r/shiascholar

Salam everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for a structured online/remote course or degree in Twelver Shia theology and philosophy.

My main interests are specifically:
ʿIlm al-Kalām (Shia theology)
Falsafa (Islamic philosophy)
Metaphysics / ontology
Epistemology and rational arguments within the Shia intellectual tradition
The philosophical and theological thought of scholars such as Mulla Sadra, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Allama al-Hilli, etc.
I’m not primarily looking for a fiqh-focused program or a general Arabic course. I understand that some Arabic, logic, or other traditional Hawza subjects may be prerequisites, but my main goal is to study the theological and philosophical/intellectual side of Shia Islam in depth.

I’m currently in medical school, so I need something that can be completed fully online/remotely, preferably with a flexible or part-time structure..
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a bachelor’s degree, any structured certificate, or “degree” as such would be ok
If anyone has personally studied through a program like this, or knows a Shia scholar/institution that offers this type of education online, I’d really appreciate your recommendations.

JazakAllah khair.

In the name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Most Merciful.

Al Quran (33:53):

"O believers! Do not enter the houses of the Prophet without permission."

Al Quran (24:27-28):

"O believers! Do not enter any house other than your own until you have asked for permission and greeted its occupants. This is best for you, so perhaps you will be mindful.

If you find no one at home, do not enter it until you have been given permission. And if you are asked to leave, then leave. That is purer for you. And Allah has (perfect) knowledge of what you do."

Al Quran (42:23):

"Say, I do not ask you for any reward, except Mawaddat for my kinship."

Umar said to Fatimah ع (who was behind the door of her house):

"I know that the Prophet of God did not love any one more than you, but this will not stop me to carry out my decision. If these people stay in your house, I will burn the door in front of you."

(Kanz al Ummal, v3, p140)

When Abu Bakr found a group of people (that had gathered) near Ali ع who had fallen back on pledging allegiance to him (Abu Bakr), he sent Umar to them. He came and called them out while they were in the house of Ali ع but they refused to come out.

Umar then called for wood (to be brought) and said: "by the One who (holds) Umar’s soul in His Hands, if you do not come out I will burn this house along with whoever is in it".

And it was said to him: "Oh Abu Hafs (Umar), even if Fatimah ع is in the house?!"

And he (Umar) said: "Even if!"

So they came out and pledged allegiance except for Ali ع. Ali ع then declared by saying:

"I vowed that I would not leave or put on my cloak over my shoulder (in order to leave the house) until I (finished) compiling the Quran".

Then Fatimah ع (went and) stood by the door of the house and said:

"There is no one among people whose presence to me is worse than your (Umar) presence. You left the funeral of the Messenger of Allah ص while you took the matter of the khilafah and cut it into pieces among yourselves while you did not seek to consult us nor did you return us our right."

(Al Imamah wal Siyasah, by ibn Qutaiba, vol 1, page 12-13)

Ali ع and Abbas were sitting inside the house of Fatimah ع,

Abu Bakr told Umar: "Go and bring them; if they refuse, kill them.”

Umar brought fire to burn the house.

Fatimah ع came near the door and said: "O son of Khattab, have you come to burn our house on me and my children?”

Umar replied: "Yes I will, by Allah, until they come out and pay allegiance to the Prophet’s Caliph."

(Iqd al Fareed, by Ibn Abd Rabb, Part 3, Pg. 63)

Abu Bakr asked Ali ع to support him, but Ali ع refused, then Umar went toward Ali’s ع house with a burning torch. At the door he met Fatimah ع who said to him:

"Do you intend to burn the door of my house?"

Umar said: "Yes, because this act will strengthen the faith brought to us by your father."

Al Ansab Ashraf, by al Baladhuri, v1, p 582,586)

They surrounded Ali ع and burned the door of his house and pulled him out against his will and pressed the leader of all women Syeda Fatimah ع between the door and the wall killing Mohsin ع.

(Isbaat al Wasiyyah by Ali Ibn al Husayn al Masudi)

It is also reported that

Abu Bakr said (on his death bed):

"I wish I had not searched for Fatimah’s ع house, and had not sent men to harass her, though it would have caused a war if her house would have continued to be used as a shelter."

(Tareekh al Yaqubi, v2, page 115-116)

Imam Ali ع narrates that the Messenger of Allah ص said to Fatimah ع:

"Allah is angry when you are angry and is pleased when you are pleased."

(Mustadrak al hakim, Vol. 3, pg 154)

The Messenger of Allah ص had frequently said:

"Fatimah ع is a part of me. Whoever makes her angry, makes me angry."

(Sahih Muslim, vol 4, p 1904-5)

Ibn Abbas narrated:

The Messenger of Allah (S) said:

"Four women are the mistress of the worlds: Mary, Asiya (the wife of Pharaoh), Khadijah and Fatimah. And the most excellent one among them in the world is Fatimah."

(Ibn Asakir, as quoted in Tafsir al Durr al Manthoor)

May Allah curse the rotten toxic waste of Hell, utter rijs who oppressed and spilled the pure blood of Prophet Muhammad ص. May the endless, most harsh, most humiliating wrath of Allah fall upon him and all his supporters for eternity.

اللهم العن قتلته السيده فاطمه زاهرا ع

لعن الله امت قتلتك

و لعن الله امت ظلمتك

و لعن الله امت سمعت بذلك فرضيت به

Edit:

How brutally they oppressed the orphaned, 18 year old, only daughter of Prophet ص, usurped their only source of income knowing they had children, Ameer al Momineen ع had to work in the gardens of yahud to provide for Ahlulbait ع, still they invaded their sacred home where angels descended, burned the sacred door and pushed it onto an 18 year old orphan, pregnant woman, deliberately, broke her ribs, the door had long rusted nails sticking out that torn her flesh and punctured her bones, her pure blood was shed on the ground, killed her unborn child, dragged Yadullah from his own house forcefully with chains and shackles, all of this in front of their horrified babies who were standing there watching, traumatised.

May the most brutal, most severe punishment of Allah fall upon enemies of Ahlulbait ع for committing such heinous crimes against the Light of Allah and the orphans of Prophet Muhammad ص.

السلام عليك يا المحسن الشهيد ع

السلام عليكِ يا السيدة النساء العالمين ع

اللهم صلى على محمد و آل محمد

If you're raising Shia kids in the West, you know the fear. It sits under every school drop-off, every cartoon, every birthday party in a world where nobody around them fasts or prays. We are one generation away from losing this, and we all know families where it happened. My answer to that fear was to grip harder: more memorization, more rules, more "sit down, this is important." My kids complied. But compliance was all I was getting, and I knew it.

At some point I asked myself a question I should have asked years earlier: how did the Prophet (s) and the Imams (as) actually treat children? Not in the abstract - what did they DO? Three things I found changed my house.

First: the first seven years belong to play, by design. Imam al-Sadiq (as) said: "Let your child play for seven years, then teach him adab for seven years, then keep him close to you for seven years" (Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih). The Prophet (s) said the child is "a master for seven years, a servant for seven years, and a vizier for seven years." I had been treating play as the competitor, the thing deen had to beat for my kids' attention. Our own books treat it as the vehicle. A story, a game, a song: that is not deen watered down for children. That is deen in the mother tongue of childhood.

Second: the Prophet (s) went to where the children were. You know the scene, it's in our majalis and in Sunni books alike: he is leading the prayer, in sajdah, and Hasan and Husayn (as) climb onto his back. He does not rise. He stretches the prostration until they climb down on their own, and an entire congregation waits on a child's game. He also said: "Whoever has a child, let him become a child with them" (al-Faqih). Read that against how most of us operate. We summon our kids out of their world into ours and call it teaching. He carried the deen into theirs.

Third: age-appropriate is a command, not a concession. "We, the assembly of prophets, were commanded to speak to people according to the measure of their intellects" (al-Kafi). Commanded. That word freed me from the guilt that simplifying meant shortchanging. It also answered the question that had scared me the most as a parent: Karbala. A 7-year-old does not need what keeps us up at night. They need Imam Husayn (as) the way a child's heart can hold him: the bravest of men, the truest of friends, the one who would not sell the truth at any price. The rest of the history will arrive when they can bear its weight, and when it does, it will land on love instead of nightmares.

And here is what I finally understood about the fear itself. The battle for our kids' deen is not won at age 7 by whoever memorizes the most. It is won at 17 and 27, when nobody is watching, by the child who loves this deen too much to walk away from it. In the first seven years, love enters through one door, and that door is joy.

So our house changed. The lectures became stories, the drills became games, and somewhere in there my kids started bringing me their questions instead of hiding from mine.

Full transparency: I'm a religious student and an app developer, and this is where all of it ended up - a kids' app that teaches the basics the way those narrations describe, as a game: a voyage across a sea of islands (wudu, salah, the Prophet's (s) life, the 12 Imams, al-Fatiha, first Arabic letters, Karbala told gently). It's called Safina, from the hadith of the ark: "My Ahlul Bayt among you is like the ark of Nuh - whoever boards it is saved." Link in the comments, and mods, please take this down if it crosses a line.