Imam Sameh Asal of the IAR will be teaching a weekend seminar on 'Uloom Al-Qur'an on August 7 and 8 at the ICR.

Introduction:
The Qur’an is the final word of God that He revealed on the heart of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) via the Archangel Gabriel. Allah revealed it as a culmination of all the revelations that were sent to Prophets before Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Since the Qur’an is Allah’s final message to all humanity, Allah guaranteed its preservation. Allah, the Almighty said what can be translated as, “Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur'an and indeed, We will be its guardian.” The preservation of the Qur’an was fulfilled through oral and written transmissions equally. This topic and subject and several other subjects have been defined by the scholars as “`Uloom (sciences of the Qur’an). We will be covering these subjects in a two-day seminar that will be held at the Islamic Center of Raleigh, NC.

Questions to Be Answered in the Seminar:
1) What is the definition of the Qur’an and what is the difference between the Qur’an, Hadith and Hadith Qudsi?
2) What is the meaning of wahy and what are the means of revelation?
3) How did the revelation come to the Prophet (SAW)?
4) What were the first and last revelations of the Qur’an?
5) Why was the Qur’an sent in different stages and not all at once?
6) What was the means through which the Qur’an was transmitted?
7) What is meant by the collection of the Qur’an, how was it collected, what were the stages of collection?
8) What were the credentials of the team compiling the Qur’an and what were the standards that they set for the process? Did they depend only on the written material or they also included oral sources? How did they authenticate the Qur’an?
9) What was the difference between the Mushaf of `Uthman and the Masahif of the Companions and why did Uthman have to burn other copies of the Qur’an other than the copies that were written under his supervision?
10) Who was the one who arranged the verses and suras of the Qur’an? Are they divinely inspired or it was the compilers of the Qur’an who did so?
11) What was the contribution done by Al-Hajjaj to the Mushaf?
12) Was I`jam (diacritical points) used in the early copies of the Qur’anic manuscripts?
13) What are the features of Meccan and Medinan revelations?
14) What are the benefits of knowing occasions of revelations related to Qur’anic verses?
15) What is meant by the abrogation of the Qur’an, what is the wisdom behind it, why is knowledge about the abrogation important?
16) What is abrogated and what are the main types of abrogation?
17) What is the difference between abrogation and specification?
18) What is the meaning of Al-Ahruf As-Sab`ah, are they in existence today and what is the wisdom in them?
19) Are Al-Ahruf As-Sab`ah identical with the well-known seven readings?

Instructor
Imam Sameh Asal

Date and Time
Friday, August 7, Asr-Maghrib
Saturday, August 8, Duhr-Asr

Course Texts
In this seminar, we will be depending mainly on the following books:
1-`Ulûm Al-Qur’ân by Ahmad Von Denffer
2-An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur’an by Yasir Al-Qadhi

Registration