Teacher Training Level 1 for Why Islam is True - Four Arguments From the Quran (4-Month Installment Plan)
Taught by Hamza Karamali
Five one-hour intensive teacher training sessions followed by four-month access to “Why Islam is True” online course for all teachers.
Our religion is based on rational evidence. (No other religion is.) Even though this is not well-known today, this rational evidence is found in the Quran and in the Sira of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace). Traditional Muslim scholars of tafsir, sira, and theology have formalized this evidence into four key arguments.
This intensive series of five training sessions will educate teachers in these key arguments and show them how to apply them to respond to common atheist objections.
All attendees will receive free four-month access to the entire “Why Islam is True” course to further their learning.
Upon successful completion of Level 1 training, attendees are eligible to take the Basira Level 2 formal certification to be considered Basira Certified.
Taught by Hamza Karamali
Five one-hour intensive teacher training sessions followed by four-month access to “Why Islam is True” online course for all teachers.
Our religion is based on rational evidence. (No other religion is.) Even though this is not well-known today, this rational evidence is found in the Quran and in the Sira of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace). Traditional Muslim scholars of tafsir, sira, and theology have formalized this evidence into four key arguments.
This intensive series of five training sessions will educate teachers in these key arguments and show them how to apply them to respond to common atheist objections.
All attendees will receive free four-month access to the entire “Why Islam is True” course to further their learning.
Upon successful completion of Level 1 training, attendees are eligible to take the Basira Level 2 formal certification to be considered Basira Certified.
Taught by Hamza Karamali
Five one-hour intensive teacher training sessions followed by four-month access to “Why Islam is True” online course for all teachers.
Our religion is based on rational evidence. (No other religion is.) Even though this is not well-known today, this rational evidence is found in the Quran and in the Sira of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace). Traditional Muslim scholars of tafsir, sira, and theology have formalized this evidence into four key arguments.
This intensive series of five training sessions will educate teachers in these key arguments and show them how to apply them to respond to common atheist objections.
All attendees will receive free four-month access to the entire “Why Islam is True” course to further their learning.
Upon successful completion of Level 1 training, attendees are eligible to take the Basira Level 2 formal certification to be considered Basira Certified.
Syllabus
01. How to Make an Argument
There is not a single verse in the Quran that tells us not to use our minds. But there are dozens of verses that censure the Meccan polytheists for not using their minds and simply clinging to the customs of their ancestors.
But what exactly does it mean to “use our minds”? This session will give examples of Quranic verses that employ rational evidence and then analyze their underlying logical structure. (That logical structure is called an “argument”.)
Trainees will then find those same logical structures in an important verse of the Quran. This will set them up for a logical analysis of the arguments in future sessions.
02. The Argument From Contingency
Scholars of all of the traditional Islamic sciences frequently refer to Allah Most High as “the being that exists necessarily” (al-dhat al-wajib al-wujud). This is an implicit reference to the most important traditional Muslim argument for the existence of God—the argument from contingency (dalil al-imkan). All of our scholars were deeply familiar with this argument and used it to explain hundreds of verses in the Quran.
Trainees will learn the concepts of “contingency” and “necessity” and then master this traditional Muslim argument for the existence of God. They will then return to some of the atheist arguments that they formalized in the first session and demonstrate how they are flawed.
03. The Argument for God’s Volitional Agency
The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle developed arguments for the existence of God. These arguments became a part of the Christian tradition, but not the Muslim tradition. Traditional Muslim scholars recognized that Aristotle’s “God” was not the same as the God of the Quran—Aristotle’s God did not have any knowledge and didn’t choose to create the universe.
In this session, trainees will revisit some of the Quranic verses that they saw in the previous session and then study how these verses comprise an argument that rebuts Aristotle’s argument. They will then use this understanding to again revisit some of the atheist arguments that they formalized in the first session and demonstrate how they are flawed.
04. The Argument for God’s Oneness
The Quran is full of arguments for God’s oneness. But all of these arguments presuppose the two arguments above. Trainees will examine a variety of Quranic verses that argue for God’s oneness, analyze their underlying logical structure, connect them to the previous arguments, and construct an Islamic conception of God that is grounded in both the Quran and in rational arguments.
05. The Argument From Miracles
The Quran explains that Allah Most High aided His prophets and messengers with “clear signs” (bayyinat). These “clear signs” are prophetic miracles (mu‘jizat).
Trainees will study the concept of “prophetic miracles”, learn how to respond to objections that they are unscientific, and then analyze the logical structure of the Quranic argument from miracles.
