Course Details in 2026/27 Session

Module Title	LI Islamic Ethics
School	Phil, Theology and Religion
Department	Theology and Religion
Module Code	09 30847
Module Lead	Sophia Vasalou
Level	Intermediate Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-20 hours Seminar-10 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	How should human beings live? What are the standards that should govern their behaviour? Ethical concerns lie at the heart of the Islamic tradition. Scriptural texts such as the Qur’an and the hadith provide the foundations of the Islamic moral outlook, but historically this outlook has been articulated and refined in a variety of ways across different disciplines including law and legal theory, Sufism, and speculative theology (kalām). Within this broader tradition, practical questions about how human beings should live have often been intertwined with higher-level theological and philosophical questions about the foundations of ethical value, the relationship between reason and revelation, and the moral nature of God. The purpose of this module is to introduce this rich tradition of ethical reflection in both its practical and reflective dimensions. Having explored the different genres and sources of Islamic ethics, part of the module will focus on selective questions of applied ethics, such as sexual ethics, environmental ethics, or the ethics of life and death.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the nature and sources of Islamic ethics, the range of disciplines in which ethical questions have been approached in the Islamic world, and the relationship between these disciplines demonstrate understanding of and critically engage with some of the theological and philosophical questions about ethics raised in the Islamic tradition take an informed and critical view of Muslim approaches to particular questions of applied ethics display appropriate transferable skills of textual analysis, critical argument, and communicative competence
Assessment	30847-01 : 4000 word Essay : Coursework (100%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	Assessment: One 4,000-word essay (100%) Reassessment: As above
Other
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