al-Difa an al-Sunna - Jamiat al-Madina (Majستير)
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- Jāmiʻat al-Madīnah al-ʻĀlamīyah
al-Difaʿ ʿan al-Sunna (Defending the Sunna) is an academic curriculum textbook published in one volume by Al-Madinah International University (MEDIU) for its Master's degree program under the course code GUHD5303 .
Scope and Structure
The work is organized as a structured course syllabus divided into numbered academic lessons designed to address modern and historical challenges to the Prophetic tradition:
- Foundational Definitions and Legal Authority: The curriculum opens with an analysis of the linguistic and technical definitions of the terms Sunna and hadith across various scholarly disciplines . Subsequent lessons, such as Lesson 3, establish the status of the Sunna as the second primary source of Islamic legislation (al-maṣdar al-thānī lil-tashrīʿ) and demonstrate its authoritative binding nature (ḥujjiyyat al-Sunna) according to scholarly consensus .
- Recording and Transmission of Hadith: The course systematically examines polemics surrounding the historical preservation and early textual recording of the Prophetic tradition. Lesson 7 outlines the motives and targets of critical campaigns launched against the Sunna , while Lesson 9 presents textual and historical evidence for the writing and documentation of hadiths during the prophetic era alongside the study of recurrent narration (al-ḥadīth al-mutawātir) .
- Critique of Orientalist Studies: Advanced units, including Lesson 18, focus on Orientalism (al-Istishrāq), defining its intellectual origins, primary objectives, and analytical methodologies in evaluating the Prophetic tradition as a precursor to addressing Orientalist arguments against the Sunna .
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