are in the source language.
Proficiency in English is crucial for the purpose of participating in the modern trends in Islam which are usuallyadvanced studies in secondary European sources. A Nigerian graduate of Islamic Studies is one who is capable of obtaining knowledge from the source material and the one who can impart it and marshal arguments in a world language.