Professional Diploma in Debunking Doubts and Building Intellectual Awareness
Islamic Studies / Islamic Creed and Islamic Thought — Novera University
1. Program Overview:
An accredited professional and applied program extending over 3 months (80 hours of approved study load), aimed at equipping researchers, preachers, educators, and youth with methodological and intellectual tools for building sound awareness, understanding the sources of contemporary intellectual doubts, and deconstructing their argumentative structure accurately and objectively. The program covers Islamic methodologies of intellectual inquiry and analysis, epistemology and sources of knowledge, the emergence and development of doubts and mechanisms of their spread, deconstructing doubts raised about the Holy Qur’an, the Prophetic Sunnah, and doctrinal foundations, identifying logical fallacies in contemporary philosophical discourses such as New Atheism and relativism, mastering the rules of rigorous scholarly response, and practical applications in protecting society and building influential intellectual discourse.
2. Key Objectives:
- Grounding the methodology of inquiry and intellectual awareness: consolidating the Islamic scholarly methodology in thinking and criticism, and distinguishing between definitive and ambiguous matters and between certainties and probabilities.
- Diagnosing the sources and structure of doubts: understanding the mechanisms through which intellectual and doctrinal doubts are formed, studying their psychological, social, and philosophical motives, and how they are promoted in the digital space.
- Deconstructing doctrinal and Hadith-related doubts: acquiring the ability to analyze and critique doubts directed at revelation, the Holy Qur’an, the Prophetic Sunnah, and Islamic legislation.
- Identifying fallacies and methods of deception: identifying formal and informal logical fallacies and argumentative devices used to promote doubts and deviant ideas.
- Mastering the rules of scholarly response and sound argumentation: training in the steps for constructing coherent scholarly responses, taking into account the levels of those addressed, and observing the ethics of dialogue and intellectual debate.
- Creating programs for protection and awareness building: designing practical initiatives and preventive digital content that contribute to protecting youth and younger generations from intellectual deviation.
3. Target Audience:
- Preachers, imams, public speakers, and officials of da'wah and educational centers and institutions.
- Researchers and postgraduate students in Faculties of Usul al-Din, Creed, Philosophy, and Islamic Studies.
- Teachers, educational counselors, and supervisors of youth clubs and youth-development environments.
- Digital content creators, media professionals, and writers interested in intellectual issues and defending established principles.
- Youth and activists seeking to strengthen their intellectual resilience and build coherent doctrinal and cultural awareness.
4. Study Plan and Academic Modules:
|
Module |
Number of Lectures |
Total Hours
|
|
Building Intellectual Awareness and the Methodology of Inquiry and Analysis in Islam |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Epistemology, Sources of Knowledge, and Pitfalls of Epistemological Deviation |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Intellectual Doubts: Concept, Sources, and Psychological and Social Mechanisms |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Deconstructing Doubts about Revelation, the Holy Qur’an, and the Prophetic Sunnah |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Deconstructing Contemporary Philosophical Doubts (Atheism, Materialism, and Relativism) |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Identifying Logical Fallacies and Methods of Deception in Hostile Discourse |
3 |
6 hours |
|
The Scholarly Methodology for Constructing Responses and Debating Opponents |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Practical Applications: Case Studies, Protecting Youth, and Building Awareness |
3 |
6 hours |
|
Total: 8 Study Modules |
24 Lectures |
48 Training Hours
|
5. Organizational Structure and Assessment System:
- Duration and sessions: 3 months (evening period), at a rate of two lectures per week, two hours per lecture = 48 interactive training hours.
- Language of study and delivery method: Arabic | fully remote interactive training (Online).
- Distribution of approved hours (80 hours):
· 48 hours: direct interactive lectures and laboratories for intellectual analysis and criticism.
· 14 hours: required readings and major references in creed, thought, and refutation of doubts.
· 6 hours: guided enrichment readings and contemporary critical and philosophical research.
· 6 hours: assignments and practical applications (analysis of doubts and articles and deconstruction of fallacies).
· 6 hours: self-assessment questions, final review, and final completion examination.
- Attendance and assessment requirements: attendance of no less than 75% of the direct interactive lectures, and completion of periodic assignments and homework.
- Certificate and graduation project: the graduate is awarded a Diploma in Debunking Doubts and Building Intellectual Awareness after passing the electronic examination (25 questions + 5 questions on practical cases and intellectual situations) and optionally preparing an applied research paper that deconstructs a common contemporary doubt and presents an alternative scholarly and methodological response.
