Research Methodology NotesV2.9 PDF

Research Methodology
V 2.9
Date
May 09 2015
Table of Contents
Session 1 ............................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: Introduction To The Science Of Research Methodology ................................................... 1
Importance Of Seeking Knowledge ................................................................................................ 1
1. Seeking Knowledge Is Obligatory .............................................................................. 1
2. Seeking Knowledge Eases The Path To Jannah ......................................................... 2
3. Allaah And His Creations Make Du‘aa & Send Salutations Upon The Teachers ....... 2
4. A Seeker Of Knowledge Is Better Than A Worshipper .............................................. 2
Ways Of Seeking Knowledge .......................................................................................................... 3
Research Methodology .................................................................................................................. 3
What Is Research? .......................................................................................................................... 3
Generic Meaning ................................................................................................................... 4
Technical Meaning ................................................................................................................ 4
Western & Islaamic Concept Of Research & Our Approach ................................................. 4
Contents Of This Course ................................................................................................................. 4
Concept Of Research ...................................................................................................................... 6
Definitions Of Research ........................................................................................................ 6
Research Methodology .................................................................................................................. 7
Definitions Of Research Methodology .................................................................................. 7
Ways Of Doing Research ................................................................................................................ 8
Research In Islaam ......................................................................................................................... 8
Examples Of Research In Islaamic History ..................................................................................... 9
1. Travelling From Madeenah To Egypt For A Single Hadeeth ..................................... 9
2. ‘Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ood’s Knowledge Of The Quran .................................................. 9
3. Musa ‘Alaihis-Salaam And Khidr ‘Alaihis-Salaam ...................................................... 9
4. Compiling The Books Of Hadeeth And Fiqh ............................................................ 10
Session 2 ............................................................................................................................................. 12
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 12
Scholars Having Attachment To Books And Research ................................................................. 12
Examples Of Scholars Having Attachment To Books And Research ............................................ 13
1. ‘Abdullah Ibn Mubaarak .......................................................................................... 13
2. Imaam Az-Zuhree .................................................................................................... 13
3. Just Enough Money To Buy A Book ......................................................................... 14
4. Abu Dawood ............................................................................................................ 14
5. Reading During Illness ............................................................................................. 14
6. Ibn Al-Qayyim .......................................................................................................... 14
7. Reading Outside The Bathroom .............................................................................. 15
8. Al-Khateeb Al-Baghdaadee ..................................................................................... 15
9. Sleeping With Books ............................................................................................... 15
10. Imaam Al-Bukhaaree ............................................................................................... 15
11. Imaam Muslim ........................................................................................................ 16
12. Ibn Al-Jawzee........................................................................................................... 16
13. The Khaleefah.......................................................................................................... 17
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14. Taking Books When Going Out ............................................................................... 18
15. Shaykhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah .............................................................................. 18
16. Shaykh Al-Albaanee................................................................................................. 18
Objectives Of Research ................................................................................................................ 19
Reasons For Research .................................................................................................................. 20
Session 3 ............................................................................................................................................. 21
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 21
Motivation/Reasons For Research ............................................................................................... 21
1. Raghbahtun Shaksiyyah (‫ )رغبة شخصية‬....................................................................... 21
2. Part Of One’s Job ..................................................................................................... 21
3. Part Of Their Qualification ...................................................................................... 22
4. Some Other Reasons ............................................................................................... 22
The Characteristics And Etiquettes Of The Muslim Researcher .................................................. 22
1. Ikhlaas And Sincerity ............................................................................................... 22
2. Taqwa Of Allaah ...................................................................................................... 23
3. Enthusiasm In The Research That You Want To Do ................................................ 24
4. Knowledge And Awareness – Knowledge Of The Subject & How To Research ..... 24
5. Al-Qudrah (‫ – )القدرة‬The Ability To Research ............................................................ 24
6. Have To Be Good With Time Management And Be Accurate And Precise ............ 25
7. Patience ................................................................................................................... 25
8. Not Being Hasty ....................................................................................................... 26
9. Al-Amaanah Al-‘Ilmiyyah (‫ – )األمانة العلمية‬Trustworthiness ........................................ 26
10. The Personality Of The Researcher Should Come Through His Research .............. 27
Session 4 ............................................................................................................................................. 28
The Difference Between General Research And Academic Research ......................................... 28
What Makes Your Research Academic? ...................................................................................... 28
1. Objectivity (Mawdooèeyah – ‫)موضوعية‬................................................................... 28
2. Methodology (Manhajiyyah – ‫ )منهجية‬....................................................................... 29
3. Accuracy And Precision (Ad-Diqqah – ‫)الدقة‬.............................................................. 29
4. It Must Be Something That Is Replicable ................................................................ 30
5. Simplicity ................................................................................................................. 30
6. Achieve Your Objective And Goals .......................................................................... 30
Chapter 2: Critical Thinking ................................................................................................................ 31
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 31
Finding A Research Topic ............................................................................................................. 31
What You Need To Have ..................................................................................................... 32
I. Choosing A Field ............................................................................................................... 33
Session 5 ............................................................................................................................................. 34
I. Choosing A Field (Cont.) ................................................................................................... 34
II. Existing Literature ........................................................................................................... 34
- Literature Review .................................................................................................... 34
- Why Is This Existing Literature So Important? ........................................................ 35
- Things To Do When Reviewing Existing Literature ................................................. 35
- Types of literature ................................................................................................... 37
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- Pitfall When Conducting Literature Review ............................................................ 37
III. Research Gap ................................................................................................................. 38
IV. Research Question ......................................................................................................... 39
- Specificity Of The Research Question ..................................................................... 40
- Qualities Of The Research Question ....................................................................... 41
Session 6 ............................................................................................................................................. 43
Some Classical Scholars And Their Objectives For Conducting Research ........................... 43
Importance Of Defining The Objectives.............................................................................. 44
V. Problematization ............................................................................................................ 45
- Problematizing The Questions ................................................................................ 46
VI. Looking For Sources And Resources .............................................................................. 47
- Traditional Resources.............................................................................................. 47
- Internet ................................................................................................................... 48
- Programs ................................................................................................................. 49
- Electronic Journals .................................................................................................. 49
- People...................................................................................................................... 50
- Librarian .................................................................................................................. 51
Session 7 ............................................................................................................................................. 52
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 52
VII. Expecting Problems During Research ........................................................................... 52
- Mentioning Problems Faced ................................................................................... 53
- Problems that you may face within your research ................................................. 53
1. Poor Time Management ......................................................................................... 53
2. Procrastination ........................................................................................................ 54
3. Too Daunting ........................................................................................................... 55
4. Negativity ................................................................................................................ 56
5. Loss Of Motivation .................................................................................................. 56
6. Perfectionism .......................................................................................................... 56
Chapter 3: Preparing A Research Argument ...................................................................................... 57
Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 57
What Is A Research Argument? ................................................................................................... 57
Criteria Of Good Research .................................................................................................. 58
1. Objectivity ............................................................................................................... 58
2. The Research Procedure Used Should Be Described With Sufficient Details ......... 58
3. The Design Of Research Should Be Carefully Planned ............................................ 59
4. The Researcher Should Report With Complete Frankness ..................................... 59
Session 8 ............................................................................................................................................. 60
Criteria For Good Research (Cont.) ..................................................................................... 60
5. The Analysis Of Data Should Be Sufficiently Adequate To Reveal Its Significance And
The Methods Of Analysis Should Be Appropriate............................................................... 60
6. The Conclusions Should Be Confined To Those Justified By The Data Of The Research
61
7. Greater Confidence In Research Is Guaranteed If The Researcher Is Experienced 61
Qualities Of Good Research ................................................................................................ 62
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1. Systematic ............................................................................................................... 62
2. Logical...................................................................................................................... 62
3. Empirical .................................................................................................................. 62
4. Replicable ................................................................................................................ 63
I. Making A Solid Argument.......................................................................................................... 63
1. Know Your Subject .................................................................................................. 63
2. Clearly Present Your Argument............................................................................... 64
3. Able To Defend It .................................................................................................... 65
4. Citing All Of Your Sources........................................................................................ 65
5. Tie Everything Together .......................................................................................... 65
II. Making A Claim......................................................................................................................... 66
1. You Adopt A Sceptical Point Of View ...................................................................... 66
2. It Must Be Logical .................................................................................................... 66
1. There Must Be Some Order And Benefit To It ........................................................ 67
Session 9 ............................................................................................................................................. 68
Recap ............................................................................................................................................ 68
Systematic Approach To Preparing A Research Argument .......................................................... 69
III. Assembling Reasons And Evidence ......................................................................................... 70
IV. Acknowledgements And Responses ....................................................................................... 72
V. The Insider And The Outsider View ......................................................................................... 73
Session 10 ........................................................................................................................................... 76
The Insider And The Outsider View (Cont.) ................................................................................. 76
Importance Of The Insider And The Outsider View ............................................................ 76
- Advantages Of The Insider ...................................................................................... 76
- Advantages Of The Outsider ................................................................................... 77
- Disadvantages Of An Insider ................................................................................... 77
- Disadvantages Of The Outsider............................................................................... 77
Solution ............................................................................................................................... 78
Chapter 4: Planning, Drafting And Revising Your Research ............................................................... 79
The Write Up Stage ...................................................................................................................... 79
I. Planning Your Research ............................................................................................................. 80
Ten Steps To Be Followed In Planning Research ................................................................ 80
Targets And Deadlines ........................................................................................................ 82
Research Plan ...................................................................................................................... 82
Word Count ......................................................................................................................... 82
Session 11 ........................................................................................................................................... 84
Drafting your research ................................................................................................................. 84
Revising your research ................................................................................................................. 85
Analysis of data ............................................................................................................................ 86
What is data analysis? ......................................................................................................... 87
How do we analyse data? ................................................................................................... 88
How do we analysequantitative data? ............................................................................... 88
1. Make a copy ............................................................................................................ 89
2. Tabulate information .............................................................................................. 89
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3. Detect patterns ....................................................................................................... 89
4. Analyse and draw conclusions ................................................................................ 90
How do we analyse qualitative data? ................................................................................. 90
1. Make copies ............................................................................................................ 90
2. Read all information................................................................................................ 90
3. Organize the data .................................................................................................... 90
4. Look at patterns ...................................................................................................... 91
5. Interpret the information ....................................................................................... 91
Session 12 ........................................................................................................................................... 92
Structuring your research ............................................................................................................ 92
1. Abstract ................................................................................................................... 92
2. Dedication ............................................................................................................... 93
3. Acknowledgement .................................................................................................. 93
4. Table of contents .................................................................................................... 93
5. Table of figures........................................................................................................ 94
6. Transliteration table ................................................................................................ 94
7. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 94
I. The rationale ........................................................................................................... 94
II. Aims and objectives of your study .......................................................................... 94
III. Research questions ................................................................................................. 94
IV. Scope and limitations .............................................................................................. 94
V. Literature review ..................................................................................................... 95
VI. Methodology ........................................................................................................... 95
VII. Structure of your study ........................................................................................... 95
8. Chapters .................................................................................................................. 95
9. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 96
10. Appendix ................................................................................................................. 97
11. Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 97
Session 13 ........................................................................................................................................... 99
Presenting information ................................................................................................................ 99
Why is Presentation important? ......................................................................................... 99
Graphs and charts ............................................................................................................. 100
Headings............................................................................................................................ 101
Grammar, punctuation and spelling ................................................................................. 102
Font 102
Spacing .............................................................................................................................. 103
Introduction and conclusion ...................................................................................................... 103
Style Revision ............................................................................................................................. 104
Contents page ................................................................................................................... 104
Starting a new chapter ...................................................................................................... 105
Glossary page .................................................................................................................... 105
Index 106
Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 107
Session 14 ......................................................................................................................................... 109
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Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 109
Chapter Five: Field Research and Library Research ......................................................................... 109
Library research.......................................................................................................................... 109
Books vs. Internet ............................................................................................................. 110
Types of libraries ............................................................................................................... 111
Planning your research ..................................................................................................... 111
How to plan your research regarding libraries ................................................................. 112
1. Looking at the subject and searchable key words ................................................ 112
2. Refining key words ................................................................................................ 113
3. Understanding different resources available ....................................................... 114
4. Combining them together ..................................................................................... 114
Some of the things that you should bear in mind ............................................................ 114
1. Spelling .................................................................................................................. 114
2. Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ 115
3. Plurals .................................................................................................................... 115
4. Changes in terminology ........................................................................................ 116
Use of the library............................................................................................................... 116
Locating books and journals ............................................................................................. 117
Referencing ....................................................................................................................... 118
Session 15 ......................................................................................................................................... 120
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 120
Primary data versus secondary data .......................................................................................... 120
Primary data ...................................................................................................................... 120
Secondary data ................................................................................................................. 120
Field research ............................................................................................................................. 121
The benefits of field research ........................................................................................... 121
Types of field research ...................................................................................................... 122
1. Ethnography .......................................................................................................... 122
2. Ethnomethodology ............................................................................................... 123
3. Phenomenological study ....................................................................................... 123
Advantages and disadvantages of field research ............................................................. 123
Advantages ........................................................................................................................ 123
Disadvantages ................................................................................................................... 124
Scope and limitations ........................................................................................................ 124
Session 16 ......................................................................................................................................... 126
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 126
Field research tools .................................................................................................................... 126
1. Surveys and questionnaires .................................................................................. 126
I. Published surveys .................................................................................................. 127
II. Mail questionnaire ................................................................................................ 128
III. Telephone questionnaire ...................................................................................... 129
IV. Online surveys ....................................................................................................... 129
2. Interview scheduling ............................................................................................. 131
3. Observations ......................................................................................................... 131
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Chapter Six: Islamic Research .......................................................................................................... 132
Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 132
Islamic library ............................................................................................................................. 132
Uniqueness of the Islamic library...................................................................................... 133
Ummahaatul Kutub ........................................................................................................... 133
Levels of books .................................................................................................................. 133
1. Matan .................................................................................................................... 133
2. Mukhtasaraat ........................................................................................................ 133
3. Mutwawaalaat ...................................................................................................... 133
4. Fataawaa ............................................................................................................... 134
5. Rasaail ................................................................................................................... 134
6. Abridgements ........................................................................................................ 134
7. Nawaazir................................................................................................................ 134
8. Tahkeeqaat ............................................................................................................ 135
9. Additions ............................................................................................................... 135
Session 17 ......................................................................................................................................... 136
Major sources of Islaamic sciences ............................................................................................ 136
Science Of Qur’an andTafseer .......................................................................................... 136
1. Science of the principles of Tafseer – Usool utTafseer ......................................... 136
2. Science of the Qur’an – Uloom ul Qur’an ............................................................. 136
3. Science of Tafseer itself ........................................................................................ 136
Science of Aqeedah ........................................................................................................... 137
Sciences of Hadeeth .......................................................................................................... 138
1. Mustalah al Hadeeth ............................................................................................. 138
2. General books of Hadeeth .................................................................................... 138
3. Fiqhee Hadeeth ..................................................................................................... 138
4. Saheeh Sittah ........................................................................................................ 138
5. Other books of Hadeeth........................................................................................ 139
Science of Usool al Fiqh .................................................................................................... 139
Fiqh of the four Mathaahib ............................................................................................... 140
1. HanafeeMathhab .................................................................................................. 140
2. Maalikee Mathhab ................................................................................................ 140
3. Shafiee Mathhab ................................................................................................... 140
4. Hambalee Mathhab .............................................................................................. 140
Books of Fiqh outside the four Mathhabs ........................................................................ 141
Science of the Arabic language ......................................................................................... 141
Books of Seerah ................................................................................................................ 141
General Islamic history...................................................................................................... 141
Session 18 ......................................................................................................................................... 143
Fiqh of four Mathaahib .............................................................................................................. 143
HanafeeMathhab ....................................................................................................................... 143
Founder ............................................................................................................................. 143
Books of the Hanafee Mathhab ........................................................................................ 144
1. Masaail al Usool or Zhaahir ur Riwayah (Apparent narrations) ........................... 144
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2. An Nawaadir (Rare) ............................................................................................... 144
3. Fataawaa and Al-Waaqi’aat .................................................................................. 145
The comparative books of the Mathhab .......................................................................... 145
Order in theHanafeebooks of Fiqh ................................................................................... 145
Some terminologies in the Hanafee Mathhab.................................................................. 146
Maalikee Mathhab ..................................................................................................................... 146
Founder ............................................................................................................................. 146
Books of the MaalikeeMathhab........................................................................................ 146
Some terminologies in the MaalikeeMathhab ................................................................. 147
Shaafièe Mathhab ..................................................................................................................... 148
Founder ............................................................................................................................. 148
The Mathhab itself ............................................................................................................ 149
Order in the Shafieebooks of Fiqh .................................................................................... 149
Session 19 ......................................................................................................................................... 151
Some terminologies in the ShafieeMathhab .................................................................... 151
Hanbalee Mathhab .................................................................................................................... 152
Founder ............................................................................................................................. 152
What other scholars say about him .................................................................................. 152
1. Imam ash-Shafiee .................................................................................................. 152
2. Abu Ubaydah Al Qaasim ibn Salaam ..................................................................... 153
Books of the HambaleeMathhab ...................................................................................... 153
Some terminologies in the Hambalee Mathhab ............................................................... 154
Transliteration ............................................................................................................................ 154
Why transliteration? ......................................................................................................... 155
Few examples of letters and their transliterations .......................................................... 155
Differences between Muslim and Western academia .............................................................. 156
Chapter Seven: Research Ethics ....................................................................................................... 156
Ethics .......................................................................................................................................... 156
Plagiarism ................................................................................................................................... 158
How do you avoid plagiarism? .......................................................................................... 158
Referencing ................................................................................................................................ 158
Harvard system ................................................................................................................. 159
Oxford system ................................................................................................................... 159
Research Methodology Semester-7 P a g e | ix

SESSION 1
Video A
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh
‫ ونعوذ باهلل من شرور أنفسنا‬، ‫ إن الحمد هلل نحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره‬، ‫بسم هللا الرحمان الرحيم‬
‫ وأشهد أن ال إله إال هللا‬، ‫ من يهده هللا فال مضل له ومن يضلل فال هادي له‬، ‫ومن سيئات أعمالنا‬
‫وحده ال شريك له وأشهد أن ﻨبﻴنا ﻮﺴﻴﺪنا محمدا عبده ورسوله ﺼلى الله وﺴلم ﻮبارﻚ علﻴه وعلى‬
:‫ أﻤا بعﺪ‬، ‫ﺁله ﻮﺼﺤﺒه وﺴلم ﺘﺴلﻴﻤا ﻜﺜﻴﺮا‬
My dear brothers and sisters in Islaam, welcome to this new course that we will be beginning with
KIU, Knowledge International University, on the topic of Research Methodology.
IMPORTANCE OF SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

As you are all well aware, this religion of Islaam places a great importance and emphasis on the
concept of seeking knowledge, on learning about your religion, learning about Allaah Subhaanahu
Wa Ta’aala, learning about the Quran, learning about the Prophet , as well as the many other parts
of this religion. This is something Allaah Azza Wa Jall Himself stresses in the Quran. There are many
virtues that are narrated concerning seeking knowledge and teaching knowledge as well. We all
know the famous verse in the Quran, the very first verse that Allaah ‘Azza Wa Jall revealed within the
Quran:
‫ك َّال ِذي َخَل َق‬

َ ِ‫اس ِم َرِّب‬ ِ
ْ ‫ا ْق َ ْأر ب‬
“Read in the name of your Lord, Who created.” [Surah Al-‘Alaq, Verse 1]
And many scholars deduced from this single great verse of the Quran, the importance of reading and
learning and teaching; learning and reading and seeking knowledge so that you will come close to
your Lord Subhaanahu Wa Ta’aala. That includes learning, for example, how to worship Allaah,
learning about Allaah ‘Azza Wa Jall, His names and His attributes, learning about those things that we
need in order to live our lives as Muslims, learning about the Halaal and the Haraam and so on and so
forth.
1. SEEKING KNOWLEDGE IS OBLIGATORY

That is why the Prophet said:
‫ض ٌة َعَلى ُك ِِّل ُم ْسلِ ٍم َو ُم ْسلِ َم ٍة‬ ِ

َ ‫طَل ُب اْلعْل ِم َف ِرْي‬
َ
“Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every single male and female Muslim.” [Ibn Maajah
(224), without the words, “female Muslim”.]
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It is not just something you can do if you want, the basics of this religion are obligatory upon you to
learn. Every Muslim must know how to pray, how to give Zakaah, how to fast, how to perform Hajj,
the basic concepts and the basic tenets of this religion. That is why the Prophet praised the
scholars, praised those people who learn about this religion.
2. SEEKING KNOWLEDGE EASES THE PATH TO JANNAH

He said in a famous Hadeeth:
‫ط ِريًقا ِإَلى اْل َجَّن ِة‬

َ ‫َّللاُ َل ُه ِب ِه‬ ِ ‫ط ِريًقا يْلت ِمس ِف‬
َّ ‫يه ِعْل ًما َس َّه َل‬ ُ ََ َ ‫ك‬ َ ‫َو َم ْن َسَل‬
“Whosoever treads upon a path, a path of knowledge then Allaah ‘Azza Wa Jall will make easy for
him the path to Paradise, the path to Jannah.” [Saheeh Muslim (2699)]
So when you set out with a sincere intention to seek knowledge about this religion, then Allaah
‘Azza Wa Jall will guide you and will make easy for you the path to Jannah.
3. ALLAAH AND HIS CREATIONS MAKE DU‘AA & SEND SALUTATIONS UPON THE TEACHERS
That is why the Prophet mentioned that Allaah Subhaanahu Wa Ta’aala and His angels and all of
the creation in the heavens and the earth, even the fish in the sea and even the ant within its
burrow, all of them make Du‘aa and salutation for the one who teaches people, the one who
teaches that knowledge. So it is not just the case of seeking knowledge and learning that knowledge
but then conveying that message and teaching that knowledge as well.
4. A SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE IS BETTER THAN A WORSHIPPER

And the Prophet said:
ِ ‫سائِ ِر ْال َك َوا ِك‬
‫ب‬ َ ‫ض ِل ْالقَ َم ِر لَ ْيلَةَ ْال َبد ِْر‬
َ ‫علَى‬ ْ َ‫علَى ْال َعا ِب ِد َكف‬
َ ‫ض َل ْال َعا ِل ِم‬
ْ َ‫َو ِإ َّن ف‬
“That the example of a scholar over the example over a worshipper is like the example of the full
moon over the stars.” [Abu Dawood (3641); classed as Saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh at-
Tirmidhi. Also, Ibn Maajah (223) and At Tirmidhee (2682).]
The full moon and the light that radiates from that moon and how we benefit – even though the
moon is thousands and millions of miles away – from the light of that moon is far greater than the
way we benefit from the very minimal light that a single star gives. And so the worshipper, he has
light because he is worshipping Allaah and coming close to Allaah but that light is confined to him
and maybe some of that radiance will spread to his family members, those people who are closest to
him – his wife, his children and so on. Whereas the scholars, they are like the full moon; not only do
they benefit themselves and those closest to them from their family, their friends, their relatives, but
they [also] benefit the wider community and sometimes the whole of the Ummah.
Look at the examples of the likes of the four Imaams of Islaam, Abu Haneefah and Maalik and Ash-
Shaafi’i and Ahmad Rahimahumullah. Look at the examples of Al-Bukhaaree and Muslim,
Rahimahumullah. These great shining stars of knowledge who were not just stars but moons, and
more than moons. They would shine and their light not just affected the people at that time that
were closest to them. It caused ripple effect across the Ummah and not only did they benefit the
Ummah at that time but that benefit continued even till today, we take from the light that that
moon gave.
So, seeking knowledge and this concept of knowledge is something which has a very strong place in
this religion and this is not new news to you. The fact that you are studying here, you are in this
course, you are learning this very topic shows that you appreciate, you know and you value
knowledge in Islaam. So, the concept of knowledge is well known.
WAYS OF SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

But knowledge has many ways in which it can be taught and many ways in which it can be sought.
There is not just one way of seeking knowledge.
1. So for example a person does not just seek knowledge by reading a book- that is only one
way.
2. Perhaps that person will listen to a cassette or listen to a DVD- that is a second way.
3. Perhaps they would have a teacher that they go and study with and they learn from that
teacher- that is a third way.
4. Perhaps they would enrol in a university or on a course like this one- that is another way.
5. Perhaps the person would go and do some research, learn, gather sources, gather resources
and go through them and research themselves and come to some type of conclusion. That
too is a type of seeking knowledge.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
And so there are many ways of seeking knowledge. In this course that we have Insha Allaah this
semester, we will speak about one of those ways. We will speak about something which is known in
the common world as Research Methodology. This is how it is called in western universities and
even universities in the Middle East and all parts of the world. In Arabic, it is known as Manaahij al-
Bahth ‫مناهج البحث‬. In English, it is known as Research Methodology.
That is basically the way that you research and when we talk about research in this context, we are
specifically aiming more for academic type of research. Not just the research that a person would do
for example, if they want to know an answer, they would go to a book and just look for the answer –
that is a type of research too. But the research that we are talking about specifically, is something
known as academic research – research that you would do at a higher level, perhaps in universities,
perhaps, for example, a professor. At those kinds of level, this is the type of research that we are
referring to.
WHAT IS RESEARCH?
So research is something which is very important. Every single person needs to be able to research.
People research all the time. People look for answers all the time. Perhaps for example a person
may want to look for a new car. They will undertake some type of research; they will undergo some
type of research in order to find the car that suits them. Someone else wants to buy a new house.

They will undergo a type of research in order to do that. Someone goes into a career; they will
undertake some type of research before deciding to embark upon a specific career.
GENERIC MEANING
And that is why research in common language refers to a search for knowledge; a search for
knowledge is research. So when you search for knowledge, whatever that knowledge may be, on to
whatever extent and however you do it, it is a type of research. And that is obviously a very generic
meaning of research. That it is just a common search for knowledge.
TECHNICAL MEANING
So research is something very important. What is research in terms of its more technical usage? And
Insha Allaah in the notes that you will have accompanying this, we will go through many things. One
of the things that I will speak about is the Arabic terminology, which is Manaahij Al Bahth. Research
Methodology, now because it is called Manaahij Al Bahth, we will take that Insha Allaah in the notes,
about exactly what it means and what it refers to. But what we are going to do Insha Allaah within
this course and throughout this course is basically have a fusion between the two.
WESTERN & ISLAAMIC CONCEPT OF RESEARCH & OUR APPROACH

We have the western style of research methodology.
 People for example that study at university level, when you write a university paper, when
you write for example the paper towards the end of your degree.
 Another people for example who are doing post-graduate studies, their Masters, their Ph.Ds.
and so on, they undergo research methodology and they study research methodology.
 And sometimes that is even part of their thesis; they speak about how they use this type of
methodology in their research.
 So we will speak about that but we will combine and fusion that with also the Islaamic
concept of research. Obviously here, even though we are speaking about something common
now as a western concept of research- Research Methodology, it still has its basics in Islaam.
 And we will speak Insha Allaah surely about how even the great scholars of Islaam, even
from the time of the companions RadiyAllaahu ‘anhum, they would research. So it has a
foundation in this religion.
 Even though we are studying it from an academic point of view, it is still a part of our religion;
this is still something which we do with Ikhlaas, with sincerity.
 This is still something we do in order to come closer to Allaah Subhanahu Wa Ta’aala.
 It is still something that we do so that we can further in seeking knowledge about our
religion. So it will have Insha Allaah a combination of the two.
CONTENTS OF THIS COURSE

The main parts of this course, the main things that we are going to go through Insha Allaah over the
coming videos and in the attached notes that you will be given and also Insha Allaah in the live
sessions that we will do, we are going to speak about a number of things:
1. It is the introduction into this type of science, the Science of Research Methodology:
 We are going to speak about the importance of research which Insha Allaah we have
already started.
 We will also speak about the roles of a writer and researcher, in particular the
characteristics of a Muslim researcher. What makes the Muslim special in terms of the
research that he or she undergoes or undertakes.
 Likewise the different reasons for research.
 What makes research academic; this is all part of Insha Allaah the introduction that we
will be going to do.
2. Then Insha Allaah we will be going to the second part of the course, which is called Critical
Thinking. And basically in this, we are going to speak about issues like:
 Finding a topic: So what do we actually research? So there is no point in going to research
something that is already been researched by 10, 20, 30 and 100 people. So unless you
have something new, how do you go and find that topic that you want to research.
 Likewise things like Literature Review, how to be able to go and look at existing literature
within that field and be able to deduce from that the gaps that you have.
 This is something known as Research Gaps, things that you can have which will show you
where there are gaps within that research that you can go and research in.
 We will speak about how those topics then become questions, how you make them into
research questions.
 How to problematize those questions, so it is not just a question now but a problem as
well.
3. The third stage of this course is something called Preparing a Research Argument. So we will
discuss things like:
 What makes a good argument, how to make a strong argument,
 How to make a claim or a set opinion,
 How to assemble reasons and evidence and,
 How to acknowledge them,
 How to have different views when presenting your research.
4. The fourth issue that we will also speak about within this course is something called Planning,
Drafting and Revising your Research. This is actually putting it down together in the thesis
form or in a book form. So we will speak about:
 Planning your research and the different things under that,
 Drafting your research,
 Revising your research,
 Analysing data,
 Presenting information and other issues which are connected to this.

5. The next one, the fifth issue that we will be speaking about Insha Allaah is Field Research and
Library Research or things which are normally called primary research and secondary
research. We will Insha Allaah also speak about that as well.
6. We will speak in the sixth section of this course about a very important topic and that
includes Islaamic Research:
 How to build your own Islaamic library,
 How to use Islaamic sources,
 Things like transliteration,
 Things like differences between Muslim and secular academia and so on. This is basically
how, as Muslims, we would tailor research methodology to fit us, especially when we are
studying a subject like Islaamic studies or anything to do with Islaam.
7. And then Insha Allaah the final thing that we will talk about is Research Ethics, the ethics and
values of research Insha Allaah Ta’aala.
So that is basically a brief overview of what we will do.
CONCEPT OF RESEARCH
But what I wanted to begin with is actually speaking about the concept of research. Research as I
said in the general language is a search for knowledge. It can be defined in many other ways as well.
DEFINITIONS OF RESEARCH
1. For example it can be defined as, “a scientific, a specific and systematic search for pertinent
information on a specific topic.” So when we talk about research, it is not just simply we pick
up a book at random and read something and that is how research is done.
Video B
No! There must be a scientific process, a systematic approach to that research so that we can
arrive at our goal and Insha Allaah that is what research methodology will teach you: how to
put in place that system so that Insha Allaah you can go according to that system in your
research.
2. Other people will say it is an art of scientific investigation. Research methodology is an art of
scientific investigation.
3. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as,
“a careful investigation or inquiry, especially through search for new facts of any branch of
knowledge.” And Insha Allaah in the complete notes, I will put some of these definitions
there for you as well with the references as well, so it would be easy for you to go back and to
refer to them.

4. In another book on this topic called “The Romance of Research”, the authors [Redman and
Mory] defined research as, “a systematized effort to gain new knowledge.” So it is a system
that you undergo, that you go through in order for you to benefit and gain some new type of
research and knowledge. So these are different types of research that we can have.
5. According to another researcher [Clifford Woody], he defined research as:

i. Comprising, defining and redefining problems. So what is the problem, how to redefine
that problem; something that we mentioned in the introduction, how to make that topic
into a question, how to problematize that question.
ii. He also says that it is to formulate hypotheses or suggested solutions. So when you have
a question, a research question that you want to answer, then what is your solution to
that? So you gather those sources but now you must combine them together into
hypothesis, you have to make them into some type of opinion.
iii. It was collecting, organising and evaluating data. So whether that is primary data or
secondary data, and Insha Allaah we will speak about the differences between the two as
Insha Allaah the course progresses, but whatever data that you have, you must formulate
it, you must bring it together, you must organize it in a logical way and then you must also
evaluate that data, you must analyse and evaluate that data as well.
iv. Making deductions and reaching conclusions. So from that data that you have gathered
now, you must actually make deductions from that; what are the results of that data,
what does it show you.
v. Finally, it is to test those conclusions to determine whether they fit your hypothesis or
not. So the actual question that you want to answer, how do these evaluations from
those data enable you to answer that question as well.
6. If you were to go to the Encyclopaedia of Social Sciences, in the 9th volume, they define
research as, “the manipulations of things, concepts or symbols for the purpose of
generalizing to extend, correct or verify knowledge, whether that knowledge aids in the
construction of theory or in the practice of an art.” [Slesinger and Stephenson]
So these are basically different ways of looking at knowledge and looking at research and the point
was just to show you that there are different ways of speaking and viewing research. But basically
what all of them agree upon is that it is a systematic approach by which you achieve something.
That is what research is. This topic of research methodology will actually help you to put that system
in place. So that is what research meant.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
But what does research methodology itself refer to?
There are two ways that it can be defined and there are many definitions but I would just mention
two of them:
DEFINITIONS OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1. The first definition is to specialise studying a particular issue or a subject according to a set
of principles and a set methodology. Just as we said about research, it is about putting that
process in place, that system in place, those comprehensive principles in place by which you
can arrive at your goal and destination.
2. The second definition that can also be given for research methodology is that it is a study
through which one solves a set problem, by undergoing a comprehensive gathering of
information which will allow the person to achieve that goal.
Basically these definitions are very similar in their meaning. It is when you have a set of principles, a
set system in place, which will allow you to achieve that goal, to answer your research question, to
solve your problem, and so on and so forth.
WAYS OF DOING RESEARCH

So research can be done in many ways. It can be:
 For example, a person wants to know how to pray, they go to different books to research.
 It may be a specific issue, a person goes for example and they want to learn about what is the
correct opinion when it comes to praying in Jamaa‘ah – is congregational prayer obligatory
upon men or not? So they go and research this.
 It could be for example, at our Ph.D. level, we have to write a thesis about the way, for
example Muslims live in the west, in the UK, in Canada, in the States and so on.
So it can be of different ways and different types. But research has always been a part of seeking
knowledge. The fact that you are seeking knowledge means that you are undergoing research. When
you learn about your religion, it is a type of research. And that is why we have within our own
Islaamic tradition, within our own Muslim tradition, the tradition that expands over 1400 years into
history, thousands upon thousands of scholars and hundreds of thousands of volumes that have
been written.
RESEARCH IN ISLAAM
We find from the very beginning of Islaam, this concept of research was there, researching, gathering
information and so on.
When we were to look at the example of the famous Khaleefah, ‘Umar ibn Al-Khattab radiyAllaahu
anhu ardaahu, one of the greatest companions of the Prophet , he would write letters to his
various governors telling them how to research issues. He would say to them:
 For example, that if an issue comes to you then go back to the Book of Allaah and look for
the ruling there. This is research, someone comes to you with a question, with an issue
especially as a judge or Imaam, you go back to the Book of Allaah and you research the Book
of Allaah searching for that answer and that knowledge.
 If you do not find it there he would say, then go to the Sunnah of the Prophet and look for
the answer there. Again research.

 If you do not find it there, then look at the decrees issued by Abu Bakr radiyAllaahu ‘anhu,
the first Khaleefah. Look at the way that he ruled and the judgements that he gave.
 And if you do not find it there, then use your own opinion, make your own Ijtihaad, use your
own opinion to arrive at the truth.
And so even this process, although it is not research methodology as we know it and it is not done by
the same principles that we have today nor are those sources available because they did not have
resources and books at that time, but it is a primitive way of doing research. It shows that it has
basis within this religion that even the companions would research.
EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH IN ISLAAMIC HISTORY

1. TRAVELLING FROM MADEENAH TO EGYPT FOR A SINGLE HADEETH
Not only would they research in these types of issues but they would search for Ahaadeeth. Look at
how the companions would travel to another, learning about the Hadeeth of the Prophet . You
have that famous story of that companion who travelled from Madeenah all the way to Egypt just
to listen to a single Hadeeth. This is research. The fact that you travel, and even today in common
times, many people who research, travel to various parts of the world. As a researcher, you would
travel to many parts of the world. And when I was doing my Ph.D. as well, Alhamdulillah I had to go
to Turkey, I had to go to Canada, you have to travel to different parts of the world in order to get that
research. Likewise this companion travelled all the way to Egypt just to gain a single Hadeeth of
our Prophet . And as you all know the famous story when he arrives there and he hears the
Hadeeth and he confirms the Hadeeth then he goes back. So the companion from Egypt said, “You
just arrived. Why don’t you stay and rest?” He said, “No, I only have this one reason. I have no other
reason to stay in Egypt.” And he went back to Madeenah, radiyAllaahu ‘anhu. This in itself is
research.
2. ‘ABDULLAH IBN MAS‘OOD’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE QURAN

We all know the famous statement of ‘Abdullah Ibn Mas‘ood radiyAllaahu ‘anhu, the illustrious
companion of the Prophet . He said that there was not a single verse of the Quran except that he
was aware of it, he had knowledge concerning it. And if he thought that someone else had more
knowledge than him, then he would travel to the ends of the earth to find that single person that
had more knowledge. Again a type of primary research – going and collecting that data and taking
that data for yourself.
3. MUSA ‘ALAIHIS-SALAAM AND KHIDR ‘ALAIHIS-SALAAM

And all of this can be taken back to one of the stories of the Quran, a famous story that is mentioned
in the Quran in Suratul Kahf. And that is the story of Musa ‘alaihis-salaam with Khidr ‘alaihis-
salaam. When Musa ‘alaihis-salaamas, as mentioned in Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree (4725), stood among
his people one day and he said to them and he gave them a sermon (Khutbah). After the Khutbah, a
man from Banee Israaeel, from the children of Israaeel, he stood up and he said, “O Prophet of
Allaah, who is the most knowledgeable person on the face of the earth?” And so Musa ‘alaihis-
salaam replied, “I am,” and he did not ascribe that knowledge back to Allaah. So Allaah ‘Azza Wa Jall
said to him, “Rather there is someone who is more knowledgeable than you. And you will find him
at a place called Majma’ al-Bahrain (the junction of the two seas).” And so that is where the story in
the Quran comes from. So Musa ‘alaihis-salaam says to his servant, Yusha ibn Noon (Joshua), he says
to him:
ِ ‫وِا ْذ َقال موس ٰى لَِفتَاه ََل أَبرح حتَّ ٰى أَبُلغ مجمع اْلبحري ِن أَو أَم‬
‫ضي ُحُقًبا‬
َ ْ ْ ْ َ ْ َ َ َ ْ َ َ ْ َ ُ َْ ُ َ ُ َ َ
“Musa (‘alaihis-salaam) said to his servant, ‘I will not cease to travel until I find the junction of the
two seas or I would travel forever.’” [Surah Al-Kahf, Verse 60]
And this is Musa seeking knowledge, researching. Many of the scholars of Islaam said this is the first
example of someone travelling for seeking knowledge that we know of. That Musa ‘alaihis-salaam
left his people, he travelled to go to the junction of the two seas in order to seek knowledge. And so,
seeking knowledge and research have a basis within the Shari‘ah. Even in the Quran, it is mentioned
implicitly within the story of Musa and Khidr ‘alaihumas-salaam.
4. COMPILING THE BOOKS OF HADEETH AND FIQH

And that is why when you look at all the books that we have today, you find that there is so much
research the scholars did in order to place those books together. All you have to do for example, is
look at Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree or Saheeh Muslim or the other books of Hadeeth – how did the
scholars travelled and gathered this information? This is research.
How did we get Saheeh al-Bukhaaree? Imaam Al-Bukhaaree was not born with the memorisation of
tens of thousands of Hadeeth but rather he had to travel and he had to gather that information,
then he had to analyse and evaluate that information:
 Is this Hadeeth authentic?
 Is it weak?
 Is it abandoned?
 Is it fabricated?
 What is this?
 Then narrators of this Hadeeth:
 Are they reliable?
 Are they trustworthy?
 Are they not trustworthy?
 Are they unreliable?
This is all a type of research until finally he compiled his book Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree.
Likewise Imaam Muslim, likewise Imaam Ahmad, likewise other great scholars of Islaam.
All you have to do for example is look at a book like Al-Mughnee of Ibn Qudamah rahimahullah
ta‘aala. Ibn Qudaamah was a famous Hambali scholar. And [look at] other people like him who
Research Methodology Semester-7 P a g e | 10

wrote those books. They had to gather so many opinions of Fiqh. So many different scholars of
Islaam had various opinions. They gathered them and they gathered the proofs that they bring. Then
they analyse them and you find within their books that they debate them, they evaluate that
research and then they give their own information at the end.
So these are all examples that we have and all you need to go to one of these encyclopaedias to see
how the scholars of Islaam had this ability to research. So when we speak about research
methodology, it is not simply research in a very western context, where it is something that you have
to do because you are at university. But rather research is based within Islaam and we find that
there are so many examples of this throughout our history. Go through the various books of Islaam in
any field and you will find how the scholars of Islaam did research, how they analysed this research,
how they evaluated it and how they then came and presented it together in book form.
And this is exactly what we do in research today although the methods and the tools and the
systems and the practices may have changed over time and they may be different now but its
essence is still the same. So when we speak about research, it is very important that we bear this in
mind.
And Insha Allaah in the next video we will go over many more examples of how the scholars were
not only researching but they were attached to their books and books is one of the primary ways
that you research. It is one of the main ways you gather research [i.e.] by reading, by going through
books, by going through journals, by going, in modern times, on internet, and so on. This is one of the
main ways of research. We will look at how the scholars used to do this, how they were attached to
their books, how they used to build libraries, how they used to have this love and yearning for
research and seeking knowledge. Insha Allaah this will be the topic of next lesson bi-ithnillahi
ta‘aala.
Wassalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh

SESSION 2
Video A
Bismillah ir Rahmaan ir Raheem
Alhamdulillah Rabbil ‘Aalameen ar Rahmaan ir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen
SwalAllaahu wa Sallama wa Baaraka ‘alaa Sayyidi Khalqillaahi Ajma’een wa ‘alaa Aalihee was
Swahbihee wa man Swaaraa ‘alaa Sabeelihi wa Nahjih Wastanna bi Sunnati Wahtadaa bi Yahdihee
ilaa Yawmideen wa Sallama Tasleeman Katheeraa, Ammaa Ba’ad.
Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Lesson Number 2 of Research Methodology. In the previous lesson, we began with a
brief introduction into the science of research methodology. We spoke about defining research in
its broad sense. And we also spoke about research methodology and the definitions that can be
given for that and Insha Allaah you will have more information regarding these issues in your notes
bi-ithnillahi ta‘aala as well. We also spoke or we began to speak about its essence in Islaam and its
origins within Islaam, the concept of research and how this was even available from the time of the
Prophet . It was something which the companions would do; it was a concept, it was a mindset
that the companions themselves had, Radiyallaahu ‘anhum Ajma‘een. How throughout Islaam,
throughout this tradition of Islaam over 1400 years, we have found that the scholars have always
undergone research, [not; 01:30] in the way that we are going to do it now, today or the way that I
will explain within the series, but rather that concept was still there and they would research.
And as we mentioned in the previous lesson, we only need to look at Al-Bukhaaree or Muslim, you
only need to look at books like Al-Mughnee, you only need to look at other books of Tafseer or
Hadeeth or Fiqh to find how the scholars would bring all of this knowledge together, how they would
research, how they would gather this information, how they would analyse it, how they would
evaluate it, how they would draw conclusions from it, how they would debate and so on and so
forth. So all of this is something which can be found with its origin of Islaam.
SCHOLARS HAVING ATTACHMENT TO BOOKS AND RESEARCH

In this lesson, in today’s lesson, I wanted to begin by mentioning a further set of examples and a
further number of stories, regarding how the scholars of Islaam in the past had an attachment to
research and to books as well – to libraries, to books, to researching and so on. And this is really
one of the hallmarks of a proper student of knowledge. A serious student of knowledge has an
attachment to his books because in order for you to be a serious student of knowledge, you have to
seek knowledge. And that knowledge, yes, it is taught by teachers and we study with them and we
learn from our scholars and we love and we respect them, but there is so much more additional
information that you can also gain by doing your own reading. That is why for this course, or in

university course, you will watch these videos, you will learn from a teacher but you will have
supplementary reading, you will have required reading text, you will have supplementary reading
texts. There are so many other sources of information that you can bring.
And it is not possible for anyone within 19 videos, within one semester, within one year, within a few
years, to give you all of the knowledge that is available from 1400 years of Islaamic research. And so
that is why it is important if you are studying for example, a book on Fiqh and you are learning Fiqh,
for example, at a deep advanced level, now you read the different Mathaahib and you bring them
together. And so Insha Allaah that will be also a part of this course. We will speak about how to set
up your own Islaamic library, what kind of books you have, how you go through the different
Mathaahib, for example in Fiqh and in Usool and so on. So Insha Allaah this will help you further
along in your studies as well. But this was something which also the scholars of Islaam had, this
attachment to knowledge, this attachment to their books, this attachment to the sources of
knowledge that they had.
EXAMPLES OF SCHOLARS HAVING ATTACHMENT TO BOOKS AND RESEARCH

1. ‘ABDULLAH IBN MUBAARAK
It is famously reported on the great Muhaddith of Khurasaan, the great scholar of Islaam, ‘Abdullah
ibn Mubaarak rahimahullah, one of the greatest scholars of Hadeeth ever – his companions, his
friends would say to him, “Why don’t you sit with us? Why don’t you spend time with us, in our
gatherings and so on?” And he would say, “I prefer to sit with the companions of the Prophet
and with the Taabi‘een.”
‘Abdullah ibn Mubaarak was a later scholar of Islaam. He was not alive during the time of the
companions and he was not alive during the time of the Taabi’een. So what did he mean by this? He
meant his books. That which have been written down is research that he had gathered because that
was narrated from the companions and it was narrated from the Taabi’een. So he would say, “I
would rather sit with the companions and the Taabi‘een than with you.” And this shows his
attachment and his love for the research that he had gathered and for the books that he had
rahimahullahu ta’aala.
2. IMAAM AZ-ZUHREE
As reported on Imaam Az Zuhree rahimahullah, the very famous scholar of Islaam. And Imaam Az-
Zuhree is a famous name, a name that everyone knows that is studying Islaam. Imaam Az-Zuhree
rahimahullah had many, many books. He had many, many things that he had written down, many
much research that he had gathered and he was strongly attached to this research. He would read it
and he would spend so much time attached to it and it was reported that this would be to such an
extent that his wife would say, “I would prefer having three co-wives rather than him having this
attachment to books.”
SubhanAllaah!! His wife would rather have that her husband Imaam Az-Zuhree would have married
three more wives so it would be four of them. She would rather have three more wives competing

with her than his books. And this shows again the strong attachment that he had rahimahullah to his
books. And everyone knows how jealous a woman’s nature is. It was not easy for her to say such a
statement that she would rather have co-wives competing with her than him attached to his books
rahimahullah ta’aala.
3. JUST ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY A BOOK

That is why you also find that the scholars had such an attachment to knowledge that they would
often give up their livelihood, they would often only work so that they could buy a book. Or they
would often do things only to buy a book.
4. ABU DAWOOD
As reported on Imaam Abu Dawood rahimahullah ta’aala even when it came to sewing his Thawb,
when it came to having his clothes tailored, he would tailor them in such a way that it could be
compatible with his study of knowledge and with his reading of books. And so when he would go
to the tailor and the tailor would ask him: What type of a sleeve do you want, do you want a long
sleeve or do you want a short sleeve? So a short sleeve is like this, but a long sleeve perhaps you
have seen, maybe, in a Sudanese Thawb where they have a very long sleeve. And so he would ask
them, the tailor would ask Imaam Abu Dawood rahimahullah: What type of sleeve do you want in
your clothes? And he would say, “I want a long sleeve because then I can place my books in them
and they can help me carry them.” SubhanAllaah!! Look at the way of the thinking of these great
scholars. This is the way that they thought; this was their mindset as they would rather have their
clothes tailored in such a way that they could place their books within it so that Insha Allaah it would
be easier for them to go and study the religion of Islaam.
5. READING DURING ILLNESS

You have many examples of scholars of Islaam who during their illness – even though they were so
ill, sometimes even on their death bed – they would still be researching, they would still be
reading, they would still be learning. So a person would be ill and every time he was ill, when he
woke up from his illness or when he had a period where their illness was less, where the pain was
not so severe, he would take the book, the book would be next to his head or next to his arms, it
would be close by. He would read from that book. Then when he became tired, the pain became
too severe, when he wanted to sleep, he would put the book down. And so doctors would come
and people would come and they would actually rebuke them for this [saying], “You were supposed
to be resting and you are not actually supposed to be going further and further.”
There is even that story of a scholar who on his death bed, he had a man come in and he narrated a
Hadeeth, a Hadeeth that he never heard of before. So he said to someone, “Bring me some paper
and a pen so that I can write this down.” They were like, “You are on your death bed! Why do you
want to do this now?” He would say that this is something which I never heard of before. This is how
much attachment they had to research and this is research – something which is never heard of
before [and] now comes to him, he wants to make sure that he writes it down.
6. IBN AL-QAYYIM
That is why it is reported on the great scholar of Islaam, Ibnul Qayyim rahimahullah that at one
stage in his life, the doctors advised him that he should stop reading, stop researching, simply
because it was having such a detrimental effect on his health. They advised him to stop reading. So
he said to them and replied that this is my life, this is how I find happiness and contentment in life,
that I research and I read. And they said, No. So he was a very clever man, a very intelligent man,
Allaah ‘Azza Wa Jall gave him a very intelligent mind. So he said to his doctors, “Don’t you doctors
say normally that when a person is of high spirit, when they are happy, when they are content,
when their heart is in a good shape (meaning spiritually they are in a good place and
psychologically), that would help them in defeating their illness, overcoming their ailments and
maladies? Isn’t it true?” And they would reply, Yes. So he would say to them that this is the way that
I find that contentment and happiness (i.e. by reading books). So they would allow him to go back
to studying and reading books rahimahullah ta‘aala.
7. READING OUTSIDE THE BATHROOM

There were others from amongst the scholars who would have their students reading to them even
when they were in the bathroom. Even when they were in the bathroom and they were relieving
themselves akrakumullah, the students would be outside researching and reading to them.
8. AL-KHATEEB AL-BAGHDAADEE
Al Khateeb Al Baghdaadee rahimahullah ta‘aala was another very famous scholar of Islaam and the
famous author of Tareegh Baghdaad. Actually, every time he would be walking, he would be
reading. He would just walk around and he would read because he would not want to waste time,
he would want to spend his time researching and memorizing and learning.
9. SLEEPING WITH BOOKS

Some of them for example, would at times go to sleep whilst they have a book in their hand – this is
to the extent they would be researching that sleep would overcome them whilst they were reading.
Others, I have heard for example stories of scholars who would tie their head to a piece of string
attached to the ceiling so that as soon as they nodded off, the string would pull them [by] their
hair and they would wake up. They would be jolted back then they would read. And they would nod
off and again they would be jolted back. Look at this determination and this enthusiasm in research,
in wanting to learn and in wanting to learn, to seek knowledge of this religion of Allaah Subhanahu
wa Ta‘aala.
10. IMAAM AL-BUKHAAREE

As reported on the famous great scholar Imaam Al-Bukhaaree rahimahullah. One of the beautiful
stories this is. And we all know the depth and the extent to which Imaam Al-Bukhaaree
rahimahullah went to gather all of these Hadeeths. And not only to gather them, then to analyse
them, to evaluate them, to determine what was authentic, what was unauthentic and then to gather
them together in a single book. This is not research that you do over a semester, it is not like a Ph.D.
that you do. This is a lifetime’s work. To research in this way and to gather these Ahaadeeth requires

travelling, requires patience, requires so much determination and effort after the bounty and grace
of Allaah Subhanahu wa Ta‘aala to undergo and undertake such a task.
But Imaam Al-Bukhaaree rahimahullah would study and research to such an extent that his slave girl
would come in the morning to give him breakfast and he would be reading a book, he would be
researching. So she would put the food next to him and she would leave and then she would come
back after a while to take the dishes away. She would come and he would still be reading and the
food would still be there untouched. He did not even notice that the food was there. So she would
take the food and she would go. And he would carry on sitting there reading until it was time for
lunch. So she would come and she would bring lunch, she would put it down and he would still be
reading. And she would leave and come back later to take away the dishes and he is still reading and
he did not even notice his lunch. So the lunch was untouched and she would take it away. He would
not even notice because of his research and reading that she would come in, that she would put
the food down, first breakfast and then lunch, that she would come back to take the dishes away,
he would just be so engrossed in his research rahimahullahu ta‘aala.
11. IMAAM MUSLIM

We all know the famous story of his student and a contemporary, Imaam Muslim rahimahullah
ta’aala, that the way he died rahimahullah was due to research. Because someone asked him
concerning a Hadeeth, to find a Hadeeth and he was not aware of the Hadeeth or he did not
remember where it was. So he went back through all of his books, all of the papers, the pages that he
had gathered and he started going through them. And as he was going through them researching and
looking for this, sometimes this is what research is, to look for the answer…
Video B
…within those books. Someone asks you an issue but you have to go and find out the reference and
the source. So you have so many books [and] you go through all of these different books looking for
that quote or for that Hadeeth, looking for that source or reference. And so this is what Imaam
Muslim rahimahullah was doing. And so he would be doing this, and as he was doing this, someone
gave him a bowl of dates or a basket of dates as a gift. And so he was eating the dates and he was
reading and it was as a result of eating those dates that led to his final illness and then his death
rahimahullah ta‘aala. But again look at the determination of the research that you find amongst
these great scholars of Islaam.
12. IBN AL-JAWZEE

One of the famous researchers and writers in Islaam of all time is the famous scholar Ibn Al-Jawzee
rahimahullah ta‘aala, one of the people who were the most prolific writers and researchers within
Islaam. He would say concerning himself – I want to mention this incident to you, or this narration to
you simply because of how powerful it is. Ibn Al-Jawzee rahimahullah would say that, “I am never
full, I am never tired and bored of reading books and researching. And if I find a book that I have
never seen before, it is like finding treasure.”

SubhanAllaah!! Look at how attached they were to research and seeking knowledge and books. If I
find a book that I have never seen before, it is like I have found a treasure. And this is now what
people would say about other things, the latest game or something else, that it is like something
which they have never been able to see before. This is how he was with his books rahimahullah
ta‘aala. And then he said that, “If someone were to say to me that I have read probably twenty
thousand different books and volumes, I would say to them that it is probably more than this.”
SubhanAllaah!! 20,000 books within his lifetime!! Rahimahullah ta‘aala. And then he said, “But I have
benefitted so much from the biography of those people, meaning the biographies like you read of
the scholars, and how they had determination and how they had ambition and the way that they
did things, their etiquettes and their mannerism and so on and I benefitted from so much of the
sciences and knowledge that they left behind rahimahumullah ta‘aala.” And this was the
attachment that the scholars of Islaam had to books and knowledge in general.
13. THE KHALEEFAH

It is reported that one of the Khulafaa', one of the leaders, asked for a scholar to come to him to sit
with him. So the scholar sent a response to the Khaleefah saying that I have a group of wise men
with me, that there are wise people in my presence and I cannot leave them. So the Khaleefah later
found out that there was no one there. He was on his own. So he called him out and he rebuked him
for this, that you lied basically; you said that there were wise people there but there was no one
there in reality. And so the scholar rahimahullah replied in poetry and he said to this Khaleefah:
‫ َو َرأْيًا‬، ‫ضى‬
َ ‫ يُ ِفيدُو َننَا ِم ْن ِع ْل ِم ِه ْم ِع ْل َم َما َم‬، ‫ أ َ ِلبَّا ُء َمأ ْ ُمونُونَ َغ ْيبًا َو َم ْش َهدًا‬، ‫سا ُء َما َن َم ُّل َحدِيثَ ُه ْم‬
َ َ‫لَنَا ُجل‬
‫سانًا َوال يَدًا‬ ُ ‫ فَ َل ِغيبَةَ نَ ْخشَى َوال‬، ‫سدَّدًا‬
َ ‫سو َء ِع ْش َرةٍ َوال َنت َّ ِقي ِم ْن ُه ْم ِل‬ َ ‫وتَأْدِيبًا َو َم ْجدًا ُم‬
He said in his response in poetic form, “We have a group of people who sit with us, companions
that sit with us, that we never get tired and bored of them. SubhanAllaah, normally when you sit
with your friends – whoever they are and however entertaining they may be – there will come a
stage when you get tired, when you don’t want anymore, you have had enough. The scholar was
saying that I have a group of people with me – companions – that I never get bored and tired of
them, and they are people who are smart, people who are trustworthy and they are trustworthy in
their presence and in their absence. He continues and says: They benefit us from the knowledge
that they have, knowledge of the past and with their opinions, and with their etiquettes and with
their honour and with their mannerisms. And he says: We don’t fear that they will backbite us nor
do we fear that they will have bad manners and etiquettes but rather we do not even fear from
their hand or from their tongue.”
And so he is saying basically in reply that he would rather sit with his books and these are the wise
people, the authors of these books, the stories of the companions, the scholars of Islaam, the
knowledge that they left because these are people who are trustworthy, people that you do not have
to worry about them being involved in Nameemah or Gheebah, backbiting or spread rumours or
lying or cheating or speaking about the honour of others. You do not have to worry about them

harming you. You do not have to worry about any of these things. All that you take from them is
‘Ilma maa maDaa (the knowledge of the scholars of the past), the knowledge of the scholars of
Islaam rahimahumullah ta‘aala.
14. TAKING BOOKS WHEN GOING OUT

And that is why there are many examples even in our times of scholars who, if they go out, for
example, with a group of people, and they go with their friends and their family, they will always
take a book with them. Because they know that after dinner, whatever the program is, there will
come a time when everyone would just start gossiping, wasting their time and then that scholar
would take his book and would go and sit on the side and he would begin to read and continue his
research. And this is the connection that we have to research in this religion.
15. SHAYKHUL-ISLAAM IBN TAYMIYYAH

As reported by Ibn Abdul-Haadee rahimahullah, one of the great students of Shaykhul-Islaam ibn
Taymiyyah rahimahullah and Shaykhul-Islaam was one of the great scholars of Islaam, one of the
most prolific researchers and writers. If you were to go through the different books that he wrote as
well as his students like Ibn al-Qayyim, you will find that there is an amazing amount of research
that they have done. One of the things that you also notice is that they did not just simply gather
information, they analysed it, evaluated it, they drew conclusions, you can see their opinions and
their personality within that research and within those books that they wrote.
Ibn Abdil-Haadee, a student of Ibn Taymiyyah he said concerning Shaykhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah
rahumahullah ta‘aala that he was a person who never got fed up of knowledge, never did he get
tired or bored of knowledge nor would you find him ever get bored of reading, nor you would find
him that he is someone that would not want to research or would not want to learn anymore. This
was the way that he was rahimahullah ta‘aala. He would learn and he would research if he was
travelling or if he was resident, if he was ill or if he was healthy, if he was poor or if he was rich. He
would even research, write and study when he was in prison, even in prison he continued this up
rahimahullah ta‘aala.
16. SHAYKH AL-ALBAANEE

So these are only some of the examples that we have of the great scholars of Islaam and the many
efforts that they went through. And there are many, many more examples we can give and I am sure
you have heard many stories of such research. But even within our times, you have the example of
the likes of Shaykh Al-Albaanee rahimahullah ta‘aala from Jordan, a great Muhaddith of this era,
who would go and he would only work and he was a clock maker, a watch fixer, he was a watch man,
the only thing that he would do in his job was to take enough money so that he could live, and
survive with him and his family. And then he would go and continue to research in Damascus, in
Syria where he was originally (07:12) and he would go to the library there and he would go and he
would study, read books and books and he would go and gather Ahaadeeth and he would evaluate
them, analyse them, research them and then see whether they were authentic or unauthentic and
he did all of this. So even in our times, scholars of Islaam even though they may not follow the
methodology that we are going to set, it is still something that the scholars of Islaam have always
been engaged in since the time of the companions of the Prophet radiyallaahu ‘anhum.
So the idea behind giving you some of these stories was not to mention them but inspire you, not
only to inspire and motivate you but to show that research methodology is not just a secular
subject. It is not just a subject which is western but rather it is a subject which has its origins and
roots within Islaam. It is something which me and you, every student of knowledge needs to be able
to do. And all that we are going to do Insha Allaah is to show the way that it is done at an academic
level. Now the times have changed, the way that we do things have changed, we have other sources
that are available before. Alhamdulillah we have so many books, we have the internet, we have
electronic journals, we have even iPads and so on and so things have changed. But that essence of
research and learning and seeking knowledge is still there, it is ingrained in the book of Allaah and
it is ingrained within the Sunnah of the Prophet .
So what I wanted to do was basically speak about the next issue which is the objectives of research.
OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
The purpose of research as we all know is to discover answers to questions through the application
of a scientific procedure.
So you have a question, you have a research question, you have a problem that you want to solve,
and so the way that you would solve a problem, you would answer that question is through
academic research. An academic research is academic in the sense that that it is through a set of
principles and through a system that you apply.
So what are the objectives of research? There are many objectives but what I want to mention to
you Insha Allaah is just four of the broad groupings and categories that a person can find when it
comes to research.
1. To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights (to do something which is
new, which is ground breaking, which is original and unique) into studies with this object in
view.
2. To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group – so
you may have and this is known as Descriptive Research. You may have research that you
commission surveys, questionnaires, and so on. And now you bring that together, either it is
of a person or it may be of a group or it may be of an institute or it may be of a society and so
you now present that research to portray the results of that research.
3. To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated
with something else and this is known as Diagnostic Research.
4. To test a hypothesis of a casual relationship between variables and this is known as
Hypothesis Testing Research.

So there are different objectives of research. There are different reasons that a person will do
research; there are different objectives of research as well.
REASONS FOR RESEARCH

Haji Khaleefah, an author, writes in his book Kashf adh-Dhunoon (‫)كشف الظنون لحاجي خليفة‬.
That when a person writes and they author something, there are seven main reasons why they
would do this:
1. Because it is something that has not been done before – it is new research, research that has
not been done before. So now in our times maybe there is a new type of medical procedure
that has come out and you do not know the ruling of it according to Islaam. And so this new
research because it is an new invention, something which is new to our times, new
technology, new scientific advances. So, it’s something new, [i.e.] research which is new.
2. Something which is deficient, it needs to be completed. So some research is already there
but it has not been completed, there are still gaps to be filled.
3. Something which needs to be explained. So research which explains something. So you have
something but it requires further elaboration and clarification.
4. Something which is long but it needs to be abridged and condensed.
5. Something which is scattered and it needs to be gathered and brought into one.
6. Something which is mixed up, jumbled up, and it needs to be put into order and prioritised.
7. Someone has done some research but they have made some errors and mistakes, so a
person goes to correct that.
These seven categories are not really academic research. It is generally why we write, why a person
writes something, why they would do something. This was Hajee Khaleefah in his book Kashf adh-
Dhunoon that he says, these are the 7 main reasons why a person would go back to do something
like this.
So Insha Allaah with that, we are going to conclude this video Insha Allaah on this lesson. In the next
lesson Insha Allaah we will speak about motivation in research. We will also speak about the
characteristics that the Muslim researcher should have and the different reasons why a person
commissions research.
Was-salaamu ‘alaikum wa Rahmatullaah

SESSION 3
Video A
Bismillahi Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to another lesson, Video Number 3 and Lesson Number 3 of the science of Research
Methodology. In the previous lesson, we spoke about many examples and stories on the famous
scholars of Islaam, some past and some present concerning how they had an attachment to
research and knowledge and their books and their libraries and so on. That was not particularly to
give you some inspiration and motivation but also to show you that research is not a new
phenomenon but it is something which has its origins and its roots within Islaam. Then, we also
spoke about the objectives of research in the broad categories and we spoke about what one author
said concerning the seven main reasons why a person would write something or he would author
something or he would undergo some type of research.
MOTIVATION/REASONS FOR RESEARCH

There are obviously different ways that this can be categorized and different reasons that we can
give for motivation in research but I will mention a number of them to you.
1. RAGHBAHTUN SHAKSIYYAH (‫)رغبة شخصية‬

That a person just has the passion to do some research. This can be at a very personal level. Not all
research, as we mentioned before, [that] even though in this course we are going to be
concentrating on the academic type of research, it is possible that a person just wants to do some
research for themselves. They want to know for example about the correct way of praying or about
Salatul-Tasbeeh, whether it is established or not, how to pray Salatul-Istisqaa', what is the correct
opinion concerning whether you have to give Zakaah on gold for women who wear gold, [i.e.]
jewellery worn by women – is there Zakaah on it or not?
So you may have a specific issue that you want to go and research and this is done from Raghbah
Shaksiyyah, from your personal passion [and] enthusiasm to go and research.
2. PART OF ONE’S JOB

It is part of your job or someone requested you to do the research.
 So someone knows that you are a student of knowledge or a researcher, perhaps you have a
Ph.D. in Islaam and they want you to research a topic for the community. For example, what
is the origin of some of the celebrations that we see among the Muslims?
 Or something else that is a new phenomenon in the Muslim world.
 Or something that happens in the local community.
 Maybe it is part of your job as a lecturer or a researcher to do such type of research. Perhaps
you work for an Islaamic organisation and they want you to do this type of research.

3. PART OF THEIR QUALIFICATION
For other people it maybe that it is part of their qualification. If you are doing a university degree,
many of them have to do a final paper as part of their degree. Some of them maybe doing their
Masters or Ph.D or postgraduate studies and so they need to write some type of thesis in order to
graduate and to finish and achieve that qualification.
4. SOME OTHER REASONS

Sometimes they may be for some other reasons. Sometimes, you do research and Insha Allaah we
will do this within this course as well; some minor papers, some minor research in order to train
people. So Insha Allaah I hope through this course and especially the live sessions, you will be able to
have this component of doing some research in order to train you Insha Allaah in the arts of research
as well.
So this may be one way of looking at it. Another way a person can also say is that it can be divided
into a number of issues. Sometimes it is done for the benefit of the society; sometimes it is part of
your job and sometimes it is part of your studies, sometimes it is just a personal motivation and
enthusiasm that you have.
THE CHARACTERISTICS AND ETIQUETTES OF THE MUSLIM RESEARCHER

What makes the Muslim researcher different and unique [in] the way we should approach this type
of research?
1. IKHLAAS AND SINCERITY

This goes across all the acts of worship in Islaam. Seeking knowledge is one of the greatest, most
pious acts of worship after the obligatory acts, to come closer to Allaah. That is why there are so
many Ahaadeeth talking about the gatherings of knowledge, and how the angels descend, how the
Rahmah of Allaah descends and the angels gather around them, and how serenity, tranquillity and
Sakeenah descend upon them and so on. There are many Ahaadeeth that Allaah forgives those who
attend a gathering of knowledge. It is an amazing act of worship in and of itself and like any act of
worship, it must have sincerity.
One of the reasons why many people who undergo research, who seek knowledge, do not have
blessings within their knowledge is because their intention is corrupt, impure and insincere. There
is some issue with their intention.
For example: It is easy for some persons to have that happened to them. If they are doing research
because it is part of a university degree, Masters or Ph.D., then it becomes part of their habit and
they just do it because it has to be done. What they often forget is that in essence, research,
seeking knowledge is an act of worship, and for every act of worship, you must have sincerity. That
ٍ ِ ِ َّ ِ ِِّ ‫َعمال ِب‬ ِ
is why we all know the famous Hadeeth that the Prophet said, “ ‫ما‬
َ ‫النيَّة َواِن َما َل ْمر‬ ُ َ ْ ‫إَّن َما األ‬

‫ – َن َوى‬Every act is judged by its intention and everyone would get that which he intended.” [al-
Bukhaaree (1) and Muslim]
So when a person has sincerity, that even though they are studying this for a university degree or
because it is their job, whatever that reason is, they are primarily doing it for the sake of Allaah first
and foremost and then secondarily, they can also benefit from this type of degree or qualification
that they will receive.
This is one of the differences that we had amongst the scholars of the past and many researchers
today. Many people today do it so that they can write a book and get paid for that book, maybe
because of the qualification that they want or because it is a job at university, whereas in the past,
there was no such things as universities or PhDs and people would not be paid for their books. So
they did not really have any other reason to do it except because they wanted to come closer to
Allaah. But now that we have these things, there is nothing wrong with getting paid to research or
getting a qualification or working in a university but we should make sure our intention is sincere. It
is hard to do so, so you must pay more attention to it as well.
2. TAQWA OF ALLAAH
This is fear of Allaah and piety. It is the fruit of seeking knowledge and the fruit of Ikhlaas. Taqwa is
placing a barrier between yourself and the punishment of Allaah. So when we seek this knowledge,
we do it sincerely, for the pleasure of Allaah and for the sake of Allaah so that on Yawm al-
Qiyaamah, it will be FOR us in front of Allaah and not against us. And so, it will be something we will
be rewarded for on Yawmul Qiyaamah.
Ibn Rushd said:

“ُ ‫حانَه‬ ُ ِ‫ب ْال ِع ْل ِم ت َ ْق َوى للا‬
َ ‫س ْب‬ ِ َ‫طل‬
َ ‫علَى‬ َ ‫ – ِم ْن أ َ ْف‬From the best of that which you can use in order
ُ ‫ض ِل َما يُ ْست َ َع‬
َ ‫ان‬
to help you in seeking knowledge is the Taqwa of Allaah.”
That’s why Allaah says in the Quran:

َّ ‫اللـه ۖ ويعِّلِم ُكم‬
‫الل ُـه‬ َّ َّ
ُ ُ َ ُ َ َ ‫َواتُقوا‬
“Fear Allaah and Allaah will teach you.” [Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 282]
This fear of Allaah will open up that Noor of Allaah, that guidance that Allaah Wants to give to you
through this knowledge of Islaam. That is why Allaah Says:
‫اء‬ ِ ِ ِ ِ َّ َّ ِ
ُ ‫إن َما َي ْخ َشى الل َـه م ْن عَباده اْل ُعَل َم‬
“Truly only the scholars fear Allaah.” [Surah Al-Faatir, Verse 28]
That knowledge of Allaah will help you gain the Taqwa of Allaah and the more Taqwa you have, the
more knowledge Allaah will increase you with.

3. ENTHUSIASM IN THE RESEARCH THAT YOU WANT TO DO
This is also very important. A person that doesn’t enjoy research or he does enjoy research but the
topic that they have is not a topic that they enjoy, will not do a good job in their research. They will
lack motivation. So a person must have enthusiasm, passion for this research. One of the scholars
said that in order to seek knowledge, you need five essential things:
i. A sharp mind
ii. Passion
iii. Long life
iv. Determination
v. A good teacher
These five things are essential to become a scholar. Passion is something that will keep you going.
Over time when a person has to keep researching for three years, it is a lot and it can have an effect
on you. If you have the passion for research, then after the blessings of Allaah, it will help you to
keep going.
4. KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS – KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT & HOW TO RESEARCH

That is not only knowledge of the subject that you are researching broadly but it is also knowledge of
how to research.
Video B
5. AL-QUDRAH (‫ – )القدرة‬THE ABILITY TO RESEARCH

Research is not something which everyone and anyone can do. In fact, there are people who don’t
enjoy doing research and are unable to do research because it requires a systematic approach, time,
determination, passion and so on. This ability is of two types:
i. A natural ability – to study, research and enjoy it. When we look at the stories of the
scholars of the past, we find that they had the natural ability along with the strong
determination and enthusiasm. That’s why they would never get fed up. They would read
thousands of books and they would never tire. They would travel to so many places,
thousands of miles, months and months of journeying for a single Hadeeth or a single
benefit or to meet a single scholar and they would not get fed up and stop.
ii. An ability to learn, gain and attain yourself – just like the other things that you learn from
e.g. the etiquettes that you have and so on. So you have the ability to research.
Sometimes, research can be made easy because you know the methodology of
research. Sometimes instead of going to so many sources because you want to study a
single issue and there is already someone who has gathered those sources into a single
book and has already organised it for you. So, now that you know that there is this
source and instead of going to the original sources, someone has already done the hard
work for me, you would go to that instead and that will make it a lot easier.

6. HAVE TO BE GOOD WITH TIME MANAGEMENT AND BE ACCURATE AND PRECISE
Research generally has time limits on it. If you are in a university, you have to do it within a
semester or a year and for Masters, within a year or two and for Ph.D., within three, four or five
years. If you are unable to manage your time, you will find that your time quickly passes by. You will
spend so much time gathering information & sources that you will not have time to analyse or
evaluate them. Or you have spent so much time analysing and evaluating that you don’t have enough
sources and there are so many things you have missed out.
Hence, time management is important, not just for research but also for seeking knowledge. You
need time to seek that knowledge, to memorize, to study, to revise, to write, to research – and all of
this requires time management. We use time management in our daily life; it’s something that we
need for everything, not just research. But, it is more important in research because otherwise you
will find that projects will over-run. And even if it’s a personal research that you are undertaking that
doesn’t have any time restrictions, if you don’t have time management skills in there, you’ll find
that it will take you months while in reality, it could be done in a week or two. And that is why,
subHaanallaah, you’ll find once you undergo so much research that sometimes you’ll take weeks on
an issue when you could have done them in a few days simply because you didn’t have time
management skills.
Alongside that should be accuracy and precision.

 Accurate in the way you research, the steps that you take and the methodology that you
employ.
 Accurate and precise in terms of the references and sources that you use and the way that
you acknowledge those sources and quote from them.
Some people may be heedless in this regard. They will quote from a book but did not write the page
number. So when they have to write their referencing, they will have to go through the whole book
again to find the page number of that quote, simply because they didn’t write it down. They weren’t
accurate or precise in their recording. Or they heard something, but they did not write it or record it
properly. All of these issues will help you to become a good researcher.
7. PATIENCE
Research requires patience especially when you are undertaking such a big project. It might take
years for you to research a single issue in a topic or a subject in a field because of the amount of time
it takes. That’s why in the story of Musa and Khidr ‘alaihums-salaam in Surah Al Kahf, there are many
etiquettes of the student of knowledge and the teacher, where Musa ‘alaihis salaam is going to a
teacher, is accompanying him upon his travel and is learning from and studying from him. One of the
things that Musa ‘alaihis-salaam says:
‫ك أ َْم ًار‬ َّ ‫َقال ستَ ِجدِني ِإن َش‬

ِ ‫اللـه صاِب ار وََل أ‬
َ ‫َعصي َل‬
ْ َ ً َ ُ ‫اء‬ َ ُ َ َ
“He (Musa) said, ‘If Allaah wills, you will find me patient and I will not disobey you in anything.’”
[Surah Al-Kahf, Verse 69]

So, he said that I will be patient and that I will not disobey you. This is something which Musa ‘alaihis-
salaam is making a type of agreement/condition that I will go with you as a student O’ Khidr and I will
be patient. As the story goes, we know Musa ‘alaihis-salaam was not patient each time. So, Khidr
‘alaihis-salaam rebuked him every time.
ِ ِ
‫ص ْب ًار‬
َ ‫يع َمع َي‬
َ ‫ك َلن تَ ْستَط‬ َ ‫ِإَّن‬ ‫ال أََل ْم أَ ُق ْل‬
َ ‫َق‬
ِ ِ َّ
‫ص ْب ًار‬
َ ‫يع َمع َي‬ َ ‫ك َلن تَ ْستَط‬َ ‫ك ِإَّن‬َ‫ل‬ ‫ال أََل ْم أَ ُقل‬َ ‫َق‬
“Did I not say that you will not be able to remain patient with me?” [Surah Al-Kahf, Verses 72]
“Did I not say to you that you will not be able to remain patient with me?” [Surah Al-Kahf, Verses
75]
And that’s why at the end of the story, when Khidr ‘alaihis-salaam explained why he scuttled the
ship, killed the boy and erected the wall, he said:
‫يل َما َل ْم تَ ْس ِطع َّعَل ْي ِه‬ ِٰ

‫ص ْب ًرا‬
َ ُ ‫ك تَأ ِْو‬
َ ‫َذل‬
“That is the interpretation of (those) things over which you were unable to hold patience.” [Surah
Al-Kahf, Verse 82]
said, “‫اْلعجب‬ِِِ ِ ِ َّ ‫رحم ُة‬

The Prophet
َ َ َ ‫صاحبه‬
َ ‫صَب َر َل َأرَى م ْن‬
َ ‫وسى َل ْو‬
َ ‫َّللا َعَل ْيَنا َو َعَلى ُم‬ ََْ – May Allaah
have mercy upon us and upon Musa. Had he been patient, he would have seen many more
amazing things from his companion (Khidr).” [Saheeh Abee Daawud (3984)]
So patience is an essential part of seeking knowledge in general and especially in research because
a person will have difficulties in their research [where] they will come across obstacles and
problems. It maybe financial, resources finished or depleted, or a person may not be able to find a
special type of book that he is looking for or they can’t reach a certain type of research that they are
trying to acquire – all of these require patience.
8. NOT BEING HASTY

You do not want to finish your research by tomorrow because it requires time. Often when you
research, you tweek you research, you go back, revise, change, amend, add, delete – all of this is part
of research and so all of it is important as well.
9. AL-AMAANAH AL-‘ILMIYYAH (‫ – )األمانة العلمية‬TRUSTWORTHINESS

We will speak about this later in more detail. This is academic and ethical values. One of the
common issues is plagiarism. So, when you quote from someone, you reference their work. When
you take benefit from someone, you don’t quote them out of context and you don’t misquote
them. All of this things are known as al-amaanah al-‘ilmiyyah. Obviously, when it comes to the
Qur'aan and the Sunnah of the Prophet , it is even more severe. This is the research that we are
going to take i.e. Islaamic research.

The Prophet ِ ‫الن‬
said, “‫ار‬ َّ ‫َم ْن َك َذ َب َعَل َّى ُمتَ َع ِِّم ًدا َفْلَيتََبَّوْأ َمْق َع َدهُ ِم َن‬ – Whosoever lies upon me
intentionally then let him take a seat in the fire of hell.” [al-Bukhaaree (1291), Muslim (3) and
others]
This is misquoting and misinterpreting and not having that Amanah ‘Ilmiyyah (which is
trustworthiness, academic responsibility and ethical values) which will not make you a good
researcher.
That is why Allaah ‫ سبحانه وتعالى‬Says in the Qur'aan that from the gravest of sins is:
‫الل ِـه َما ََل تَ ْعَل ُمو َن‬
َّ ‫وأَن تَُقوُلوا عَلى‬
َ َ
“Saying about Allaah of which you have no knowledge of.” [Surah Al-Araaf, Verse 33]
So, it is important that we quote properly and don’t quote out of context and don’t misinterpret and
twist people’s words and do things as they should be done.
This is not something which is only in Islaam. Even in western academic research, ethical values
play a very important part in research methodology. This is because people realized that it is very
easy for a researcher to misrepresent things and the average reader will take it, takes it on the basis
that you as a researcher are ethical and so you won’t do things which shouldn’t be done. They will
trust your work implicitly and read it and refer to it. So, it is very easy for the researcher to
manipulate the reader if they are not objective, trustworthy and just.
10. THE PERSONALITY OF THE RESEARCHER SHOULD COME THROUGH HIS RESEARCH
When a person is researching, they are gathering data, evaluating and analysing it and drawing
conclusions with this data; their personality should come through. What is their opinion? What do
they think is correct? Is this Hadeeth authentic or inauthentic? Simply to write things down as they
are found in other books and copy and paste is not research because anyone can do that. Research
is when you give your own opinions, you analyse, you draw conclusions, and you draw similarities,
and you see where there are contradictions and other things and then you evaluate this data and
you bring out your opinions and this is shown through your research – this is what makes a good
research. That’s why, when you go through the books of Fiqh and the works of scholars such as Ibn
al-Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahumullah and many other scholars, you will find that their
personality comes through. You can get an idea of the personality of Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-
Qayyim from the way that they write, how they construct their arguments, how they make their
arguments, how they debate, and so on. So this is important for a researcher as well [i.e.] to have
this ability of having his personality come through his research.
Next we will speak on “What makes a research academic?” Then, Insha Allaah, we will move on to
the second section of this course which is, “Critical Thinking”, “How to find a topic”, and other issues
related to that.

SESSION 4
Video A
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENERAL RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH

 Research is a search for knowledge.
 It is of different levels and different types.
 A person can research for his or her own personal interest; maybe someone wants to know
how to pray properly, how to perform Hajj or give Zakaah.
 Or maybe they just want to know about a specific issue; for example do you have to give
Zakaah on gold jewellery worn by women? Is there Zakaah on shares that you take out?
 When a person researches these issues, they may take up some books or go on the internet
or ask the local Imaam at the Masjid and gather these resources and then research to the
best of their ability and then come out with a conclusion.
 However Research Methodology, in the context of a university and academic study, is
different.
 What makes research academic?
 What’s the difference between research that you undertake yourself when you just want to
learn about an issue and academic research which you can publish and are noteworthy of
handing in to your supervisor at degree level, post-graduate level, Masters and PhD level.
WHAT MAKES YOUR RESEARCH ACADEMIC?

1. OBJECTIVITY (MAWDOOÈEYAH – ‫) موضوعية‬
It is not something, which is open and has no beginning or end. It is defined and is objective. One of
the things that we will speak about is how to identify research topics, how to make those topics into
questions and how to problematize those questions. All of this is to basically give you this first goal
that makes your research academic & objectivity. Throughout the whole process, you have a goal
and an objective and throughout the thesis, you will be going towards attaining and achieving that
goal. So, it is not going to be research where you just have random things placed into one but rather
you will always go back and refer to your research questions and topics, what is it that your
objectives are and that will allow you to contain and maintain that objectivity. This is very important,
otherwise your research will become open ended.
For example:
If you research Surah Al-Baqarah open endedly, they can go on for volumes. They can speak about
Ìbaadah, prayer, Jews and Christians, hypocrites, battles, Musa àlaihis-salaam, etc.
What is the objective behind studying and researching Surah Al-Baqarah?

If a person were to say, I want to research Surah Al-Baqarah to take out the issues of Da’wah to
Allaah Subhanahuwa ta’ala – How we can establish a methodology calling to Allaah from the various
verses, stories and parables within Surah Al-Baqarah? Now, we know as we go through that research,
there is an objective way of doing this. So, anything that has nothing to do with that objective will
not be mentioned.
Objectivity helps you as researcher to plan and stay on course and Insha Allah meet your goals and
objectives from your research.
2. METHODOLOGY (MANHAJIYYAH – ‫)منهجية‬

There must be a methodology in the way you do your research. This is basically what research
methodology helps you to do i.e. there must be a methodology in the way you go and do your
research. It can’t just be random; you can’t bring an issue from here and there and then put them all
together, so that it becomes a box of jumbled information. Rather, there must be a methodology.
For example:
You are starting with point A – this is my question, this is how I am going to deal with that questions,
this is the information I’m going to gather, how I am going to gather, analyse, evaluate that
information and then present it and these are the conclusions I will draw from it, etc. So, there is a
logical progression, a methodology that you follow. This is not only about the overall concept of
your research but also when dealing with specific points. For example, if there is an area where the
scholars have differed (e.g. is praying in congregation obligatory on Muslim men?), you cannot bring
a whole lot of Ahaadeeth and verses and put them together and hope that the reader will
understand your view. There must be a methodology that you go through.
This isn’t just something that you find that we mentioned here in this course. If you go back to the
books of the scholars like ‘Al-Mughnee’ of Ibn Qudaamah, ‘Badaa'iùs-Sanaa'i`’’ of Al-Kaasaani, books
of Ibn Abdul-Barr and Imaam An-Nawawi – all these books of Fiqh, look at how they present
differences of opinions. Go to ‘Bidaayatul-Mujtahid’ of Ibn Rushd and look at how he mentions the
issue and then mentions the reason behind that difference of opinion (if there is a reason), then he
presents the different Fiqh opinions and then the different points of view, their reasons and
justifications and proofs and evidences and then he will mentions the different argument party A
gave to the party B and so on. Then, he will present the conclusion as to what is the strongest
opinion and why it is the strongest opinion. It is done with methodology. So, the reader knows that
he is going to be presented this information in a methodological way and not randomly.
3. ACCURACY AND PRECISION (AD-DIQQAH – ‫)الدقة‬

As we said before, the researcher must have accuracy, precision and good time management.
Likewise, what makes your research academic is the display of this accuracy throughout your
research – The way that you quote, reference and acknowledge and go through the different issues
that you have. E.g. if you have an opinion and you bring an evidence for that opinion but that
evidence doesn’t have any relationship with your opinion, it is wrong to quote that evidence and
expect the reader to understand where you are coming from. Accuracy dictates that you tell them
the istidlaal (i.e. reason why this supports your opinion). You bring and deduce from the evidence the
reason i.e. why it justifies your position. This is accuracy and not just leaving it open-ended, vague
and broad. You must be accurate so that there is no chance of the reader being confused and
having ambiguity.

4. IT MUST BE SOMETHING THAT IS REPLICABLE
It should be something that can be replicable i.e. copied by others in the sense that it can be
understood by others where you came from and how you reached your conclusion. Normally, at
university, postgraduate, Masters or PhD level, you will always have people critiquing your work. It
will be your supervisor, other lecturers or fellow students. [They will do it] simply because they want
to put it to the test. It has be able to hold up to the test that they put. If you present an argument
and they poke holes in your arguments and show that it doesn’t make any sense, it is not replicable.
No one can use it as a foundation to continue their own research.
Often in the books of Fiqh, we rely & trust on them as a foundation. This is what Ibn Qudaamah
rahimahullaah said in al-Mughnee, “This is what I am basing my argument upon.” This is what Ibn
Taymiyyah said in Majmoo’ al-Fatawaa, This is what I am basing my argument upon, it is accepted, it
is known, it is trustworthy and now I will built upon that. If then someone comes and says about your
argument, It doesn’t make any sense, and they poke holes in it and thrash it, then the other person
can’t come and use your argument to built another argument or to strengthen their own argument
and so on. So, it is important that we put it to the test, critique it and play the role of critiquing our
own work and get other people to give their feedback as well.
5. SIMPLICITY
It must be simple, logical and coherent. Not simple in that it is only two or three pages but simple in
that there is a logical procession. It should NOT be that you have put down all of your ideas as it has
come in your mind with no order and logic. It shouldn’t be that you have mentioned something in
chapter 1 which should have been in chapter 6 and there is no connection (of it with chapter 1). So,
by the time when someone gets to chapter six, they’ve already forgotten chapter 1 and they can’t
make that connection that they need to make. It must be simple in the sense that a reader can pick it
up and progress with it to the next level.
Video B
6. ACHIEVE YOUR OBJECTIVE AND GOALS

This is what makes your research academic. When you have a research question, it must be fulfilled,
answered and solved by the end of your research. If, by the end of your research, by the conclusion
of your research, you still haven’t answered your question then your research is just words and
information; you haven’t brought forth anything new, there is no end goal inside and you have not
got anywhere. So, throughout your research, just as you are being sure that you have an objective
and you follow a set methodology, you also have to make sure that you have actually achieved your
objective and not lost sight of your goal. This is the mistake that many people have done – they have
done their research, gathered so much information, but by the end, they haven’t achieved that
objective and lost sight of the goal. This should be at the forefront of your mind.
Referencing your working and having a bibliography are also important points in making your
research academic, which will be discussed in the course.

All of the things that we have mentioned so far was to give you an introduction in research
methodology. There are many resources also available for research methodology. You only need to
go to the internet, local libraries, electronic libraries & e-journals and you will find so much
information and research that’s been done about research methodology itself. So, there is a prefora
(02:03) of information at the Internet Inshaa Allaah for those who want to go and research that.
CHAPTER 2: CRITICAL THINKING

INTRODUCTION
The next stage of this course that we are moving on now is the section called Critical Thinking. One of
the things that makes your research unique, an original contribution and one of that a research is
looked for and what universities look for (specially at post-graduate level of research) is a unique
contribution. They don’t want you to just regurgitate what other people have done. It’s not a copy
and paste exercise. But what it is is a unique contribution; what is it that you bring to the table that
makes your work unique and stand out and different.
Any proper, reputable university that has postgraduate studies always tries to make their research
unique. So, they look at it from different angles. It may be that you bring in a different context, but
you make it unique.
For example:
 Researching benefits of prayer is not something unique; however one can research how the
prayer helps youth develop. How does prayer develop their personality & the character of a
child from the age of seven until teenagers and then young adults?
 We are still talking about the benefits of the prayer but in a different context. This is a
different way of researching the same topic and giving it a specific objective.
 So, for example, a person would say that it instils discipline in a child. He has to wake up early
in the morning, stay up late at night to pray Ìshaa, praying the five prayers at set time, it
allows a child down such that even if they are playing, they take time out to pray, etc.
 You bring these issues in your research and look at it from a different angle.
This is critical thinking. Critical thinking isn’t that you just accept everything but you look at things
in a different way, you question it, you reason with it, you justify it and then present your
conclusions.
It is not research to just bring the opinion of Sheikhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah only, but
you bring his opinion and the opinion of Imaam An-Nawawi, Ibnul-Qayyim, Ibn Katheer and others
and then you analyse, compare and contrast and deduce your own conclusion from it – this is critical
thinking. That’s what makes you a critical academic thinker.
FINDING A RESEARCH TOPIC

How do you find a research topic? How do you find a unique topic? In introduction, we said that
research has to be unique and original contribution and at the end, we spoke about how to make

research academic. Whatever follows now will be on academic research. So, I’m not speaking about
research that you want to do personally or [want to do] because your friend or parents ask you a
question and so your research. I’m talking about academic research, university research, Masters,
PhD, things that you want to publish and it may even a research for your personal benefit but you
want others to benefit as well. E.g. you want to mention an issue that people have many
misconceptions about. Now, you need to do it in an academic way so [that] they can see your
references, your resources, [etc.] [This is because] no one just wants to know your opinion, they also
want to know what you are basing that opinion upon as well.
WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE
Now, to find a unique topic, you must have in you, before you choose the topic, things that will allow
you to choose the right topic for you. There are a number of things:
1. It must be something that you are passionate and enthusiastic about. Don’t choose a topic
that you just enjoy. Choose a topic that you are enthusiastic about and some passion for.
2. You must be prepared to go and research that issue. It maybe that you are passionate about
it but if you’re not passionate enough or ready about researching the topic, then there is no
point in choosing such a topic. E.g. if I have interest in medicine but I’m not a doctor and have
not background in medicine. Now, for me to do a research paper on how honey has medical
benefits, I don’t really have the capability to research that and go and learn about that issue.
So, sometimes, it may that before you research something, you will actually have to study the
whole area before you can research in it. So, if you’re not ready or able to do that, then you
shouldn’t choose that topic.
3. There must be resources available otherwise it will be very difficult. How will you research
the issue if there are no resources available? It will be very, very, very difficult for you. E.g. if
there comes a new issue of banking that has just come out and you want to look at it from an
Islaamic point of view but no one has looked at it before, how will you go and research this
issue if you don’t have any resources available.
4. It must be something that is worthy of research. You are going to be spending so much time
and effort and work into producing this research. If the research is not that important or that
much worthy of being researched then it will be a waste of effort and time. You must choose
something that is beneficial to you and others and something which is worthy of research.
5. You have the ability to research that issue. So, issues like banking, engineering and medicine,
if you don’t have a background in these issue and don’t have the know-how about the general
field, it would be very difficult to research them. One of the main ideas that I had for my PhD
when I began – but I didn’t you through with it – was that I wanted to do research on Islaamic
medicine and to see how Islaamic medicine or Prophetic medicine (i.e. medicine that we get
from the Prophet ‫ )ﷺ‬can be contrasted and compared with general medicine that we use in
our daily lives i.e. pills, etc. But when I went to put a proposal for this research, one of my
lecturers said to me that you don’t have any background in medicine and so even though you
may do this research, people will automatically question how were even able to do that
research. You will be relying on other people’s expert opinions. So, I, having no background in

medicine, would have to rely on other people who are experts in medicine to give me their
opinions. So, automatically, it’s not a unique contribution [as] I’m relying on others in order
for me to be able to give that research forward. Therefore, it must be something you are able
to do and have some know-how about it.
Ability is done (10:22) by two things:
i. From yourself; so, you yourself have the ability to go research.
ii. You ask others whether you have the ability to research. E.g. if it is something like
medicine, ask the people in that field, Is this something that I will be able to do without
any background. Maybe they will say [or advise] you that you need, for example, a short
course and then you will be ready. Maybe others will say, No, you don’t need anything;
you just need to read up on it. Or maybe the case will be that unless you’re an expert, you
won’t be able to research this field properly.
Therefore, these are things that you have to look at even before you get to that stage of actually
choosing a topic.
I. CHOOSING A FIELD
Now, when it comes to choosing a topic, it’s important to look at a topic that you are going to
choose.
1. Choose a general field. For example: Islaamic Law, Islaamic Finance, Medicine, Engineering,
etc.
2. Look within the field and look at what is already available. Go to the library and look at
issues. E.g. if it is Islaamic Finance, banking in Islaam, go look in the library about all of the
books that you can find – what are the titles, read their abstracts, what are they talking
about, etc. [Get to know] what’s already available. Do a simple search. Then do another
simple search on the internet or in an electronic database that has academic electronic
journals. This will give you an idea of what is already out there and what others have written
about, this will give you an idea on whether that field is right or not. So, like I said before of
my own personal experience, I started off with medicine, then I decided later on that I want
to move to something else – Fiqh for Muslim Minorities. So, I actually disregarded that whole
issue of medicine simply because I didn’t have the ability and know-how and background for
it. That will help you to establish if the general field is the right field for you.
In next video we are going to continue this topic.

SESSION 5
Video A
My dear brothers and sisters in Islaam, Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh.

Welcome to another lesson, Lesson Number 5 of Research Methodology. In the previous lesson, we
spoke about how to make your research to an academic piece of work that you can publish and
give and benefit yourself with and benefit others with as well and then we basically began to speak
about how to find a research topic in the general section of “Critical Thinking”.
Basically what we were speaking about in the previous lesson – inshaa Allaah, we will continue on
with that now in this lesson – is how to identify your research topic.
I. CHOOSING A FIELD (CONT.)

So we said that the first thing you do is look at the general field. You need to establish that general
field. What is the general field that you have in which you are going to research? Whether that’s
Islaam, Islaamic law, it may be, for example, Islaamic finance, Tafseer, Hadeeth, theology, Aqeedah.
It may be so many different issues. So you must have firstly the ability to go and identify that
general field.
One of the ways you can do that is by looking at what’s already out there available. If for example
you are interested in Islaamic medicine but you go to the library and you find that there are so many
books already on Islaamic medicine, maybe now it will be difficult for you to research that issue. But
at the same time you don’t want to go to the other extreme where you go to Islaamic medicine and
there is not even a single book. Now it will be even more difficult for you to do something because
there are no resources available.
II. EXISTING LITERATURE

So once you’ve done this and you’ve got a feel for that idea, you have the general feel of that idea,
then what you basically do the next step is something called “Existing Literature” and this also
connects with another issue which is called “Literature Review”.
Existing Literature is basically that you go and you look at what’s already available so that you can
get in that field, so that you can understand where there is a possibility for you to research. As we
said, academic research has to be original and unique in its contribution. You can’t just duplicate and
copy and regurgitate and repeat. Therefore, this existing literature helps you to know what’s already
out there.
- LITERATURE REVIEW
A literature review is something which you will actually write within your thesis especially at Masters
and at Ph.D. level. A literature review is basically when you actually review what’s already out
there. So it’s not a detailed review of every single book, but it will be a general review of what
already was there. So you would say for example in the field of Islaamic medicine, there was a book
by Ibn al-Qayyim (Rahimahullaah) where he spoke about issues of Islaamic medicine but it didn’t deal
with, for example, how we compared with general medicine at his time. However there is a different
book that speaks about it compares with general medicine and so on and so forth. So now you are
reviewing that literature that is already there.
- WHY IS THIS EXISTING LITERATURE SO IMPORTANT?

It is because it will help you identify your research question. So now that you have got the general
field, the field of, for example, Islaamic finance or Islaamic law is so wide, all you have to do is look at
the books of Al Mughnee and all of the books of Fiqh to see how many volumes are written there.
Now that you have this wide generic field, you need to zone in and you need to actually come down.
It’s like a funnel where you have a very wide top and then you will come down and down until it will
be very, very small at the bottom and that will then be your research objective, your research
question. So the way to do that is that you have the general field which is the top of the funnel,
now you are trying to move down and the way that you do that is by going through existing
literature.
- THINGS TO DO WHEN REVIEWING EXISTING LITERATURE

As you are going through existing literature, there are a number of things you need to do:
1. The most important thing to remember in reviewing literature and looking at existing
literature is that you want to be known as something which is known as an “Active Reader”.
It means that normally when people read a book – they have a novel, maybe they are reading
some fiction, or maybe an Islaamic book, whatever book – most people just read, it goes in
one ear then goes out from the other or it goes in through their mind and then they forget it
or they remember certain parts and they don’t remember other parts. Or then they come
across something that was really good that they enjoyed, but they don’t write it down or take
note of it and then after a short while, after they pass by a few pages or the next day, they
would have forgotten it. Or even if they remember what it was, that point of benefit that they
really enjoyed, they won’t remember where it was. So now they will have to go and start
reading again from the beginning of the book to pinpoint where it was that they read that
issue that they wanted to use.
So you must become an active reader- a person who reads but always has questions coming
up. When they see something beneficial, they write it down. When they see something for
example that can become a possible research question, they write it down. They identify the
gaps and so on and so forth. So as you’re doing your reading, there are a number of things
you must ask yourself and you must always note:
i. Interesting questions and problems that arise in that literature. So as you are reading,
what are the interesting questions that the author is bringing out? Is he answering or not
answering those questions?
ii. Its possible solutions: The author may in a book bring interesting questions and
problems and then he may give his solution to that problem but maybe that solution
isn’t correct. Maybe there is another solution. Maybe that solution is half baked, maybe
it’s not a complete solution and so on and so forth. So you have these questions going on.
As you are reading, you are looking at the references they are using. So for example, you
are looking at an issue of Islaamic Finance and the author mentions a reference which
speaks about an aspect of Islaamic finance which isn’t related to the book but it’s related
to your research. Now you have a reference there that someone has already done the
hard work. You don’t have to go and search on the internet, on the library; you can
actually take his reference, go back to the original source and read that source yourself.
So now you are an active reader, you are not just reading things through, you are reading
the footnotes, you are connecting dots, you are writing things down, you are categorising
these issues as you go along.
2. One of the other things that is very important as you do your existing literature, as you read
in the general topic, is something known as “further research” or “further reading”. That is
basically in most research thesis, in most academic books and journals, what the authors
would always do towards the end normally in the conclusion is [that] they will write a small
section called “further research” or “further reading” and this issue of further research is
basically what the author wasn’t able to research either because there wasn’t enough time
or because for example, financially they were not able to, or because it didn’t really directly
relate to the issue that they had i.e. their topic or their objective for their research, but there
is a similar issue which can also be researched.
The benefit of this further research is that the author after all of his experience, all of his
research, time and effort, is giving you already questions that you can possibly take on for
your research. So maybe a person is talking about Islaamic medicine and comparing it to
general medicine but he was only able to compare general medicine in the sense that when
you go and see your doctor, he gives you these pills, this is what he tells you to do and so on
and so forth. But in the further research section, he says one thing that I wasn’t able to
compare was things like surgery – is there anything for example from the time of the Prophet
sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam when it came to surgery that we can now compare with in our
times? And so that is two completely different contrasting things. And so therefore, this is
now a research gap, a research question that perhaps you can take on and research as well.
So it is always important to focus on further research; often researchers and authors have
already done a lot of the hard work for you.
3. One of the other things you should also note is “what is the research topic that basically this
person is trying to answer?”- What is the research question of that book? And once you
know that research question, then also ask yourself and look within that book as to how
they studied that. How did they actually go about that? Because if you are going to do
research in the same field, maybe you can adopt parts of their methodology. You can take
part of the way they studied their issue and apply it to yourself. One of the ways that you can
do this is if you look at for example “the contents page”. The contents page will tell you the
chapters and within the chapters, the different headings and subheadings. This is basically
the plan of how they studied their research question i.e. how they arrived at their
conclusion. So sometimes, just by looking at that gives you an idea in developing and
formulation your own research process.
4. One of the other things you should ask is “what did they find?” So the possible solutions, but
not only the possible solutions, the conclusions that they drew; the evaluation of their data
analysis and also the conclusions that they drew and then as we said before further research
is something which is very, very important.
- TYPES OF LITERATURE
When you come to literature, there are two (2) main types of literature:
1) Conceptual literature
It’s basically literature which speaks about the general concept and theories of the research that
you want to do - that general field. So for example, if you want to speak about an issue of Fiqh, there
will be books like Al-Mughnee that speak about the conceptual literature – they will speak about
issues of Fiqh generally. So every issue of Fiqh that you can think of is more or less in books like Al-
Mughnee. So, that is conceptual literature. You read it for background information to understand the
concepts, the theories… Some books are very good for example at pinpointing why scholars of Islaam
differed over these issues like Ibn Rushd in Bidaayatul-Mujtahid, Al-Kaasaani in Badaa'i` al-Sanaa'i`
and others. So you go to these books to understand the background, concept, theory behind the
issue.
2) Empirical literature
It is basically that type of literature which is a similar study to what you are going to be doing. So if
for example, you are going to be specifically focusing on the issue of how many Rak’ah you pray in
Salaatu-at-Taraaweeh – is it 8, 20, 36, is there a limit, isn’t there a limit? – there may be books that
speak about this issue that are of similar studies. So you wouldn’t just go to Al-Mughnee because it
does speak about the issue but it speaks about it in a much more general issue. But there are many
other books that only speak about this one issue for example of Salaah at-Taraaweeh – when can it
be performed? How is it performed? Can you do it in this way or that way? How do you pray the
witr? All of these issues will be spoken about in similar studies. When you look at those similar
studies, this is known as “Empirical Literature”.
- PITFALL WHEN CONDUCTING LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a very important point here to mention and that is that one of the things that you must be
aware of, you must avoid, one of the potential pitfalls that you may fall into is you spend too much
time on your review. So normally when it comes to doing research, as we said before, there is
normally a time limit and especially if you are doing it for your studies, there is a time limit. So if you
spend six months to a year just doing an existing literature review, then now you’ve already taken up
half or a third of the time. If your Ph.D. is three years, for example, and you take a year just doing the
literature review, then that would automatically take out so much time, a third of your time has
already been lost.
So even though the literature review is very important in helping you to identify research gaps and
identify what is the research question, you can’t go overboard in it. This is because there is often so
much information available [that] to read it all would be a life-time’s work. Just to read Al-Mughnee
will be a life time’s work. Therefore, you always have to plan in advance. You have to be objective,
you have to have a methodology and by that way you don’t spend so much time. So you give
yourself a time limit – in 2 or 3 months, I will read as much as I can and then that would be it. That
doesn’t means as you go on in your research, you can’t carry on reading, you can’t carry on
benefitting. Obviously you will carry on reading – that’s part of your research. And as it continues to
develop, inshaa Allaah, you will continue to benefit as well but always beware of the issue of time
and time management.
III. RESEARCH GAP

So you have now got the general field (and remember we gave the analogy of the funnel), now
you’ve done your literature review, now you are going down further and it’s getting narrower and
narrower; you are going more precise, you are zoning in. Now, you go to the next issue and that is
the research gap.
This is basically the general way of speaking about how to identify your research. The importance
of research gaps, as we have said before, is that you don’t want to duplicate your research.
Research can be something that has already been done. There must be a new way that you present
that. There must be a new angle that you are bringing into your research. There must be some
uniqueness, some original contribution of your research. For example if at Ph.D. level, you were to do
a research on something that someone had already done, it will be unacceptable even if you use
different sources and you didn’t even use same sources as him…
Video B
…the fact that that subject has already been researched, unless there is something new that you are
going to present – so maybe like that research, the original one, was from 50 years ago, times have
changed so you are presenting a new research – unless it’s something like this, they won’t even
accept it from you. So it must be something which you bring and which is something which will make
an original contribution. The way that you identify this research gap is basically the two steps that
we have identified before along with this first step:
i. The general field - look at the general field that you want to research in.
ii. The literature review i.e. the existing literature.
iii. The gap.
So as you are going through this literature review, you are looking at all of these issues that were
unsolved, possible solutions that can be made, the further reading and research that the authors
recommend – that will now tell you where the gaps are. So there is a gap, for example, in the issue of
surgery when it comes to Islaamic medicine. There is a gap, for example, in the issue of shares or the
stock market in Islaamic finance. There is a gap, for example, on the issue of Muslim children, when
they go to school, having to pray and be able to pray – that’s a research gap in education for Muslims
in the west for example. So these are gaps. These aren’t questions, but they are gaps. So now you
have come from a field to literature to a gap.

And a gap as you know in English Language is something which is small – you leave a gap between
you and the person next to you, a gap in the way that you are writing a letter between words. It is a
short space. So you have identified something, you are now zoning in. So you are becoming more
precise and precise as you go along. And so now you have these research gaps.
One of the issues that I was thinking about also in my Ph.D. research that I also didn’t do but one of
the ideas that I had was to compare for example the methodology of Ibn Abdul-Barr (Rahimahullaah
Ta’aalaa) when he came to Kitaabul-Buyoo’ (The Chapter of Transactions) in his book Al-Istithkaar
and compare that with a modern day scholar someone like Dr. Wahbah Zuhaylii or someone that is a
modern day jurist and the way they portray their issues of Kibaab Al-Buyoo’ and then to contrast and
compare the two i.e. what are the similarities? What are the differences? If Ibn Abdul-Barr was to be
presented with the same issue according to his principles that is laid down in his book, would he
arrive at the same conclusion as this jurist has now arrived at today and so on? And so you compare
the two.
So basically now you are zoning in and so the general issue may be, for example, just Islaamic finance
but a particular part – methodology of a classical scholar with a contemporary scholar. So now that’s
a gap. No one has done a comparison between a classical scholar and a contemporary scholar in the
methodology and the principles of Buyoo’ and transactions. So that’s now a gap, it’s not a research
question. We will speak about a research question next but it is still a gap.
So that is the third thing you do. So after you got the general field, you’ve done the existing literature
review and then now you’ve got the research gap, Number 4, you come on to the issue of the
research question.
IV. RESEARCH QUESTION

The research question: this is the next stage. So now that we’ve got this topic, even though the topic
is, for example, the topic that I actually chose for my Ph.D. was “Western Fiqh Councils” i.e. Fiqh
councils in the west. What are western Fiqh councils? A Fiqh council is basically where a group of
scholars gather, they gather maybe once a year, twice a year. These scholars gather and they sit
together and collectively they discuss the issues that the Ummah faces.
So that may be for example issues that are new: issues in medicine, in finance that are new and now
they have to deduce a ruling, a Fatwa for that for that for the Muslims. So for example, maybe a few
years ago, it would have been mortgages – “Are mortgages Halaal or Haraam?” People need houses
and they can’t afford them, so they have mortgages but mortgages have Ribaa; can Muslims use
them or not? And so these are issues that these Fiqh councils will go and study and so there are
many Fiqh councils. There are some in Saudi Arabia like the Majmaùl-Fiqh, there are others, for
example, in other parts of the world, in Sudan, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and so on and
then there are others which are in the western hemisphere. Councils like the European Council of
Fatwa and Research based in Dublin and AMJA i.e. the American Muslim Jurists Assembly based in
the United States of America, North America. So these are Western Fiqh Councils. So this is what my
topic was. So this was the research gap that I found.

So the general field was Fiqh and then you go down and you look at existing literature and I found
that within Fiqh, there was nothing really that was talking about Fiqh for Muslim minorities or in
particular western Muslims – how they use Fiqh today in current times. So that’s like the existing
literature review. Then you go to the research gap. “Fiqh councils” is a research gap. No one has
done research before on Fiqh councils especially western Fiqh councils like the one in Dublin and the
one in North America – the European and the North American Fiqh councils. Western Fiqh councils –
that is now a research gap.
The next and final stage so that you come to the bottom of this funnel at its very narrowest point
where the water/liquid normally drips out is now the research question. So now that I have got
this topic, I must actually make it into a question because a topic is still very general. Western Fiqh
councils is still very wide, still kind of general but a question will make it very clear, very distinct,
very precise and will make it very specific. So that is the benefit of then taking your research gap
and putting it into a research question. So, research questions need to be specific whereas topics are
general.
- SPECIFICITY OF THE RESEARCH QUESTION

They need to be specific for a number of reasons:
1. So that then you can use the appropriate methods: You can choose the appropriate
methods. So depending on exactly what that question will be, you will decide on what type of
research you are going to do. Do you need to do questionnaires? Do you need to do surveys?
Can you just rely on books? Do you need to travel? Don’t you need to travel? And so on.
2. The required resources can be found? Once you’ve established the methods, can required
resources be found. So now you need to actually look. Ok you need to travel but where do
you need to travel to? You need to do questionnaires but who are you going to do the
questionnaires with? Is it something general or do you need a specific group of people? And
now so you need to start looking at those different resources.
3. Then your criteria can now become clear: So now it’s not just a topic but now, you are
becoming more objective as well. What is your criterion for your research? When you have a
question, you know what the criterion is. You want to answer that question. So for me for
example, in Western Fiqh councils, I wanted to look at:
i. Not only the way that they operate (so that was one question i.e. how do they operate?)
but
ii. How do they then give their Fatwas out to the general Muslims? So the Muslims in Europe
and America, how do they benefit from this? So if a group of scholars come, they spend a
week discussing an issue to give a Fatwa, but then no one ever gets that Fatwa, what is
the benefit of doing that council?
iii. How do those people that get that Fatwa benefit from the Fatwa?

So now these are criteria that you have now. So throughout your research, these are the
things that you are going to be focusing on. So you’ll look at, for example, how the council is
formed, how they work, how they operate and within that then, you have other questions
that shoot off. So for example, from that question, one of the questions about how the
council operated that I had as well was the history of councils. Is it possible that Fiqh councils
today are a different form of something which existed at the beginning of Islaam? So one of
the important things that we have and we all know in Islaam is the concept of Shoorah i.e.
legislation [via] consultation with other people. The Prophet Sallallaahu ‘alayhi Wasallam
consulted with his companions, likewise Abu Bakr and Ùmar and so on. So can this be a
primitive form of a Fiqh council? So you go through history and you look for examples of
different ways of how scholars gathered, the companions gathered and they would discuss
these issues and then they would give a Fatwa. So therefore you are working now in a
systematic way. So that’s the third thing, criteria.
4. So now you can plan your work: So not only that you have the methods, you have the
resources, you have the criteria, now you have a plan. So this is how I’m going to do it. By this
stage, I need to have the surveys done and ready. By this stage, I need to have the surveys
completed. By this stage, I need to have analysed the surveys and evaluated them. So now
you can start to plan because you know exactly what you need to do.
5. Your objectives can then finally be met: To say that you are studying, for example, western
Fiqh council, that’s not an objective in and of itself because it is so wide. You can spend
maybe years or a life time studying this and you wouldn’t finish. You could speak about issues
like why aren’t there more councils? Why are there too many councils? And so it’s an open
ended thing. So once you have defined it and you’ve started getting these questions, now you
can have what is your objective and how to go into that objective as well.
So this is basically what it is. You take the topic (the research gap) you put it into a question. So
Western Fiqh councils becomes questions like how do they operate, how do they disseminate their
information, how do Muslims benefit from that dissemination, is there a connection between the
members of the council and the general Muslims, are they in-tune i.e. do they actually know what’s
going on in the West. So for example, if you have a council but all the members of the council live in
the Middle East and in Asia, but they are talking about issues about Western Muslims; how do they
then relate to the issues of the Western Muslims if they don’t live in the West, they’ve never been to
the West, they don’t even speak English and the languages of the West, they don’t know the media
of the West – how can they then relate to that? So this is something which is very important as well.
- QUALITIES OF THE RESEARCH QUESTION

There are three main things you have to look for in your questions i.e. there are three main qualities
that these questions should have. So they can’t just be questions for the sake of questions:
1. They must be well-grounded: It must be a question which is well-grounded, not just an airy
fairy question (11.23mins), not just a question which is secondary; it must be a primary well-

grounded question [i.e.] things that you will be able to do something with. So when I spoke
about Fiqh Councils, how do they operate? Even though it’s a question, there is so much that I
can write about that. But if I was to speak about for example just a very specific issue of “how
do councils accept a question from a person?” How do you as a person send in your question
to the Fiqh council? That’s so precise now that even though it’s a grounded question, it won’t
give me much to do with it. There is only so much that I can write about that issue. But
operations, how they operate, the modus operandi of the whole council is a very well-
grounded, very broad question.
2. It must be something which is researchable: There is no point asking a question that you
can’t even research. There is no point asking a question of, for example, how during the time
of the Prophet Sallallaahu ‘alayhi Wasallam, did they sit together in a Shoorah – were the
older companions sitting here? Were the young companions sitting there? A lot of the issues,
you won’t know because there are no sources available for it. So it must be something which
always goes back to your objectives. Always make it something which is researchable.
3. How important is it? So it must be well-grounded, it must be researchable and number 3, it

must be an important question. How the Fiqh Council operates is an important question. It’s
something which I want to know, it’s something which other people would want to know, it’s
something which would benefit other people. It’s something which maybe even the councils
themselves can benefit from when I compare them with other councils and so on. It is an
important question. But to ask a question like, for example, where would they stay, what
hotels do they stay in, when these members come and they go and they stay in a country to
discuss these issues, How do they make their travelling arrangements? This is not really a very
important question. It doesn’t really make a difference to anyone; most likely it won’t really
make a difference to anyone. So it must always be an important question.
So these are three (3) things we must bear in mind:

 It must be well-grounded
 It must be researchable
 It must be something which is important.
Once you have done that, you will then have your research question. So you’ve had the general field,
you’ve had the literature review, you’ve had the gap, now you have your questions and your
objectives and this is basically how you do critical thinking.
Look at that process, even though it is something which may seem easy on paper, it is something
which will probably take weeks… (ends abruptly)

SESSION 6
Video A
My dear brothers and sisters in Islaam, Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh.
Introduction
Welcome to another lesson of research methodology. In the previous lesson we were speaking about
how to define and find your ideal research topic and we spoke about how at the beginning of
finding your research topic, you need to be able to define the field that you want to actually
research in and we gave the example of a funnel and how this process of coming down and
identifying your objectives in research is like a funnel where it has a very wide top and it narrows
down as you zone in and it comes to a very narrow end.
We spoke about how to find a research topic, how this is done by looking at the general field and
then by moving on to look into the existing literature and doing a literature review and finally to
identify the research gaps.
And then we spoke about the very narrow point of this funnel and that is turning those research
gaps into research questions and we spoke about this in the previous session. It’s very important to
identify and have these research questions as we said, this will help you to not only identify the
objectives of your research but it will help you to plan and give yourself a methodology throughout
your research as well.
And this is something which isn’t just unique to us meaning in this course but rather it is something
you will find throughout every academic work. Even modern day scholars, contemporary scholars,
Muslim scholars will employ this type of methodology. So there is no point in someone repeating
what’s already been done but there must be some type of unique contribution. That’s why even if
you were to look at the classical work of the scholars of Islaam, you find that they have some
objectives in what they are trying to do.
SOME CLASSICAL SCHOLARS AND THEIR OBJECTIVES FOR CONDUCTING RESEARCH

 So ibn Qudaamah’s objective was to bring together an encyclopaedia of knowledge in terms
of Fiqh. That was the same objective and goal of Imaam At-Tabaree in his Tafseer. Same
objective and goal of the likes of other scholars when writing books in Seerah or in Hadeeth
and so on.
 So even if you were to look at Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree, there is an objective behind Saheeh Al-
Bukhaaree and that is that only the most authentic Ahaadeeth should be gathered within
this one book; the most authentic Ahaadeeth of our Prophet (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi Wasallam)
whereas otherwise before him, there were books of Hadeeth. Imaam Maalik has a Muwatta'.
Imaam ash-Shaafièe has a Musnad. Imaam Ahmad has a Musnad.

There are other books of Hadeeth that were there before Saheeh Al-Bukhaaree. So what was
his unique contribution by the grace and permission of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala? It was
that he would identify this research gap, that yes, there are books of Hadeeth but not all of
those Ahaadeeth within those books are authentic and it’s not possible for every single
person to go and to develop the ability to distinguish between authentic and inauthentic
Hadeeths nor does every person have the capability of knowing the Rijaal in the Isnaad – the
different narrators in that chain of narration and being able to identify who is trustworthy and
who isn’t, who is reliable and who isn’t and therefore being able to determine the
authenticity of a Hadeeth or the lack thereof.
So his objective Rahimahullaah Ta’aala, Imaam Al-Bukhaaree was to pen this book that would
only have the most authentic Hadeeths of our Prophet (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi Wasallam).
 If you were to look at some of the books of Tafseer, the objective of those books of Tafseer
isn’t just to speak of Tafseer in a general term; it’s to focus on the Tafseer of Ahkaam. So you
have books that just speak about verses of the Qur’aan that only speak about issues of Fiqh
and legislation. So you have books like the book of Ibn al-‘Arabee and to some extent, even
Tafseer Al-Qurtubee; they speak about a lot of the Fiqh concerning the Aayats. It is not just a
general book of Fiqh.
 Come to the book of Shaykh Muhammad Al-Ameen Ash-Shinqitee “Adwaa’ul Bayaan” in

Tafseer. This book of Tafseer isn’t just a general book of Tafseer but it concentrates on
Tafseer of the speech of Allaah by the speech of Allaah – Tafseer Al-Qur’aan bil-Qur’aan. So
he uses parts of the Qur’aan to help him do Tafseer of other parts of the Qur’aan and this is
an objective that is now defined.
This is something which is available throughout the times and one of the main reasons for this as
we’ve said is to help you have objectivity. Even though you will put so much time and effort into this
process at the beginning, you will see its fruits by the end, In shaa Allaahu ta’aalaa.
IMPORTANCE OF DEFINING THE OBJECTIVES

And often people lack motivation at the beginning when they go through this process because they
are so eager to actually start writing, to gathering their material, to gathering their data and to
coming up with conclusions. But when you put together a very strong framework and foundation and
basis, you will find that everything is very easier when it comes along.
That’s why when you look at even successful business companies, look at a company like Apple – the
makers of the iPhone and the iPad – they put so much work and emphasis in planning, their products
going through the minutest of details and that’s why I heard that even on iPhone the switch effect
when you turn a page on iPhone, when you turn the slide on the iPhone and it bounces, or when you
go up and down and at the end of the page, it will bounce, this took them months in order to perfect.
So they put so much foundation, so much time and effort at the beginning in order to give you this
product.

So likewise, especially when it comes to Islaamic research, we should have this same level of
excellence as well. We put in so much time researching, laying down the foundations, identifying the
gaps, doing the literature review, turning those gaps into questions, so that in shaa Allaah once
we’ve defined our objectives, then it will be a lot easier to work towards our goal because our
objectives are our goal and without those objectives you are wandering around aimlessly, you don’t
know where you are going.
This is why even when you go to any type of institution, any type of company, any type of
corporation, they will always begin with defining their vision and that would take them time. But
once they have that vision, then everything will come back to that vision and it would stem down
from that vision.
Likewise as a researcher, you need a vision, you need an objective and so the objective will be
defined by doing all of this work and from that objective, you will have your research questions, In
shaa Allaahu Ta’aalaa.
V. PROBLEMATIZATION
One of the things we want to speak about or the next step in the process, one of the other issues we
want to speak about here is something known as “problematizing your questions”. The issue of
problematization is something which within the field of research methodology, there is some debate
over.
Problematization in a way is another way of identifying research gaps. Instead of looking at research
gaps where you go through literature review and you go through all of these issues and then you
come down to research gaps and you identify questions, another way some people in research
methodology would say is that you “problematize it”. So, what are the problems that exist or the
problems you think exist and then you work backwards into a research topic.
So for example, if I was to give my own example of my study of Western Fiqh Councils, one of the
problems that I saw when I was thinking about an idea for my research proposal was that in the
West, we don’t have many scholars. Yes we have many students of knowledge but we don’t have
Ùlamaa like we have Ùlamaa in many parts of the East. If you go to Egypt, they have many Ùlamaa.
You go to Saudi Arabia, they have many Ùlamaa. You go to different parts of the Muslim world and
there would be Ùlamaa. Some of them are very very famous world renowned. But you come to the
West, we don’t have that same calibre obviously of Ùlamaa. So now when there are issues that
Muslims face – issues in terms of finance, issues in terms of medicine, issues in terms of voting and
democracy and all of these issues that we have here in the West that are real issues – who do they
go back to? It’s not always possible to go back to a scholar in the East. It’s not always applicable for a
person to go back to someone that is thousands of miles away that they don’t even have access to,
that doesn’t even communicate with them in the language that they can understand.

So, there is a problem here. There is a gap here. What are the Muslims supposed to do? What is the
solution to that? So, that’s a problem that we had. What was the solution to that problem? There is a
solution there in a way, shape or form and that is Western Fiqh Councils. They attempt to solve this
problem. So from that problem now, you work backwards. So from that, that’s a problem. The
solution is the Western Fiqh Councils that then becomes my research topic and my research
questions are derived from that.
In a way, problematization is one way of identifying research needs. So one way is you work from (if
you like) front and you go to the back and the other way is you work from back to front.
1. So the normal way (the first way) that I identified is you work from the front and you go
towards the end:
 So you start from the front the general field.
 Then you go to the literature review.
 Then you go to the research gaps.
 Then you go to the research questions.
2. But problematization and those people who say that this is a better way or another way of
identifying your research would say you go from back to front:
 So you start off with the problem.
 Then you look at the solution – where does that solution take you?
 Then you develop your research topic and questions from there.
Also another way that you can use this issue of problematization, even if you have used the other
way which is front to back which is the normal way that people do things or the normal way that
researchers normally undertake stuffs and in my opinion, it is an easier way. Sometimes, to think of
the problems is much more difficult because you come up with a problem and you may have lots of
problems in your community that you’ll like to solve but people have already solved them. So you go
through the steps but by the time you come to identifying something, you find out that the research
has already been commissioned. So in some ways, it is sometimes more difficult. So to work from
front to back in the normal logical way that we just established in the previous lesson is an easier
way and probably a more methodological way as well, In shaa Allaahu Ta’aalaa.
- PROBLEMATIZING THE QUESTIONS

But one of the other things you can do in terms of problematization is that even when you go
through that process of identifying your field and the literature review, then going through the gaps
then having the questions, once you have reached that end result of the questions, problematize
your questions; so then, you kind of merge in between the two. So okay now you have questions. So
the questions may be: How do the Fiqh Councils operate? How do the Fiqh Councils disseminate
their information and so on. But then you problematize those questions as well and that gives you
another issue. It allows you to look at it from an outsider view – something, a puzzle that needs to
be solved.

 So for example you will problematize by saying (just as I mentioned before) that there is a
problem that Muslims need some type of reference point when it comes to religious rulings
[i.e.] when it comes to Fataawaa. So this is a problem.
 Another problem is, for example, Muslims don’t know what to do when they have so many
differences of opinion. So they come with an issue of, for example, Islaamic banking – one
person says Halaal, one person says Haraam, one person says Makrooh, one person says
Mustahabb. You have all of these different issues and the layman or the average person
doesn’t know…
Video B
....what to do. This is also a problem.
And again the Fiqh council tries to solve this problem because they have a group of scholars that
come together and they have something which is known as Ijtihaad Jamaaèe (collective Ijtihaad)
where it is not just one person giving his opinion but everyone comes together, everyone presents
their research, everyone discusses and questions and debates that research. And then together they
reach either a consensus or a majority opinion.
So now it is not just, “oh, there are so many differences of opinion,” but now it is like so many
scholars agree on this one issue, a whole council agrees on this. And that is normally when the
Fatwaa comes from the council, it does not have the names of the individuals attached to it, but it is
a Fatwaa from the council as a whole. It will have the name of the council. Even though you can go
then into the website, into the directory and see who the members are individually but they will not
sign individually, simply because it is a collective thing. So now that is another problem that is solved.
But how does this work? And then from there you work on as well.
So, problematization is something that a person can do and it really helps in not only identifying
research questions but actually taking it to the next level and actually helps you to start planning
your research and looking at exactly the objectives that you want to achieve from your research as
well.
Once you have done all of this and the other thing that you next need to identify, that is very
important and this is like Step Number 6. After you have identified the field, you have done the
literature review, you have done the research gaps, you have done the research question, you have
problematized your research…
VI. LOOKING FOR SOURCES AND RESOURCES

The next thing that you would have to do is look for sources and resources. There are many things
that you can do and from the very beginning of this process, you have already been using sources but
there are many sources that you can use.
- TRADITIONAL RESOURCES
There are traditional resources: Traditional resources are those resources such as books, such as
articles, such as electronic journals, academic journals.

 Most universities or groups of universities would have academic publications that they would
give. And so these are sources that you can go back to.
 Also, you will find, for example, newspaper articles, news articles [which] are also things
which a person can refer to, especially if they are speaking about trends and patterns. So for
example, if you were to speak about how many Muslims there are, what is the population of
Muslims within a certain city in the West, like London for example? There may be a news
article on this that you can refer to. Someone has already done the research from a
journalistic point of view, where you may be speaking about the tensions between two
communities within a country, two ethnic groups, two different types of tribes and maybe
someone has already done this research in a newspaper article.
 So these are more traditional types of resources – things that you will find in your library. And
your library is a very good source of research, and especially if you are able to research and
especially when it comes to Islaam, if you have the key of the Arabic language, then not only
you have English resources but you have Arabic resources as well. And so you would go to this
library and you would have so much information that Insha Allaah you will benefit from and
not every library is the same. You get big libraries, you get small libraries, you get academic
libraries, you get general libraries, you get public libraries, you get private libraries.
 And so sometimes you would look for a thing and the internet has already made this very
easy in terms of sourcing these books but if you look for something, maybe you will find it
online. Maybe you will find that it is available on Amazon or Google.
 May be you will find it in your own library.

 May be you will not find it in your own library but you will find it in the national library.
 So for example, in U.K., you have a national library, one of the biggest libraries in the world
which is based in London, that has are thousands of manuscripts and so many things. So you
may not find it in your own university library or Masjid library but you will find it, for example,
in that library.
 And so you will travel from one place to another. Certain universities specialise, for example,
on Islaam [i.e.] on Islaamic studies. Others specialise on other subjects and so they will not
have the same material and sources for you to use.
- INTERNET
One of the other things that you can obviously use, especially in our times that is also a great source
of blessings from Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aalaa for the researcher is the internet. The internet and
search engines and things like this are so easy now to use.
 And so you just type something, for example, Google scholar and it will give you so many
things that are of academic nature.
 You do a general Google search and it will give you so many articles.
 And so sometimes even when you are looking and identifying research gaps, if you were to
type in that research gap, you will have so many results. And then from that, you can see, are
they academic results or are they just general results?
 And again you have to be an active reader; you cannot just accept everything Google would
give you. You have to then differentiate, is this of academic nature? Someone has written a
book, someone has written an article, someone has published it in a journal, or is it just
different things that Google just picks up, things on people’s websites, things on people’s
Facebook pages and so on. And so therefore you need to be able to differentiate between the
two; you do not just want to gather everything and do everything, you want to be able to
differentiate between the two.
 But the internet is a great source of information. Sometimes you may just want to find a
single Hadeeth, you want to research the Hadeeth. Instead of going through al-Bukhaaree
and then Muslim, and then Abu Dawood and then An Nasaa'i and then Ibn Maajah and then
At-Tirmidhee and all these books of Hadeeth, you just type it into Google and it will give you
the reference.
 And especially if you have the ability to understand Arabic, to write Arabic, to type Arabic, to
read Arabic, then this is also a source of blessings. You have so many websites now, for
example, that you just type in the beginning of a Hadeeth and it will give you all of the
Ahaadeeth in all of the books of Hadeeth that have that wording or that have those words
within them and now you can see. And then from there, you have other books that will tell
you the ruling of that Hadeeth. What did Shaykh Al-Albaanee say – is it weak or is it
authentic? What did Ibn Hajar say? What did Ath-Thahabee say? What did Imaam Al-Haakim
say? And so on and so forth. What did Al-Haythamee say? And so you have all of this
information with you.
- PROGRAMS
Not only that but now you have the ability to have these programs where you do not even need to
go to so many libraries.
 But what you can do instead is you have an online program like the Maktabatush-Shaamilah,
which has thousands of books within the single program and it is searchable. So whereas
traditionally you will have to go through a book and look at the contents’ page and the index
and try to find it and then read it.
 Now you can just type it into the program, and it will tell exactly where in Al-Mughnee it says
this. Or all of the results that have that same wording within Al-Mughnee and then Zaad al-
Maàad of Ibn al-Qayyim and Majmoo’ al-Fatawaa of Shaykhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah and then
the al-Majmoo’ of Imaam An-Nawawi and then al-Istithkaar of Ibn Abdul-Barr. All of those
books are now there at your fingertips. Books of Fatwa, books of Fiqh, books of Hadeeth,
books of Tafseer, books of Àqeedah, books of Seerah – all of these books are there. And so
this is a great source of information for you. So, to always go back to the internet is
something which we must make use of.
- ELECTRONIC JOURNALS
And alongside that are the electronic journals.
 If you go to most libraries, they will have an e-journal system where you go in and journals
that are normally published now, that universities publish, there is also an online version. And
most libraries subscribe to them and so you can go and actually search there for more
academic types of study of your research field, Insha Allaah Ta’aalaa.

 One of the important things to notice when it comes to the internet is not everything is
authentic, not everything is academic. And so often you have articles that will mention
exactly what you want to mention but they will not give any references, they will not give any
sources. And so it is not sufficient for you just to say that I have read from the internet – that
does not make it academic. Because as we know, anyone can publish anything on the internet
and it does not always mean that it is reputable, or that it is trustworthy, or that it is correct.
 And so as a student of knowledge, as a researcher, you must give academic references. And
so sometimes you will have a journal or you will have news article that is online, from BBC for
example, BBC News, or from the Guardian newspaper, or from Time magazine. And so you
will mention that I accessed this on the internet, on this date and this is the article. That is an
academic reference. But just to say that I found it on someone’s Facebook page that they put
up this post and that is what I think as well – that does not make it academic. And so we have
to be able to differentiate between the two.
- PEOPLE
One of the other great sources that you can use in your research is people.
 Your lecturers, your Imaams of the Masjids, your supervisor – if you are doing a type of study
like a Bahth Jamièe, like a university paper or you are doing like a Masters or a Ph.D. or post-
graduate studies, you will have a supervisor –, people who are in that field, who have studied
in that field, who are involved in that field. They are a source of information as well.
 And often they have already done a lot of the research in terms [that] they have done so
much reading they know basically where things are generally and so they can point to at least
in the right direction. They can give you advice, they can help you develop your ideas, people,
for example, that have done their Ph.Ds. know the process that you have to go through. So
when you go through your Ph.D., they will help you to formulate your opinions and so on and
so forth, help you to develop that methodology that you need for your research. And that is
why it is important to also benefit from that.
 Maybe you have researched that you want to do medicine. So you go to people that you
know that are in the field of medicine. Maybe lecturers, university lecturers in medicine, may
be doctors, may be specialists, consultants in medicine and so you go and you ask them.
Many a times people in this field will subscribe to journals within their field. They would have
read, they would have heard, they would have attended a conference or a seminar and so
they will have this type of information.
 Even when I was doing my Ph.D., even though it was something new, it was something
different in terms of Western Fiqh Councils had not been studied before, my supervisor was
not aware of the exact way in terms of how to research this because he has not done the
exact topic but he still was able to guide me towards the general idea, towards the general
topic. He mentioned that he had someone who had done a paper on one of these issues and
he referred me to that and he was a very beneficial source for me. Generally you should go
and concentrate on these types of books or these types of areas, look at what the scholars
say on this issue, look at what academics say on this issue – the issue for example of Fiqh of
Muslim minorities, is there such a thing? Isn’t there such a thing? These issues are so
important. And so people can normally help you and guide you towards that.
- LIBRARIAN
Sometimes the best source of information is a librarian.
 You go to your local librarian in your university library, whatever library you are using and you
ask them that I am looking to research on this issue, do you know of a book on this? Either
they will have it on the system, so they can search it for you or many librarians, because they
come into contact with the books so often, they are aware of what is there and they will say,
“No, I don’t think so,” or “No, we do not have it here but I heard or we were trying to order it
from a different university, so it is available somewhere else.” So people can also give you so
much information and they can help you so much to, Insha Allaah, help you with this issue of
sources and resources.
But there are so many resources available out there. So as a researcher, it is your duty and
responsibility to go and to gather as much information as possible, obviously in a systematic,
methodological way so that you just don’t end up wasting time. So you combine between all of
these:
 You will have research that you may do yourself in terms of you will go and survey people,
send them questionnaires, do interviews with them.
 Then you have books you will refer to, journals you will refer to, articles you will refer to,
newspapers you will refer to.
 Then you will have the internet you will refer to.
 Then you will have people’s advice.
 And so on and so forth that can help you as well
A good researcher combines between all of this.
And that is what makes research so good. The fact that you have spent so much time and effort
doing all of this and then putting it together so now when I come, not only am I confident in reading
your research but if I want to use parts of your research in helping me or quote from you, I can have
that confidence in you that you have done so much work. You have made my life so much easier. So,
even if I want to take on the further research that you have mentioned, gaps that you have left that
you were not able to do, I can base it on your model and then I can continue on with that foundation
Insha Allaah Ta’aalaa.
So with that Insha Allaah we will conclude today’s lesson and Insha Allaah in the next lesson we will
speak about problems that a person may face and that will be the final issue in this section of critical
thinking i.e. the problem that you may face as you undergo your research.
Wa SwalAllaahu wa Sallama ‘alaa Nabiyyinaa Muhammad wa ‘alaa Aalihee wa Sahbihee Ajma’een

Wassalaamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh

SESSION 7
Video A
INTRODUCTION
So we are still speaking about this issue of critical thinking. We were speaking about:
1. How to identify the general field?
2. Doing literature review
3. Identifying research gaps
4. Turning your topics into questions
5. Problematizing the questions you have.
6. The sixth thing that we spoke about were the sources that you can use, whether it is
traditional sources like books or new sources like internet and what you have online and even
sources like using people for their opinions, point of views and their directions and guidance
as well.
In this lesson, we are going to speak about the last remaining issue in the section of critical thinking.
So this is issue No.7, the last issue and that is basically issue of problems you may face within your
research.
VII. EXPECTING PROBLEMS DURING RESEARCH

And normally when a person undergoes and does this kind of research, it is a long process and so it
may be e.g. if you are doing a Masters for a year or 2 years, if you are doing a Ph.D., it may be 3
years, may be 4 or 5 or 6, depending on which country you are in or which institute you are part of
and so it is a very long process and so often takes a long time.
When you find that people, for example, are doing Tahqeeqaat [i.e.] editing manuscripts and they
have these books that no one has ever looked at before and then they bring a new version of this
book that one of the old classical scholars wrote but no one ever edited this manuscript. That would
take years probably for them to go and reach that level and so it is something which is very time
consuming. And so it is very natural that during that time, there would be certain difficulties,
hardships and problems that you may face.
And so it is important for a researcher from the very beginning, not only to know that there will be
problems but to expect them. And that’s why, for example, if you are doing it with a university, your
supervisor for your Ph.D. or Masters or whatever would understand that there would be difficulties
that you will face and that there will be problems that you may face. That’s why one of the issues
that you would mention in the introduction to a thesis is the difficulties that you actually face
within your thesis and your research because everyone is rational and sensible and they know it is
not possible for you to be able to do everything; there will be difficulties. And so for example, a
person may have difficulties that they want to...

- MENTIONING PROBLEMS FACED
For example, for me, it is research Fiqh councils. But Fiqh councils are not based in my home country.
I have to travel. So, I have to go to Turkey or Canada and those were the only two countries that I
was able to go to even though I needed to go to Ireland, I needed to go to, for example, the Emirates,
to Saudi Arabia, to all these other places [and] even places like Sudan and India and Indonesia.
Ideally, what have been good is to go to all of those places that have Fiqh councils but that requires
money, requires paying tickets, requires accommodation, requires expenses and it becomes a very
expensive thing to do. And so therefore, I was unable to do that. And so it is something that held me
back.
It is a problem that I faced and I will mention it. And it is also part of your ethical values. The fact
that we are trustworthy, this is our 'Amaanah Ìlmiyyah as we mentioned before. From the
characteristics of a person who is a researcher is that they have this trustworthiness. I’ll mention to
people that this was all I was able to do. I was unable to do more even though I would have liked to.
And then that automatically becomes a research gap for someone else. They can see that Sheikh
Ahsan only did this research, for example, in Canada and Turkey with 2 councils. But I have the ability
to go and do with so many other councils in places like Sudan and India and other places as well. So
that is a gap for them to go and research. Therefore, there is an issue of being responsible and
owning upto the limits of your ability. Everyone has those limits – some people have more and some
people have less. But everyone has them.
So those are the problems that you will face and there will be many of them. But the problems that I
want to focus on here is really the problems that relate to you psychologically and within yourself as
a researcher rather than other problems in terms of finances or people not cooperating with you or,
for example, you may not just find a book or a resource or something. I really want to focus, instead
of those issues, on issues that you may face internally yourself.
- PROBLEMS THAT YOU MAY FACE WITHIN YOUR RESEARCH
1. POOR TIME MANAGEMENT

One of the main issues that people face, one of the main problems a researcher may face – and it is
something we touched upon before as well – is poor time management. Poor time management –
we say it again and again [because] it is so crucial having good time management. So, poor time
management is one of the major problems that a person faces. If they have a 3 year limit for their
study/research, they will find that within their 2nd year and 3rd year, they will find that they still have
so much left to do. And so towards the end, it is always a mad dash, rushing & hurrying in order to be
able to finish. That is because of poor time management. Sometimes that may not be even your
fault. So it may be that you are waiting for a book or you’re searching for a book and you just can’t
find it or maybe you are trying to sit with some people to get their opinions and you just can’t sit
with them or maybe you are doing a survey and people aren’t filling the questionnaires and returning
it to you. And sometimes it is a fact that you are stuck but sometimes it is the fact that you just have
poor time management. And so, a good research plan is something where you anticipate these
kinds of problems. (Insha Allaah we will talk more about this, later.)

So when it has to do with other people, for example, giving you feedback, then you know that may
take time. So whilst I am waiting for their feedback, this is what I could be doing as well at same time.
And so, research does not have to be in chronological order, doesn’t have to start at the beginning
and finish at the end. Sometimes you can just do what you are just able to do. So you may start
working on an issue in Chapter 7, even though Chapter 1 isn’t complete, simply because you are able
to do it now or at least able to start working on it now and then you will continue. Likewise from
good time management is that, for example, if you are going to have people doing questionnaires
and surveys – and (we will) speak about this stuff in more detail Insha Allaah later on as the course
progresses Insha Allaah – and things like this, then it would be wise to plan in advance. So you would
have these things started from the beginning. So, even though you may not need the results until
Chapter #4, half way through your study, you would already start giving the surveys out. You will
start constructing the surveys, devising the questions, sampling using pilot surveys and give the
surveys out as people can respond to you. So by the time when you need to write and collect the
results, people will have months and months in order to give you those results.
And from personal experience now, it is something which will always be difficult. I had to do a lot of
work to get people to fill in my survey forms for my research and that was an online survey. It is not
something that people had to fill in. They could go home, fill in at their own luxury and at their own
time. But it was still very, very difficult to get that type of results and research back and so that is an
issue.
Time management is very, very important and is a problem. It is a problem which can then have a
domino effect. If your time management is poor, you find that you are not motivated, you find things
aren’t working properly, you find that you are missing deadlines and everything will start to have
domino effect because of that.
2. PROCRASTINATION
The 2nd problem I would like to mention is something related to time management is procrastination
[i.e.] just delaying things – I‘ll do it next week, I‘ll do it tomorrow, I don’t want to do it yet, I don’t
need to do this now, I‘ll do it later.
Really, in research what you can do, you should do. So as long as you are doing something, it’s good.
But if you procrastinate and say I don’t know... For example, like for myself, I was only able to attend
one session of the European Council [and] one session of the American Assembly. Part of it was
because of financial reasons. But another part was because of procrastination. Ideally, I would have
been able to attend 3 of each because my Ph.D. was for 3 years. But sometimes the problem is that
you procrastinate and say, I‘ll go next year, whether this year is too far, I can’t afford and I‘ll go next
year.
Sometimes procrastination can have evil results as well. So, just as we are not patient – and that’s
one of the etiquettes of a researcher to be patient and hasty – at the other end of the scale is that
you procrastinate and you take too long to get anything done. And that can also have a detrimental
effect upon you as well.

3. TOO DAUNTING
The 3rd problem that I want to identify here is that you think it is too daunting. You are daunted by
the scale of the task. You just think it is too much. It is insurmountable. Sometimes, for example, if
you are doing a Ph.D. thesis and I remember thinking this for myself as well, that 80,000 words that I
have to write. 80,000 words work out to be like some 300 A4 pages! 80,000 words have to be of
academic nature! I just can’t copy and paste from people’s books. These are things that I have to put
together, that have to be something that has coherency, some type of logic behind it. It’s not just
copy and paste. How am I going to do 80,000 words? And sometimes SubhanAllaah you go at the
beginning and you see this massive mountain in front of you and you think it’s going to fall and
crumble on top of you and so you become daunted by the task and that makes it even more difficult
for you to do. But sometimes, one of the best places is to dissect this mountain and break it up into
pieces and into chunks. And that is one of the benefits of having research plan, that you have
stages.
So for example, I‘ll have 6 chapters in my research and each one of my chapters will be 10,000 words.
That is 60,000 words, plus 10,000 words for my introduction and 10,000 words for my conclusion.
That’s 80,000 words. So now, I don’t look at it the 80,000 [words] but I just look at it as 8 sections of
10,000. So I am only thinking about 10,000 words. And so even though 10,000 is still a lot but 10,000
is a lot more easier for you to do than 80,000. But once you do one 10,000, then you do 2nd chapter
10,000, then the 3rd, now all of sudden, you have 30,000 without you realizing. You are more than a
third or nearly half of your way through. So sometimes it helps as well. But don’t be daunted by the
task.
SubhanAllaah one of the most amazing, ironically funny thing that I found in my own research is that
in the beginning, I thought 80,000 words was so much that I thought that I may not be able to do
80,000 and I considered [it] to be a big mountain [but] by the end of my 3rd year, by the grace of
Allaah, not only I did my 80,000 [but] I was run over 80,000. And so what I had to do was, I had to
actually edit and cut my words back. And so SubhanAllaah, when you go into research and find
what’s out there and you begin, you will find that 80,000 isn’t really an issue. So, often people who
do this kind of research will find that actually they go over their word limit and not under. Then they
actually have to edit and take things out in order to get back into the word limit. SubhanAllaah, it’s
very ironical how that works out.
So, really, you shouldn’t daunt yourself by the scale of the task, you shouldn’t be daunted by it nor
you should think about numbers and thousands and tens of thousands of words or anything like that.
But rather, break it up and take one thing at a time and ask Allaah àzza wajall for his help and have
Tawakkul in Allaah. And make Dua to Him (swt) and Allaah will make it easy for you. And
SubhanAllaah when you look at the scholars like Ibn Tahmiyyah, Imaam al-Bukhaaree and Ibn
Qudaamah, they wrote these massive books and SubhanAllaah may be it was a daunting task for
them as well at the beginning. But you begin and write one chapter, you write about Kitaab-ut-
Tahaarah, then about Baab-ul-Miyaah and you just continue and continue and by the Tawfeeq and
blessings of Allaah (swt), before you know it, you have achieved this great piece of research and you
have conquered…
Video B
...this mountain that you feared.
4. NEGATIVITY
The 4th problem that you may face as well – something which is related in terms of procrastination
and being daunted by – is negativity. Don’t be negative in your research. Negativity in the sense that
you think you are not able to do that research. Negativity in the sense that you think people are not
cooperating with you, no one is responding to your questionnaires. Negativity in the sense that you
don’t think you can research this, you can’t find the books that you are looking for, [etc]. It is very
easy to become negative.
5. LOSS OF MOTIVATION
Connected to that is loss of motivation. Look at how these often have a domino effect:
Poor time management can lead to procrastination, can lead to being daunted by the scale of task
especially when you don’t have time, can lead to then having negativity and then just losing
motivation. And that’s why, it is so important, as we have mentioned, that from what makes a
research good and academic [and] what makes a good researcher is that you have passion for
research, that you actually have interest in the subject. So even when things are so hard, you are
enjoying your research so much that it will keep you motivated and will keep you going. That is why,
from the blessings of Allaah (swt) upon me, when I was thinking of doing that research proposal on
comparing a classical scholar with a contemporary scholar, even though I thought that the issue was
interesting, I thought that I would enjoy it, I didn’t think I would enjoy it for 3 years. So if it was
something which was a small study or a small research, maybe just a few months, it would be good,
but to do that for 3 years and to study methodologies and principles and to become very technically
indulged in this, I found that I wouldn’t be able to do this for 3 years. Again, this is where the advice
from other peoples comes in as well. One of my supervisors actually advised me the same thing and
said to me, “Do you actually think for 3 years you can keep yourself motivated in this?” And
therefore, I changed into the Fiqh Councils and that was something that motivated me much more.
So it is important that you keep up your motivation.
6. PERFECTIONISM
One of other problems we have or may face is perfectionism. Perfectionism in the sense that you
want everything to be exactly the way you want and you don’t tolerate any mistakes or any issues
or any problems. No doubt as Muslims, we aim for excellence and the research that you do should
be to the best of your ability and you should do it in every way that makes it good in every possible
way it can be. But perfection is only for Allaah (swt). So, often you will have mistakes and often you
will find that the arguments you began with don’t actually make sense or the research does not
support the hypothesis that you had and so you will have to tweak, change, amend add, delete – you
will have to do all of these things. But if you are a perfectionist and the 1st time you write
something, you never want to go back and edit and review what you are writing, then you will have
a very difficult time and that may also then lead to negativity and a lack/loss of motivation. So
therefore, part of research is making mistakes and going back and editing, revising, changing,

amending. This is all part of research and it is the effort and time you put up in Insha Allaah that will
make your research good and unique bi iznillah tabaraka wa ta’aala. So with that we have come to
the conclusion of this section of the course which is entitled critical thinking.
The next section we are going to speak about now is Preparing A Research Argument.
CHAPTER 3: PREPARING A RESEARCH ARGUMENT

INTRODUCTION
Within this section, we are going to speak about 5 main issues.
 Making a good argument
 Making a claim or asserting an opinion
 Assembling evidence
 Responding to the evidence or acknowledging evidence and responding to it
 The insider and the outsider views
These are 5 things we are going to speak about in this section of preparing a research argument.
Once you’ve done, what you have done so far [i.e.] everything that we spoke about so far is critical
thinking. You’ve identified the main field, you have done your literature review, you have got your
gaps, you have got your questions, you have problematized, you found your sources, you’ve
overcame your problems, now you need to make your research argument.
And a lot of stuff will overlap now because SubhanAllaah often research is an evolutionary process.
It evolves over time. So, there aren’t strict clear boundaries between all of these issues; often they
overlap, intertwine, intermingle and you find that they interconnect as well. So, you'll find that some
of the things that we are speaking about now will overlap. And the next section after this is called
Planning, Drafting and Revising Your Research and again there will be an overlapping between that
section and in this section. But basically when we are speaking about preparing a research argument,
what we are focussing on mainly is that now in your research from the beginning to the end of
your research, you want to answer and meet those objectives you defined. You want to answer
those research questions that you identified and you want to solve those problems that you have
now identified as well. And in order to do that, you need to make a research argument.
WHAT IS A RESEARCH ARGUMENT?

There must be something at the end that comes up as a conclusion. So, if the problem is or if the
question is, for example, how do Fiqh councils operate, by the end of that there must be an
argument. Is it good? Are they working well or working not very well? Fiqh councils are good idea or
bad idea? Are there improvements or not? What are the strengths and weaknesses? There must be
some kind of research argument and then it must go in line with your objectives. So as you're
writing your research, from the very beginning, even when you are just doing your introduction, you
are preparing people for your research argument. And you're building it up and up and so
InshaaAllaah by the time they have reached reading the end of this thesis, your opinion and

argument will be so clear [that] even if they disagree and do not agree with it, they will understand it
and appreciate it and acknowledge it. And that is something which is very important.
And so for example, when I was doing my research into Fiqh for Western Fiqh Councils, because
Western Fiqh Councils primarily deal with issues that the Western Muslims face – so it is not about
issues on how do you pray? The issue would not be for example how do you pay Zakaah? These are
not the issues because these are mentioned everywhere. But, there are issues that pertain
particularly to the west, e.g. moon-sighting. In many Muslim countries, they have their own system
of moon-sighting. They have Islaamic courts, judges, they may even have a council of people that
identify the moon for themselves. This is the beginning of Ramadan, this is the end of Ramadan and
so on. But in western countries, we don't have this system and so how do we go by moon sighting?
Do we go to local astronomers? Do we follow the nearest Muslim country? Do we follow Saudi
Arabia? Do we follow Pakistan & Indonesia? What do we do? Or do we just look out basically to what
we think is correct and do what we want? This is an issue which deals with Western Muslims.
So, because I was dealing primarily with issues with western Muslims, one of my introductory
chapters in my thesis was about the whole issue of Fiqh for Muslim minorities. Is there such a thing
as Fiqh which is different for Muslim minorities – different to the Muslims that live in Middle East
and in Asian Muslim countries? Do Western Muslims have a different type of Fiqh? And there is a
debate over this and there are different opinions. And so even though I wasn't talking about things
that were directly relating to Western Fiqh Councils, it was more about the general area just as an
introduction to my thesis, I was still building my argument. From the very beginning you're preparing
people for the research argument that you're going to make. And depending on that opinion you
have for Fiqh for Muslim minorities and so on, that will already begin to condition people for the
research argument that you’re going to be making, InshaaAllaah ta'ala. Before we go in what make
an argument a good research argument, I want to generally speak about what makes a good
research. What are the criteria of a good research? I am going to mention 7 things to you. But then
what we are going to do is we are going to derive from these 7, 4 qualities InshaaAllaah that we are
going to condense that into bi idhnillah tabarakawa ta'ala.
CRITERIA OF GOOD RESEARCH
1. OBJECTIVITY
The purpose of research should be clearly defined and the objectives must be known. (Again this is
something that we have mentioned so many times.) So previously, we spoke about what makes a
research academic. Some of that will overlap with this. But not every academic research is good
research. You may do it in a very academic way, it may not be good or it may not be very beneficial.
And not only so you want a high standard of academic research but we want it to be a good research
in the sense that it is beneficial to others as well. So No. 1 is objectivity as we said before.
2. THE RESEARCH PROCEDURE USED SHOULD BE DESCRIBED WITH SUFFICIENT DETAILS

[This] permits another researcher to repeat the research for further advancement and again, this is
something that we mentioned. It should be of such a standard, such a level, that someone could

come and they could repeat this. It is replicable. With that replicability, it is something that makes it
of high standard and that makes it a good research.
3. THE DESIGN OF RESEARCH SHOULD BE CAREFULLY PLANNED

So what makes good research is when people can see the logical way that you planned your
research. And when you see that logic, it is something which is understandable, something which
makes a lot easier for the reader to understand, acknowledge and appreciate. That’s why, even in
the books of Fiqh, look at the way they begin their books of Fiqh. They begin with Kitab-ut-Taharah.
And purification is begun with because the most important pillar of Islaam after Shadaatayn is the
prayer. And in order for you to pray, the most important thing is Taharah. So they begin with
Taharah. Within Taharah, if you ask an average person, “What would you start with,” they would say
Wudhu whereas the scholars/jurists of Fiqh don't begin with Wudhu because in order for you to
make Wudhu, you must first look at the source of Wudhu, which is water. And so they begin with
Baab-ul-Miyaah (the chapter of water).
And look how that is a logical way of doing it. Look at the way they’ve planned these books and
SubhanaAllaah they begin with water. What's after water? What is that holds that water? Now that
you know what the water is, what you can use and what you can't use, what do you do with that
water? Where do you put that water? So then they will have Baab-ul-'Aaniyah (the chapter of
utensils). This tells you how you carry that water. Here they may go into so many issues as well and
they would speak about that. Likewise in Kitab-us-Salah, if you were to ask someone, “What’s the
most important thing in the chapter of prayer,” they would say, “how to pray,” [i.e.] the description
of prayer whereas the scholars would begin with something like Baab-ul-Mawaqeet (the chapter of
the timings of prayer). So it makes sense [that] before you know how to pray, you should know when
to pray, what time the prayer begins. So, it is a very logical way that a person begins in order to do
this.
And so SubhanaAllaah, likewise you can give the example of of Kitab-ul-Hajj, what's the most
important thing? Many people would say Tawaf. But scholars begin with Baab-ul-IHraam. And so it’s
a very logical way, very well planned and researched InshaaAllaah.
4. THE RESEARCHER SHOULD REPORT WITH COMPLETE FRANKNESS

So you should have 'Amaanah Ìlmiyyah. You should be open, frank, honest, trustworthy and you
shouldn't be afraid that people will criticize you for this but rather they will appreciate this even
more. The fact that you’re open and frank with them, the fact that you told them that this is the
problem in my research plan, in my methodology, this was problem and the hardship that I faced,
whether financial or otherwise – all of this InshaaAllaah will raise your credibility and not lower your
credibility Bi-idhnillah tabaraka wa ta'ala.
So InshaaAllaah with that we will conclude InshaaAllaah for this lesson. In the next lesson we will
continue with these criteria of good research and then we will speak about what makes a good
research argument.

SESSION 8
Video A
Bismillahir Rahman nir Raheem
CRITERIA FOR GOOD RESEARCH (CONT.)

In the previous lesson of Research Methodology, we spoke about the problems that a person may
face especially when it comes to research: things like procrastination, things like poor time
management, things like negativity and a lack of motivation. And then we began to speak about the
next section within this research methodology course which is preparing the research argument.
Now we began by speaking not only the importance of that but we also spoke about what makes
good research. And we spoke about four points and in sha Allaah we have three more left in this
video that we will in sha Allaah go onto. So, just to recap on those four points that we have
mentioned in the previous lesson:
1. Objectivity – that the goals should be clearly defined.

2. Procedure should be described with sufficient details so that the person can repeat the
procedure, so that it can be replicable.
3. Design should be carefully planned so that the research should be carefully planned.
4. The person should be honest and frank when displaying their results and reporting their
results.
Those are the four criteria of good research we mentioned in the previous lesson. In this lesson, we
are going to Insha Allaah continue with the remaining three.
5. THE ANALYSIS OF DATA SHOULD BE SUFFICIENTLY ADEQUATE TO REVEAL ITS SIGNIFICANCE AND
THE METHODS OF ANALYSIS SHOULD BE APPROPRIATE
So what makes a good research is that you should analyse the data that you have to a sufficient
degree. So it is not enough to have all of this information. E.g., if you did questionnaires and you
have all of this data now but you don’t even analyse it, you just simply say that the data looks good,
it looks positive, it agrees with my hypothesis.
But rather what you need to do is dissect that data, look at patterns and look at how it contrasts
with other type of data, look at how it compares with the hypothesis that you had and the
hypotheses that the other people have. Does it agree with you? Does it disagree with you? And you
go into a deep level and maybe you will even dissect why is it like this.
So for example, you are talking about a certain issue like Fiqh Councils that people say yes they are
aware of it. You can say that perhaps, one of the reasons why everyone is aware of it is because the
people that I surveyed, it was an online survey and majority of them were of the age 20-30. And the
Fiqh councils have a very popular Facebook page and many people were attached to that Facebook
page and so they had that link. So this is just an example. This isn’t what I exactly said in my research.
It wasn’t the case but this is an example of how you dissect that research [and] analyse it to a deeper

level; why is that trend and pattern there? Is it, for example, because certain people didn’t agree
with this or the people whom you gave your survey to were between the ages of 20-40? What about
the over 40s – people in their 50s and 60s? Maybe the reason was that it was only an online survey
and people normally of that age [i.e.] in their 60s and 70s do not normally go in the internet. They
are not really very computer literate, they don’t have emails and so they were taken out from this
survey group. They weren’t really surveyed. You didn’t really do any telephone surveying; you didn’t
do any questionnaires, written questionnaires or published questionnaires. And so these are reasons
and now you are dissecting this.
So when you go to this level of analysis, not only it is beneficial for you in drawing your conclusions
and evaluations from that but it is also beneficial for the reader. He knows that you are being honest,
you are being frank but he can also see gaps and he can see strengths. So you have done a very good
job with, for example, people with age group of 20-40 but then, you weren’t able to do anything
more; maybe you had a sufficient reason. The reason is you didn’t have money to publish these
questionnaires. Online surveys are very cheap. You don’t need to publish, print and phone anyone.
You just send an email out and it’s free. And people can then just respond and the software that is
online will actually tabulate everything for you and put it in the graph form. So that again is
something very important to note so that you analyse the data to a sufficient method.
6. THE CONCLUSIONS SHOULD BE CONFINED TO THOSE JUSTIFIED BY THE DATA OF THE RESEARCH
So the conclusions must be what you found in your research even if it really doesn’t agree with
you. So maybe you can say, “It doesn’t agree with my opinion but that’s because only ten people
responded and it’s not really a very good sample group of opinion of people.” But, for example, if you
surveyed thousands of people and all of them said yes to something and your opinion was no to
something, then you can’t say, “Yeah, it was a mixed result,” “The results weren’t very clear.” 1000
people said yes and 20 people said no – it is a very clear result. And so therefore, the conclusions that
you derive must also be for that and then you must evaluate those conclusions – why did the people
say this? What happened? What were the processes? And so on and so forth.
7. GREATER CONFIDENCE IN RESEARCH IS GUARANTEED IF THE RESEARCHER IS EXPERIENCED

And basically what this means is when you do research, you are considered to be an authority on
that subject. Normally when a person writes a book, they are considered to be someone of an
authority on that topic. Likewise especially if you are doing a Ph.D. research, on the topic of your
question, on your research question, like for example Western Fiqh Councils, you are an authority. So
even when I was doing this topic of Western Fiqh Councils, my supervisor hadn’t studied Western
Fiqh Councils to that extent. So in some issues, I had more knowledge than him because I had
researched this and he hadn’t. You become an authority. So people trust you and so, there is
'Amaanah Ìlmiyyah there as well. Likewise, people that critique your thesis may not have necessarily
studied the issue of what exactly you are studying. But they would know the general field and they
would be able to research so that they can understand what your point of view is and where you are
coming from and opposing points of view as well and where they are coming from as well.
So these are the seven things that make the criteria of good research.

QUALITIES OF GOOD RESEARCH
But the qualities of good research can be defined as four. So from those seven, we can really take it
down and put them into four broad categories.
1. SYSTEMATIC
And we have said this before. A good methodology, a good system, a good set of principles – this is
the whole point of studying research methodology. It gives you that ability. Insha Allaah, this is
something that we will benefit from throughout this course – the ability to have good research in sha
Allaah. That is systematic.
2. LOGICAL
And so now when you are doing a research, the person that reads your research must be able to see
the logical steps that you took. So for example, you had hypothesis, you had a view and then you got
the data for that view and the view was substantiated/justified by the data you collected. You
analysed it, you had evaluations from it and then you drew conclusions. That’s a very logical process.
So even if someone comes and even if they may disagree with it – they may not necessarily agree
with it – they may appreciate the logic there. They know that you did it in a systematic way. They
know that it is logically done, that it makes sense, that you had an order to it and that you arrived at
the conclusion. That’s why, conclusion is one of the last things that you write because you simply
want to set an order [and] it has to be logical in the way that it is. If you do your conclusions even
before you gathered your data, then it shows that there is no logical progression. So, it is not only
logical but it must tie in with one another. The whole research must tie in with one another.
3. EMPIRICAL
It is empirical. Basically, that means that research is related to one or more aspects of a real
situation and deals with concrete data. And as we said before, empirical stuff is something which is
of a similar nature to you – things that are actually real, things that have actually happened. So, a lot
of time when people do research, they would like to have real data, live data – questionnaires,
surveys, interviews that you do with people. So that it is live data.
 And so even with my Fiqh Council, one of the things that I did was I interviewed members of
the Fiqh Council themselves. So members of the European Council [and] the North American
Council – I interviewed them to get their opinions, their points of view about how Fiqh
Councils run? How other people use [i.e. benefit] from the work that they are doing?
 Then I did a survey of general Muslims, average Muslims [of] people in the west – people in
the U.K., Canada, America. People who are average Muslims – how did they view it? So that
again is a new data.
 Then again I did a third survey which was catered for Imaams and scholars, because Imaams
and scholars are people who have to deal with issues like this: issues of Fiqh, issues of people
coming and asking questions. So I wanted to know from them specifically how differently they
used these Fiqh Councils. So now, this is all concrete data, this is all real data that you yourself
have gathered and are using. This is known as primary data, primary research. Something
which you have done that no one have done before, something which you have placed your
time and effort in. It is more difficult than just going through a book but it is something that is
more valuable as well because anyone can go through a book but to actually do that research
yourself – go out and collect that information – is something which is a unique contribution
that you’ve made to that field of research.
So No. 3 is that it is empirical. So often whatever the subject is, if there is a way that it can be
empirical... One of the ways that you can also make it empirical is that it actually has benefits to it,
it is something which can be applied to a real situation. It is not just something which is abstract and
theoretical but it has practical implications as well. So Fiqh Councils and the way that we use them is
a very practical issue. So for example, if it was Islaamic medicine/Prophetic medicine, the real
applications to this could be: how to get that Prophetic/Islaamic medicine established with regular
medicine? How to bring it in? How to convince people that using things like honey, olive oil and so on
– things that are mentioned in Sunnah – actually have medicinal benefit that people can benefit
from? So now that’s a real application. Rather than just speaking about honey and how good honey
is, this is the practical application of how to use that as well.
4. REPLICABLE
Again it is what we have mentioned before. It can be repeated, it can be replicable means that it can
be replicated over and over again by other people simply because they can see the system that you
have used, the logic behind it [and] the data that you’ve gathered. It is something that they can build
upon and use as a foundation, something which they can have confidence in and something that
they trust.
So those are some of the issues that…
Video B
…that we wanted to mention concerning what makes research good.
Coming back to preparing a research argument, the next issue or the first issue that we wanted to
speak about in this section was making a good solid argument.
I. MAKING A SOLID ARGUMENT

What is considered to be a good and solid argument? There are 5 things that a person needs to do in
order to make a very good argument. Remember an argument is not necessarily one argument
within your thesis or research or one opinion necessarily. An argument is your research. The whole
of your research is one big, major argument. It is one big point of view; one opinion that you are
putting across. How you make a good argument? There are 5 things that are important to
remember.
1. KNOW YOUR SUBJECT

You’ve to be an authority in your subject. So when you come to make an argument throughout your
research, you have to show that you already know what’s out there. If you say something in your
research, but then other people find that there are so many other things there that have already
been done, meaning that you just repeated what other people have done or there are other opinions
[out] there that you didn’t even mention... So for example, you speak about an issue and you say, for
example, on Fiqh for Muslim minorities that everyone says it is good, it is something we should
establish [and] it is something we should write about. And then someone else comes and picks up a
book and they find that actually many people disagree with that opinion. Many people hold the
opinion that there is no such thing as “Fiqh for Muslim minorities.” Now it shows your weakness as a
researcher. You are not an authority on your subject. You don’t even know that there was a
difference of opinion, let alone quoting that opinion, let alone contrasting those views, let alone
justifying different views and coming to a conclusion. You didn’t even know that it was there, it was
available. So it shows that you have lack of knowledge in this field.
And so, one of the things that you must do is read as much as you can, especially when it comes to
opposing opinions and opposing points of view. When you make any kind of justification, any kind
of research, you must also present the other view as well. That’s why when you look at books of Fiqh,
the books of Hanbalee Fiqh or Shaafièe Fiqh or Maalikee Fiqh or Hanafee Fiqh, the major works of
Fiqh like Badaa'iùS-Sanaa'i’, al-Istithkaar, Majmoo’, al-Mughnee – all of these books will mention the
other views as well. So, Ibn Qudaamah (Raheemahullah) doesn’t say, “This is just the Hanbalee
opinion and it is Ijmaa’, no one else says anything,” but he mentions all the other opinions. It
mentions the Hanafee opinion, the Shaafièe opinion, the Maalikee opinion, it will mention the
Zaahiree opinion sometimes, it will mention even what Az-zuhree said, Sufyaan ath-thawree said,
what al-Hasan al-Basree said. He will mention what so many different scholars said, Layth ibn Sa’d
and so many other scholars of Islaam. So it is not just your opinion but you must have knowledge of
your subject. You must show that you’ve some authority on it.
2. CLEARLY PRESENT YOUR ARGUMENT

And that means that it must be logical – these issues that we have spoken about already. It must be
logical. It must be coherent. There must be an order to it. You must present it properly. So, if you’ve
an opinion, it may be a good opinion but if you don’t put that forth and across confidently and you
don’t put it across clearly, people at the end won’t understand where you stand. They won’t know
what your position is.
That’s why, we said that it is important, that one of the characteristics of a good researcher is that
their Shakhsiyyah (‫ شخصية‬, personality) comes through their research. So as they are researching,
you know that this is their personality coming through – these are their opinions, these are their
views, this is how they are drawing their conclusions and so on. So you present your argument
clearly; it’s known what it is. Now that doesn’t mean that you are not humble, doesn’t mean that you
are not respectful of other opinions, doesn’t mean that if you don’t know, you actually say Allaahu
A’lam, you don’t know, but it means that at the same time, people understand what you are trying to
achieve and it is clearly presented. So don’t confuse the issue that you present something clearly
mean that you become arrogant or that you become boastful. No! But rather it means that your
argument is clear and precisely defined.

3. ABLE TO DEFEND IT
It must be something that you can defend. So as we said, one of the things that a person has to do in
research is to mention opposing views. So now for example, imagine you take the Hanbalee opinion
on an issue and there is an opinion of the Maalikees, Shaafièes and Hanafees.
i. You must present their views.
ii. You must acknowledge their views. What are their proofs, what are their justifications, what
are their Daleels – you must present that as well. Then you must respond to their Daleels.
Maybe you say that the Hadeeth that they used is weak, the verse that they used has been
abrogated, that the opinion they used is weak, it’s just logic and doesn’t have any basis in
Shareeàh and so on and so forth. Then you must defend your opinion – why is your opinion
better and stronger? Why is your opinion the one that you have chosen? So you‘ll say, “As for
my opinion, my Adillah, then they are all authentic,” or they mention this or they speak about
this and so on and so forth.
So you must be able to defend your argument as well. It is no good just having an opinion that other
people can then attack or that when other people bring something else for it, you don’t know how to
respond to it.
4. CITING ALL OF YOUR SOURCES

You mention where everything you have taken has come from – referencing. This is something in
sha Allaah we will speak about further later on in this course as well. But it is very important; Number
4 that you cite all of your resources as well.
5. TIE EVERYTHING TOGETHER

So the introduction that you set out to do and the conclusion must be like a ribbon; it must be like a
bow; it must be like a circle; it must come full circle and it must be finished with a nice looking bow,
meaning you don’t just leave things open-ended.
 The questions that you set out with have to be answered.
 The problems that you set out with have to be solved.
 The objectives that you set out with have to be fulfilled and met.
And so it is not just an open ended thing but everything has to be tied in together. So as you are
going along and making this research argument, you are arriving towards a destination. And just
when you arrive at that destination, you must feel confident that you have achieved your goal. It is
like as if you have taken a flight from London and your destination was Riyadh, Saudi Arabia or
Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Imagine if the pilot took you from London and then he went over Turkey, he
landed in Istanbul and said leave. You have come to Istanbul, you have left but that’s not where you
wanted to go. Even though you are thousands of miles closer to your destination, you are still not
there. You still feel as if you are lost or you are unfulfilled, you don’t feel confident. So you are not
prepared to be in Turkey in Istanbul. Had you know you are coming to Turkey, you would have
prepared in a different way. But you are only prepared for going to Riyadh or Jeddah, to Saudi
Arabia.

And so likewise with your research – it must tie in. You just can’t leave it open-ended. When you tell
people that these are the questions you are going to answer, these are the problems you are going
to solve, you can’t by the end just leave them open or just answer half or a quarter or answer some
and leave others. It must tie in and it must come round full circle. So, this is the first issue concerning
making a good argument.
II. MAKING A CLAIM

The second issue is something known as making a claim. So as you are going through and as you are
mentioning this issue of your opinion, you are gathering this research, you are making your
arguments, you have to also make known your opinions [and] arguments and part of that is also
making sure that you reflect the position of others, the opposing views. That’s what the scholars of
Islaam have done within their books like Al-Mughnee and others as we have mentioned. They will
mention the opposing views as well and they won’t be biased and they won’t be unjust. Look at
Imaam Ibn Qudaamah in Al-Mughnee – when he mentions other opinions, he gives their Daleels,
their justifications and their reasons for mentioning those Daleels [i.e.] their Wajhul-Istidlaal and so
on and so forth. They are just in the way they do it. They present those views and then they defend
their own views. So when you make a claim, there are three things that that can help you in
presenting those other views and making your opinion known as well.
1. YOU ADOPT A SCEPTICAL POINT OF VIEW

What does that mean? [It means that] as you present your argument, you think about what other
people would say in response. What criticism they would put on your argument? What justifications
they would use to show that your argument is actually weak? So when you look at it from this other
side of the coin and you look from an outside point of view, it will help you to further strengthen
your argument to make sure that your argument is good. But if you are, for example, you put your
argument forward and someone comes and says something and you do not have anything in
response, that will become a weak argument.
When you put forward an argument, ask yourself, Do you yourself accept the argument if someone
else was making it to you? So in a way, you play something which is known as devil’s advocate; you
ask questions to yourself or you have your supervisor do this and this is one of the things that the
supervisor will do [i.e.] critique your work. Maybe you have friends who will do this for you or people
who will read, they will ask you questions as well.
And does it make sense? So you put this argument together, does it make sense to others? It may
make sense to you in your mind but now you have to actually verbalize that, you’ve to put it down,
you have to articulate that. So when you express yourself, does it makes sense? Are you achieving
what you want to achieve?
2. IT MUST BE LOGICAL
It must make logical sense. And if all of the proofs are pointing at one opinion but you choose
another, it doesn’t make any logical sense. And if your own data that you gathered is showing that
your argument is weak and the other argument is strong, then why are you still sticking to this
argument? What is your justification? There must be some logical process behind this.
1. THERE MUST BE SOME ORDER AND BENEFIT TO IT
There must be some order to it. So when you present other people’s opinions, there must be a
logical way in which you do this. So how does a person know whether you are mentioning your
opinion or their i.e. the other opinion? Whether you are mentioning proofs for your opinion or
proofs for the other opinion? That’s why when you look at the methodology of scholars in their
works, they have a set methodology.
So for example, Ibn Qudaamah (Rahimullah) will mention at the beginning his opinion – the opinion
that he thinks is strongest – then he will mention the other opinions and then he will mention the
proofs for the other opinions and then finally he will mention his own opinion, the reasons
and the justifications and the proofs for his opinions. So now, it is a logical way. It has an order to it.
So whatever issue that you come through in Al-Mughnee, you’ll know that this is the set order that
he’ll take. Likewise you must also establish that either in your introduction or in the way that you
mention in your research.
It must be something that is beneficial as well. There must be benefit within your argument; there
must be something which is beneficial in the claims that you make.
So with that in sha Allaah we are going to conclude this lesson. In the next lesson, we will continue
with this section of preparing a research argument but we are going to speak about assembling
evidence and gathering data, acknowledging, contrasting and analysing that data or we are actually
going to touch upon that and then we are going to speak about that in more detail in another section
and we are going to speak about something called the insider and the outsider view.

SESSION 9
Video A
RECAP
In the previous lesson that we had in this topic and subject of research methodology, we discussed a
number of points and a number of issues. We spoke about the qualities of research & what makes
research good. We spoke about stuffs like research being logical and systematic and so on and so
forth. Then we moved on to the next section of this course that is preparing a research argument.
We took a couple of points within that and those were:
I. Making a good argument
II. Making a claim
We spoke about how important it is for someone, when presenting an argument in their research,
to understand the point of view of the other party/opposing party. Sometimes you must also have
a skeptical point of view of your own research, see how others will look on it, see how others will
view it and what their issues are. So therefore, you can have a more balanced research and your
research will also reflect the views of others and then you will respond to those views and you will
defend your own views. We said this is something which even the scholars of the past, within their
books of Fiqh and their book of Islaamic sciences, mentioned and which we find throughout those
books and throughout those different encyclopaedias of knowledge.
In today’s lesson, we will continue and complete the section on preparing a research argument,
Insha Allaah. There are three main things, in sha Allaah, we want to focus on today:
III. Assembling the evidence.
IV. Acknowledging and responding, responses
V. Finally, something known as the insider and the outsider view.
So, just as we did with our critical thinking, as we said throughout this course from the very
beginning that research methodology is about establishing a methodology and a system. It’s not just
about doing things randomly or as and when you please. Rather, there must be a systematic process,
a methodological approach to your research.
And so if you cast your minds back to the previous section of the course – the section that we
entitled ‘Critical Thinking’; in critical thinking, we were speaking about things like how to find a
research topic, how to do a literature review, how to find a research gap, how to turn your research
topic to questions, how to problematize and so on and so forth. We gave the example of a funnel:
how you start off very wide and then you focus in and in. And so, there is a systematic approach in
doing that. In critical thinking, there is a systematic approach in the way that you deal with this
issue of finding and coming up with a research topic. So, you can see from that section itself that it’s
not just a random approach to research but there is a lot of thought that goes into it; a lot of
thoughts, a lot of efforts, a lot of time that you will put just to find in a research topic and a research
question. So as we said before, the efforts that you put in before, In sha Allaah, will be a fruit
towards the end.
Likewise in the section of preparing a research argument, it is more or less the same. Again, what we
are doing is we’re taking a systematic approach.
SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO PREPARING A RESEARCH ARGUMENT

Now that you have your research topic and you’re doing all of this research, your main research
argument – whatever that topic may be, whatever that issue is, whether it’s, for example, that we
need Fiqh Councils in the West, whether it’s, for example, that we need Islaamic medicine to be
fused with modern day medicine; whatever the research argument is, whatever the crux of your
research argument – it has to be presented in systematic and methodological way. It can’t just be
something which is random. You can’t hope that you can slot in whatever you like and the reader will
understand.
Remember, research is something which you don’t really do for the benefit of yourself but for the
benefit of others as well, especially academic research. The whole point of academic research is
that it is something that others will read and benefit from. Otherwise it doesn’t need to be so
academic. It maybe, for example, you want to research on certain issue of prayer or Zakaah or fasting
or Hajj for yourself; so when you do that, you don’t have to take such an academic research. You
don’t have to do a literature review just to find out the answer [to the issue] that you wanted to
research want just for yourself.
But when it comes to academic research – this is research for your Masters, your Ph.D., your post
graduate qualifications or, for example, someone has asked you to research on a certain issue that
the Muslims are in need of, for example, it’s an issue that you are going to present either in a book or
in a paper or you want to present as a lecture and people will question you and they will critic you
and they will have issues with your research – so now, it must be done in an academic way.
So therefore when others are now going to benefit from it and read from it and take from it, you
must have within the back of your mind always this perception [and] this knowledge that others will
take from it as well and so it must make sense. That’s why we keep stressing the point of research
being logical, being systematic, following the set methodology and being something which has a
rationale to it. So therefore, when a person comes to your research, they open it, begin to read it
and study it, it will be far, far easier for them. They will have something which is systematic which
they can go through. And it will make much more sense to them because they know where you’re
coming from. They can see that your research argument is presented in a good way. They can see
that when you chose your research questions, there was a lot of thought and effort put into it. It was
not just something which was a tick box exercise, not just something which you did simply to tick a
box. But rather, it was done in a very systematic and a very fruitful way.
So that’s exactly what we have here. When we speak about preparing a research argument, we are
not just speaking about doing it randomly or doing it and hoping that the reader will somehow
understand where you’re coming from. But it must be done in such a way that not only is he actually
able to read your research argument throughout your thesis or throughout your paper and then not

only is he able to read it but he can understand and comprehend it, he can see your point of view
and he can see that you have considered the point of view of others.
That’s why we said about making a claim – you must have a sceptical point of view. So the reader
knows that you’re not just being biased, not just presenting one side. But rather, within your
research, they have all of the opinions gathered. So you’re presenting fairly, in an unbiased &
unprejudiced way, the views of others and their points of view. So, the reader again can see that you
have done the research as well. You’ve presented their views, you’ve presented their reasoning and
their justification for those reasoning and then you have defended your views and shown why they
are stronger and the others are weaker.
This is especially something which we see in Islaamic or Muslim academia, especially for example, if
you go back to the books of the Salaf and the works of the classical scholars of Islaam. If you look at
any book of Fiqh, look at Badaa'iùS-Sanaa'i’, look at Al-Majmoo’ of Imaam Nawawee, look at al-
Mughnee of Ibn Qudaamah, look at the books of Shaykhul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyah when he speaks
about the issue of Fiqh, look at the books of uSoolul-Fiqh and look at the books on some of the issues
of MuS-TalaH al-Hadeeth and so on and so forth. These issues when the scholars mention them,
especially, in their Mutawwalaat, in their encyclopaedic type of books where they mention in such
vast details, you can see that they present an argument and they will always, more or less, always
mention their opponent’s view even though they disagree with it, even though it is not the position
of their Madh-hab or the position that they think is the strongest; they will [still] present that view
and they will present their justification of that view and then they will respond to that. So, that’s
something which is very critical.
In doing your research, you must always remember that it’s not just that you’re doing this for your
benefit, but others will read it, whether that’s just your supervisor and the people that critic your
Masters or Ph.D., whether it’s a book that is going to be published and others will benefit, whether
it’s a journal that you will publish it in and other academics are going to read from it, whether it’s, for
example, a book for the general Muslims. Even if it is an issue that you are going to present to the
general Muslims, when you have everything done in a systematic way, you’re more likely to convince
them than just in a random, sprouting of information which they don’t really understand the
rationale behind it and the semblance between it. So this is something very important to understand
in shaa Allaah and to remember.
So what we are going to talk about today is the next issue in this process of research argument. So,
you’ve made a good argument; you’ve not only then made a good argument but even in the second
part of this [i.e.] in making a claim, you’re taking the position of the opposite view as well and
you’re then responding to it.
III. ASSEMBLING REASONS AND EVIDENCE

The third step is something called assembling reasons and evidence. And this is basically gathering
all of this information now. So, it is very important when you’re doing research to make sure that
you can in the most comprehensive way gather all of the information that you possibly can. Because

you don’t want to do is when you’re presenting your research, people say, “Actually you didn’t even
mention this other opinion that exists,” or “You said this was an opinion and it’s weak but you failed
to mention other evidences for this opinion that are far, far stronger that would have strengthened
this argument even more than your own argument.” So, you don’t want this type of criticism and it
shows that you as a researcher haven’t really done your homework and it shows that you as a
researcher haven’t really done justice to the topic in the sense that you’re not really doing things as
you should have but rather you just gathered some things as quickly as you can and then you
proceeded.
But rather what you will do is to assemble all of the evidence. So for example, if you want to take an
issue of Fiqh, let’s say, for example, the issue of whether women have to pay zakaah on gold
jewellery that they wear. A woman wears gold bangles or wears jewellery – does she give zakaah on
this jewellery or not? There’s a difference of opinion among the scholars of Fiqh as I’m sure you have
studied in the book of zakaah. But now, if you want to present this issue and you want to present it
in a way that is academic, as a research argument; just say, for example, you hold the opinion that
zakaah is Waajib on such jewellery, that a woman must pay zakaah on such type of jewellery, she
must pay zakaah on all types of gold whether she wears it or not. Now, this is your research
argument. This is the argument that you want to do. So, you will make that argument, meaning that
you will make sure you are on authority on this. All of the stuff we mentioned in the previous session:
 You will clearly present your argument, you will defend it [and] you will cite all of your
sources.
 But then it will also be from good research, to make that claim from the opposite point of
view as well. So what’s the sceptical point of view? What are the opinions, the reasons and
the justifications of those scholars of Islaam who say that there is no Zakaah on such type of
jewellery? So therefore, you will mention them.
 Now, in order to do all of these you must do the third step and that is this issue of assembling
evidence. You can’t present things in a proper way, in an academic way, neither your
opinion nor the other opinion...
Video B
...unless you assemble this evidence and you assemble this material together. And so, this is
in many ways what people think of when it comes to research. If you were to say to someone,
“What is research?” The first thing that comes to a person’s head isn’t stuffs like research
gaps and literature review and problematizing your questions and making a good argument;
what normally comes through to peoples’ mind is gathering stuffs, gathering information,
gathering evidence.
And so, in a way, this third step of assembling evidence is really, in a way, one of the cruxes of
research, one of the fundamental aspects of research because you can’t have research if you don’t
have data. And so, you must collect all of the information now. For example, if the Hanafee scholars
hold an opinion. You can’t just quote that opinion from me in a lecture that you heard, nor can you
quote that opinion from a newspaper article that you read or a journal that you read, nor can you

quote it from Ibn Qudaamah -RaheemAllaah- in his book Al-Mughnee. Why? Because Al-Mughnee is
a book of Fiqh, yes, but it is a Hanbalee book of Fiqh, not a Hanafee book of Fiqh.
So, as a good researcher, why would you go to a secondary source – a book of Hanbalee book of Fiqh
which then quotes from a Hanafee source? Why not then go to the Hanafee source directly? So, this
is part of assembling evidence. So that issue that you want to take the position of Abu Hanifa -
RaheemAllaah- you want to take the position of his Madh-hab -Raheemahumullahu Ta’ala- you will
go through his books. Go to Al-MabsooT of Imaam As-Sarakhsee, go to Badaa'iùs-Sanaa'i’ of Al-
Kaasaanee, go through the different books, Haashiyah ibn Àabideen and so on and so forth. You’ll go
through the books of the Hanafee Madh-hab and then you will take that information from them
directly. But then, there is another opinion that, for example, Imaam al-Kaasaanee mentions within
Badaa'iùs-Sanaa'i’ that this is our opinion, the Hanafee Madh-hab, but other scholars differ. Imaam
Maalik says this, Imaam Shafi’ee says this, Imaam Ahmad says this. So now as a good researcher, you
won’t just quote from the book of Imaam al-Kasaanee, Badaa'iùs-Sanaa'i’, all of these other issues
and opinions and references. But now, you will go back to the books of the Maalikee Madh-hab, you
will go back to the book of the Shaafièe Math-hab, you will go back to the books of the Hanbalee
Madh-hab and you will probably even go back to other books that are Fiqh Muqahid that are more
types of general books. May be books like Nayl al-Awtaar of Imaam Ash-Shawkanee, books that don’t
really slot into one Madh-hab per se but they mention many of the issues of Fiqh and you’ll go and
see what they say as well, what their opinions are as well.
And so, this is assembling evidence. You’ll go back to the sources, you go back and you gather all of
them together; not one source, you’ll probably go through a number of sources. Maybe, for example,
Imaam al-Kasaanee of Badaa'iùs-Sanaa'i’, he mentions the position of Imaam Abu Haneefah -
RaheemAllaah- on an issue and he gives you one proof for it, just one. But if you go to another book
like FatHul-Qadeer, another Hanafee book, then you’ll go there and find there is a second source, a
second justification, a second proof that that scholar gives. And even if you go to Haashiyah Ibn
Àabideen, he will give you two more. Sometimes the scholars don’t mention everything within a
book and so you will go and you will gather them all together and you’ll present them as they should
be presented, In shaa Allaahu Ta’ala. So that is the next step and it is also very important the issue of
assembling evidence.
IV. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND RESPONSES

The next step after this, the fourth stage in presenting or preparing a research argument is
acknowledgements and responses. Basically what it means is to compare and to contrast and to
analyse. Now, as a researcher, it is often wrong to go into an argument with a prejudged notion. If
you haven’t studied an issue before, how as a good researcher can you go into the argument or go
into a research with already having drawn your conclusions before you have even done the research,
before you have even gathered the data, before you have even analysed the data. And this is also an
important point of view.
And so as you go through your research, you may develop an opinion and you may support the
opinion of one Imaam over another or one point of view over another, but at the outset it should be

something which you don’t have a bias for. So even if you have grown up being a Hanafee in your
Fiqh or a Shaafièe or a Maalikee or a Hanbalee, whatever it is that you are, then it would be
incorrect as an academic researcher to go in with that bias or with that prejudice. But rather, you go
in open-minded, looking for the proofs and evidences and if you find something from the Qur’an and
the Sunnah that is stronger and it supports another point of view, another Madh-hab, not necessarily
is it your own, then you embrace that opinion because our religion is based on the book of Allaah
and the Sunnah of His prophet -salAllaahu alayhi wasalam.
Likewise even in non-Islaamic research, if there is a point of view that has so much data presented
for it, so much data supporting it, so much reasoning behind it and it is far stronger than the opinion
you used to hold for whatever reason, then it will be unfair and it will be dishonest for you to go and
to hold to your own opinion even though you can tell that it is weaker, even though you know that it
is weaker. And so in this issue of acknowledgement, this is what we are doing. We’re looking at all of
this data that we’ve gathered from Step 3 – all of these issues, all of these issues that we’ve
gathered – and we’re now comparing, contrasting, analysing. In shaa Allaah, this issue of analysis of
data, we’ll speak about in more details later on in this course.
Generally speaking, now that you that you have all of this information:
 You must compare. These are the opinions.
 You must contrast, these are the different evidences they used.
 You must analyse. This is a weak Hadeeth; this is a strong Hadeeth. This opinion is not
authentically attributed to any scholar; this one is. This opinion has Ijmaa’, for example, the
consensus of the scholars; this one doesn’t. This issue makes sense from this point of view;
this one doesn’t; and so on and so forth.
And so, you compare, you contrast and you analyse and this is how you present your research. And
Inshaa Allaah, as we said we will come on to that in lot more detail bi ithnillahi ta’ala, in another
section within this course. So at the moment, I won’t go into too much detail on that.
V. THE INSIDER AND THE OUTSIDER VIEW

The fifth and final issue when it comes to preparing a research argument is something known as the
insider-outsider view. And a person may think: what is this insider-outsider view? Normally, when it
comes to research or in some types of research, there are two points of view and they are known as
the insider and the outsider dichotomy or the insider and the outsider point of view. So there are
two different points of view normally.
So, for example, if you want to go and you wanted to research the Pakistani community, let’s say,
within England, within London or within a city, within a country outside of Pakistan obviously. So,
you’ll go to a Pakistani community where they are minority, in a place, for example, like London,
England. Now, as a researcher, either you’ll be part of that community and therefore an insider or
you’ll not be part of that community and therefore an outsider. Either you’ll be a Pakistani that lives
within London; so therefore you are the insider. Or you’ll be an outsider, meaning maybe you’ll be

black or white, you’ll be maybe British, you’ll be maybe African or from other country; so therefore,
you’ll be an outsider.
This is something which researchers, especially in research methodology and social research, speak
about a lot simply because they want to understand more about this paradigm – the insider and the
outsider view.
So as an insider, because you are part of the community:

 Maybe you’ll understand more,
 Maybe you’ll feel part of it more.
 And therefore, your point of view will be different from somebody who doesn’t even
understand the culture and tradition of that community and so, than an outsider.
 And the way then you’ll go and embark your research and present your findings will be
different as a result of that.
And so, this is something which researchers normally speak about in terms of bias and prejudices and
the way that research is presented.
And we all know, for example, that if you are a Pakistani and lived in the Pakistani community, the
culture that you have and the tradition that you have – and likewise if you’re an Indian or an Arab or
a Bangladeshi or you’re something else – the culture that you have, an outsider can’t understand
your language and your culture and your tradition and the way that your community works just by
researching for a year or two or three. Often it takes a lifetime. And it means that you must be
immersed within that in order to understand it properly. This is the insider and the outsider view.
 So I just want to give examples of how it ranges, how you become from an insider to an
outsider. Speaking about an insider, a person who is truly an insider, let’s give the example of
our beloved university, KIU-Knowledge International University. If within KIU, let’s say one of
you, for example, wanted to research within your own class, your own classroom. So there
are ten or fifteen people, maybe, on this course. You want to as a member of this course as
well, as a researcher within this course, research what is happening in your own class. This is
the ultimate insider view. You are the researcher, it’s your class, you’re part of the class,
you’re within the class, you’re accepted as a member of the class – that is an ultimate insider
research.
 The next step slightly outside of that will be that you’re a researcher but you’re not in that
class but you’re still part of the university. So you’re a member of KIU, you’re a student
within KIU but you’re not part of that class. So it’s still an insider type of research but you’re
not ultimately inside. You’re not part of the class, not within that class, you’re just slightly
outside of the class but within the university.
 The next step, even still more outside of that, the next step out will be an external researcher
that is invited by KIU to come and do research. So, a person comes, they are not part of the
university but they were given an official invitation by the principal of the university or by the
people in charge of the university to come and do this research. So even though it’s an
external research by outsiders but they’ve been invited in, it’s like they’ve been invited to
come inside. So that’s the next step out.
 The next step further out from that as well, would be an external researcher who is doing
this research about KIU, but without the invitation. They are doing it, for example, by order
of the ministry of higher education in Saudi Arabia. Now that Ministry will impose upon KIU
that you must accept this researcher to come in and do this research. So that is again another
step out.
 The fifth, another step out that you could go as well is that you have an external researcher
who hasn’t been ordered to do the research but they are doing it for their own sake and
they haven’t been invited by KIU but they just go to KIU and KIU allows them to do the
research. So again, it’s another step out.
 And the final step out, the most outside out of this, will be someone who came from a
different country, who wasn’t a Muslim, doesn’t understand anything about Islaam or Saudi
Arabia or KIU and they came without invitation, without being ordered, just to do some
research without any cooperation from the university. That is the ultimate outsider
researcher that you can possibly get.
So you have this very big shift in terms of insider-outsider. So you have the extreme insider and the
extreme outsider as well. What are the issues concerning it, what are the benefits of it and so on and
so forth, in shaa Allaah, this is something we will speak about within the next lesson bi ithnillahi
ta’ala as our time is now up. So in the next lesson, we will carry on to speaking about this insider-
outsider view and then we will move on to the next section of the course which is planning, drafting
and revising your research.

SESSION 10
Video A
In the previous lesson, in our series on research methodology, we spoke about the next steps when
it comes to preparing a good research argument and we spoke about assembling evidence and then
acknowledgements and responses, we finished on something known as the insider and the outsider
view. And what we spoke about in the previous session, in shaa Allaah, we’ll continue on this issue of
the insider and the outsider view.
THE INSIDER AND THE OUTSIDER VIEW (CONT.)

What we spoke about in the previous session was the examples you can give in terms of the
spectrum of the insider, the ultimate insider view and the ultimate outsider view. And if you
remember, we spoke about the issue of using KIU as an example.
How someone, for example will be an ultimate insider as a member of a class and they would be a
researcher researching their own class, within their own class as a member of the class within KIU.
That will be the ultimate insider. And then you can go further out and out and out until finally you
have a foreigner, someone who is not a Muslim, who doesn’t have any connection to KIU, that
doesn’t even live in Saudi Arabia, they do not even understand anything about Islaam and as an
external researcher, they just come and they begin to research without any cooperation or
agreement from the university. So that will be an ultimate insider and ultimate outsider view and the
spectrum between that we spoke about in the previous session.
So, we can see that this is something which is possible. Normally like when people do research, this
will be something obvious. If you are, for example, researching something about Islaam, either you
will be a Muslim and therefore an insider or you will be a non-Muslim and therefore an outsider. If
you’re researching, for example, something about the Christians; the Roman Christians, the
Catholics, the Baptists, the Methodists, you’re either an insider to that or an outsider out of that and
so on and so forth. Likewise if you were to research, for example, India as a country or research, for
example, Brazil as a country or China as a country, you’ll either be an insider or you’ll be an outsider.
IMPORTANCE OF THE INSIDER AND THE OUTSIDER VIEW

So what are the issues, why it is so important?
It is because, normally, there is either some benefit to it or not. Either being an insider or outsider.
So, there are benefits, advantages and disadvantages to both.
- ADVANTAGES OF THE INSIDER

One of the advantages and benefits, normally for the insider, it is that they are already accepted.
And so people would accept them, they would speak to them, they would open up to them, they
would trust them and they would speak to them in a far more open way than someone that is an
outsider. And so, for example, if you’re already a part of the university, you’re already a part of that
group that you’re researching, people would know you and trust you already. They would know you
and trust you to represent their views in a fair way. And so, that is something which people will,
therefore be a lot more conducive to.
- ADVANTAGES OF THE OUTSIDER
But the benefit of the outsider, for example, is that an outsider has no bias, he has no preconceived
notions. Whereas, the insider because he is already an insider, he may want to, for example, portray
things in a much nicer way or he may already has a bias because he’s already part of that group, he
may think that they’re better than other groups or because he agrees with a methodology, he thinks
it’s better therefore. And therefore, the outsider has no bias. He will come in and he will have, if you
like, completely neutral but more of a neutral view than an insider. So those are some of the
advantages of being an insider or an outsider.
- DISADVANTAGES OF AN INSIDER
For the insider, one of the disadvantages is how they can do their research in an unbiased way and
how they can establish and understand the point of view of their opponents.
If you’re an insider, then, what guarantees can you give that you’re not going to be biased and how
will you understand the point of view of other people from outside, because you’re already so
entrenched inside of that opinion, within that group, within that methodology whatever the issue
may be. And so, for example, if you’re part of KIU, maybe you will be far more willing to speak about
KIU in a positive way rather than if you’re an outsider. Maybe an outsider, because he has no
emotional connection or any other type of connection to the university, he will be a lot more critical
of the university. But as an insider researcher, how do you understand the point of view of an
outsider, how do you ensure that you as an insider won’t be biased.
And how do you make the familiar strange. This is another issue, another disadvantage of being an
insider. As an insider, you’ll normally take things for granted because this is just the system that
you’re used to. But to an outsider, it is peculiar and strange. They don’t understand it and they need
you to explain it further as a researcher. And so, therefore for example, if you’re researching prayer
for example, maybe it makes more sense to all of the Muslims why, for example, they face towards
the Ka’aba. They face towards Makkah and they pray in that direction. As Muslims, this is something
which we accept, as insiders, it is something which we don’t even think about twice. But for an
outsider, he doesn’t understand. For example, he may say, ‘You say that you don’t worship idols and
you don’t worship anything except God. But now, I see you prostrating towards a cube, a structure
based in Makkah, meaning the Ka’bah. And so, he doesn’t understand that this is just a direction, you
are not actually prostrating to the cube. To an outsider, it seems that you’re prostrating, especially if
they would see pictures of the Haram in Makkah, they’re actually prostrating to the Ka’bah, to this
cubical structure. Rather then, it’s a direction that you’re taking. And so therefore, they don’t
understand this because they’re outsiders. Sometimes as insiders, we don’t understand that they
don’t understand. We don’t see their point of view.
And so because to us it is familiar, we can’t make it strange. This issue of praying to the Ka’bah is so
familiar to us, we don’t know how to look at it from the other point of view whereas to the outsiders,
it is so strange that they don’t understand it. And so, as an insider, sometimes we face these
obstacles.
- DISADVANTAGES OF THE OUTSIDER

One of the disadvantages is that you won’t be accepted by the people. And people are very
reluctant to talk to outsiders. It is an actual reluctance, simply because they don’t think they will
understand their world, they don’t understand their reality, their culture, their tradition, whatever
the issue may be. They don’t understand and fully appreciate what they are going through.
And also, they fear the way this researcher, this external outside researcher, will portray their
findings. How they will represent their views, how they will speak about their views, whether that
will give a positive or a negative reflection of what they are speaking about. And so people will,
sometimes, become closed up, they won’t be open to outsiders, especially if the issue is of a
sensitive nature. So this is something called the insider and the outsider view.
SOLUTION
So, it is always important to bear this in mind and again this ties in with how we understand the
other point of view and so on and so forth. It is always important to have balance when it comes to
your research and to be just in presenting your research. One of the things that a person can do as a
researcher is to try to give both points of view.
So when I was researching, for example, on Fiqh Councils, what I attempted to do was to get the
insider and the outsider point of view. I got the insider point of view of Fiqh Council by going to the
members of the councils and interviewing them personally. And so, I would speak to them about
their council. And so, they will speak about it as insiders, as being part of that council. And even
though I’m an external researcher, I’m not part of the council, but because I’m speaking to them,
they may have had some reluctance to me, but at the same time, it is an insight that I can gain from
their point of view; whereas, if I didn’t go to them, I didn’t ask them, I didn’t represent their views,
then I’ll only have the outsider point of view, my point of view. So I attempted, even though it is still
the issue, maybe they didn’t trust me completely, maybe some of them weren’t as open with me as
they would have been, was the researcher an insider, they still spoke to me, and in shaa Allaah, they
represented some of their true feelings. And so, that is the way that you’ll represent the insider view
if you’re an outsider. And if you’re an insider yourself, then, you’ll ask the outsiders for their point of
view and how they view things so that in shaa Allaah, you can strike that balance.
There are some researches that say that it’s not just a simple dichotomy of black and white. It’s not
just either you’re an insider or outsider. Things aren’t just so simple that whether you’re in one
extreme and an extreme insider or an extreme outsider, but there is a spectrum in between and this
spectrum is something which takes all the space between. The space between meaning between
the insider and the outsider, the spectrum is the space between. And so, the example that we gave in
the previous session of the researcher how you being in a class or being just in the university not
part of the class or being invited by the university or being imposed by the ministry of higher
education and so on and so forth. This was the spectrum.
The reason why I gave the example as well was to show you that it’s not always so simple. And so, it
is possible even as an outsider to do good research, by making friends with the insiders, by having
interviews with them, doing questionnaires and so on, getting them to open up. You’ll never be a

complete insider but you can still do good research. Likewise as an insider, you’ll never be a complete
outsider but you can still frame it in a way that in shaa Allaah, you’ll represent those views as well.
And so, this insider and outsider view is something which is mentioned throughout books of research
methodology and in shaa Allaah, that is why we have mentioned it here as well today.
CHAPTER 4: PLANNING, DRAFTING AND REVISING YOUR RESEARCH
The next issue or the next section of the course moves on to the section entitled Planning, Drafting
And Revising Your Research. So if you think about it, so far what we’ve spoken about in the three
main sections that we’ve discussed so far:
1. Number one was an introduction to this whole science, about the importance of knowledge
and research and the characteristics of a Muslim researcher and what makes you a research
academic and so on.
2. And then, we moved on to the second section which is critical thinking, which is about how to
find your topic, how to do a literature review, how to identify the gaps, how to ask research
questions, how to problematize them and so on.
3. Then we moved on to the third section that we just completed and that was preparing a
research argument. Things like making a good research argument, assembling your evidence,
the insider and outsider view and so on.
4. Now in shaa Allaah, in the fourth section, we’re going to speak about planning, drafting and
revising your research. So now that you’ve done a lot of the background work. You’ve actually
chosen your topic, you’ve identified the gaps, you’ve asked the questions, you’ve
problematized the questions, you’ve looked at the sources that you have available in the
resources, you’ve looked at the problems you may encounter, you’ve started, you know your
research argument, you’ve gathered your evidence, you’ve prepared your argument, you’ve
acknowledged the other side, you’ve, for example, looked at the insider-outsider issue, now
you move on to planning, drafting and revising. And this is now the stage that we’ll probably
call the write-up stage. Normally when you research, maybe, the first year or the first month
or the first few months, you’ll do so much gathering of information but a time must come –
and again this is about good time management – within this process when I will say, “OK, I
must start writing stuff down. I must start drafting my research together. I must start
gathering this information together.” And this is also important because you can’t just keep
on gathering information forever.
Video B
THE WRITE UP STAGE

So if, for example, you’re doing a Ph.D. that is for three years. At some point within that first year,
you’ll start have to ‘drafting’ at least your first chapter. You can’t start to draft everything and write
everything in the third year, it’ll be too much. And so as you go along, you’ll draft. So if you’ve
gathered enough information on a certain chapter, a certain topic, now you can begin to start
planning and drafting that research as well. And so, this is exactly what we’re going to speak about,
in shaa Allaah, in this section. We’re going to speak about planning your research, drafting your

research, revising your research, analysing your data. We’re going to speak about structuring your
research, presenting information and things like style revision and so on. These are all things that in
shaa Allaah, you will need when it comes up to what is known as ‘the write up stage’. The write up
stage means that you’re actually bringing things down on paper, you’re writing stuffs down. This is
what you’ll do when it comes to academic kind of research. There must be a point in time when you
actually start to write things down.
I. PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH

The first issue that we want to speak about, in shaa Allaah, is planning your research. Everything that
we’ve said so far is in a way a type of planning your research. But before you begin, even by doing
anything, you must have a plan for your research. So at the very beginning before you even do your
research topics and everything else, plan out the steps to your research. What I’ve actually done
here, in shaa Allaah, I’ll give you the ten steps that you need in terms of planning your research.
And so once you have these steps, some of them will fall under Section One, Section Two, Section
Three of this course but this is basically the outline of the plan of your research.
TEN STEPS TO BE FOLLOWED IN PLANNING RESEARCH

1. The first step is choosing a subject. And so, that is the step that we spoke about when it came
to finding a topic and so on. And what characteristics we should look for when it comes to
looking for a topic in the sense that it is something you should be passionate about, it is
something that there should be many resources available, it is something that you have the
ability to do and so on and so forth. Those things that we spoke about in one of our previous
lessons. So, that’s always the first step: CHOOSING A SUBJECT.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW: Sometimes you can call it initial literature review. Because as you go
along throughout your research, even in the second and third and fourth or fifth year, you‘ll
always be reading more stuffs and as you’re reading that information you read in the book,
those books that you’re reading, will continue to be part of your literature review because the
literature review isn’t just about reading but rather, it’s something, in shaa Allaah as we’ll
mention later on, it is something you’ll actually write about. A section within your thesis will
actually be called ‘LITERATURE REVIEW’. And so there, in that section, you’ll actually write
about the books that you read generally speaking. You will speak about the issues that were
present and the issues that weren’t present within those books. And so therefore, literature
review is a non-going process. But the second stage in planning your research is probably
what you will call more like an initial literature review, the literature review that allows you to
identify research gaps.
3. FINDING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND ALONG WITH THAT YOU CAN SAY
PROBLEMATIZING THOSE QUESTIONS AS WELL: So, you’ve chosen the subject, you’ve done
your initial literature review and now, you’ve found your research questions and
problematized them.
4. CHOOSE AND DEVELOP A METHODOLOGY: So, what type of research do you actually need to
do? Is it going to be, for example, book research? Is it going to be internet research? Is it
going to be field research meaning you have to go out and actually speak to people,
interviewing them? Is it going to be questionnaires that you have to set out? Exactly what is it
going to be that you need to do? Do you need to travel to different parts of your country? Do
you need to go to different libraries? You’ll choose a methodology or you set up a
methodology. That’s the fourth step.
5. PILOT THAT METHODOLOGY: So now, you can test parts of that methodology. So if for
example, you want to do a questionnaire, maybe you will pilot part of that questionnaire just
to see how it would work. For example, this is something we’ll speak about later on, if you
were to do a questionnaire, the way you would do an academic questionnaire, an academic
research is that first you’ll do a pilot survey, a pilot questionnaire, and that’s a test
questionnaire. For because maybe sometimes when you write up your questionnaire, there
would be certain questions that people don’t understand or certain questions that people
misunderstand or people respond to it in a way that is unclear. And so therefore when you do
a test survey and you give it to people to answer, you look at the responses and you see, ‘Oh,
I could have framed that question in a better way. People didn’t really understand what I
wanted from that question. People misunderstood this third question and so on and so forth.’
So, when you actually do your final questionnaire that you send out to everyone, that will be
something which is based upon research itself, and it’ll be a lot more structured, a lot more
coherent, a lot more logical and it will be a lot more systematic as well. So that’s the fifth
step, piloting that methodology.
6. ORGANIZING THE DATA COLLECTION: So normally, for example, if something like a survey,
that is something which is a big task. How will you do this survey? Will it be by phone? Will it
be by mail? Will it be, for example, you just go to a marketplace or a shopping mall and you’ll
hand out questionnaire papers? Will it be an internet questionnaire, online questionnaire?
How will you organize this data collection? If it’s, for example, interviews, will they come to
you? Will you go to them? Where will it be out? How long will it be? How will you organize
this data collection? So that is the sixth step and it’s also very important. Again, often, a lot of
this stuff is background work. It is background work that you’re doing behind the scene but it
will make your research so much better rather than just going and doing things randomly
without actually understanding what it is that you’re doing and what it is that you’re trying to
achieve.
7. ACTUAL DATA COLLECTION: So once you’ve known which methodology you’re going to use,
you’ve tested that methodology, you’ve organized the way that you’re going to collect your
data, you actually do your data collection. So, for example, if it’s an online survey, the way
that you’ll do that, for example, is that you’ll send out emails and you’ll give them a link to an
online questionnaire website. Something like survey monkey, so that they can go and they
will answer that questionnaire online, and then that website itself will gather the data and it
will present it to you in charts, and in graphs and in tables. And so, you will send out that link.
And now you do actually do the data collection. Maybe, it’ll be a mail questionnaire and so
therefore, the data collection is that you’ll send it out but what they’ll do is that you’ll give
them a free envelope with a free postage on it and therefore, they will fill in that
questionnaire and send it back to you, you’re actually doing the data collection.
8. DATA ANALYSIS: Now that you have this collection of data, how do you analyse that data and
what are you going to do in analysing that data? In shaa Allaah, data analysis is something
which we’ll speak in a bit more detail, in shaa Allaah, later on within this session of planning,
drafting and revising your research.
9. DRAWING YOUR CONCLUSIONS AND YOUR EVALUATIONS: So now that you’ve analysed all
of this data, you can actually draw you conclusions. What are the evaluations of this data?
What are the conclusions? Does it support your hypothesis? Does it not support your
hypothesis? Does it agree with your research argument? Does it make it stronger? Does it
make it weaker? What are the problems that you found? And so on and so forth.
10. WRITING UP that in a final version. So now that you have all of this information, you’ve
analysed all of that data, you must now present that data as well, you must write it up and
you must present it in a final document, a thesis, a research paper, an article, a journal, a
book, whatever it is, in whatever form.
So this is the ten steps to planning your research – the ten steps to, in shaa Allaah, planning your
research is something you would do in an academic research.
TARGETS AND DEADLINES

One of the other things you need to do within this and something that you also need to bear in mind
within the first step of planning your research is target and deadlines. So we mentioned ten steps
and as we said that, normally, research has a finite time period. It’s not infinite, it’s not forever. It is
something that needs to be done within a certain amount of time maybe a year, maybe two, maybe
three, maybe four, maybe five, whatever the time period is. So therefore, you must have targets and
deadlines. So, you give yourself a target for choosing the project, a target for the initial literature
review, a target deadline for finding the research questions, a deadline for choosing the research
methodology, a deadline for piloting the methodology and so on. So, everything has a deadline and a
target so that, Inshaa Allaah, you will keep up to date.
RESEARCH PLAN
And one of the ways that you can do this is by having a research plan. A research plan where you
actually put all of this into a table that actually tells you by this stage, you must have done this,
then this is the deadline and by this stage, you must have finished and then, you can break each
section up into even much more. For example, when it comes to finding or doing a literature review,
“By this stage, I would have read all of the journals,” “By this stage, I would have read all of the
books,” “By this stage, I would have gathered all of the online materials.” Then you have an overall
deadline to finish all of the literature review but within that overall deadline, you have many
deadlines and targets as well so that you have a comprehensive research plan. And therefore, you
know that everything now is structured. The benefit of this is if you overrun, now you’ll know there is
a problem that you’re over by a week or two weeks. And therefore, either you can trick it or you
must stop your running out of time and therefore you’ll go back and continue with another section of
your research.
WORD COUNT
The final thing when it comes to planning – one of the other things that we must always bear in mind
– is the word count. Normally in a thesis, especially for a qualification, there is a limit of how many
words you can write. For Ph.D., for example in the UK, it is normally 80,000. Whereas for something
like Masters, it is 30,000 or 40,000 and so there is a word count. You can’t just write everything that
you find. You can’t just mention everything and quote everything and reference everything but there
is a limit. And therefore, you must choose as well what is it that you’re going to add, what is it that
you’re not going to add and therefore, you must prioritize as well.
And so that kind of helps you with your time management and your research plan as well. The
issue isn’t gathering everything and putting everything, but it’s about presenting the best argument
in the best way. So therefore, the word count is going to be something very important as well. So
these issues – the ten steps when it comes to planning, thing like targets and deadlines, things like
the research plan, things that always have in mind the word count... So, for example, if there is going
to be eight chapters and 80,000 is your word limit, you have 10,000 per chapter and so on. By doing
things like this, by having things that are structured in this way, you’ll find in shaa Allaah it’s a lot
easier to do your research as well.
And even though, these are things that you do in terms of planning, it’s actually going to make your
life a lot more easier because everything has a system in place, everything has a logical process to it
and you know exactly what is expected of you, what your deadlines are, what’s the maximum words
that you can use and that will help you to focus on your research and, Inshaa Allaah, produce a very
good research as well. So this, in shaa Allaah, is the issue of planning your research and in shaa Allaah
we will stop there. In the next lesson, in shaa Allaah, we will speak about drafting and revising
argument and other issues as well bi ithnillahi ta’ala.

SESSION 11
Video A
Bismillah
In the previous session we continued to speak about the issue of the insider and the outsider view
and we concluded on that issue and we began the next section of the course which is Planning,
Drafting and Revising your research. And we spoke about the first issue, which is planning your
research and spoke about the 10 points when it comes to planning your research and another issue
such as research plan, targets, deadlines and word counts as well. Insha’Allah in today’s lesson we
will continue with this and Insha’Allah we will speak about the next issue, which is “Drafting your
Research”.
DRAFTING YOUR RESEARCH

There are a number of important points that I want to mention:
1. That you must always see your work as a draft. Always see your research initially as a draft.
Don’t ever think that when you start your research, that what you are writing is going to be
the complete and finished product. So as soon as you put your words down or paragraphs
down, you finish some pages of your writing, of your research that, that is how it is going to
be at the end and that you won’t need to change it.
And this is the problem that we spoke about before as well, it is linked to one of the issues
that people find or the problems that people face is something called as “Perfectionism”: that
people think that they don’t need to revise their research or that they don’t need to draft
their research and everything that they do will be perfect the first time. And often when
people have that view, it leads to problems and lack of motivation, it leads to negative
beliefs, it leads to procrastination, it leads to problems that it will then make your research
not as good as it should be.
Always see your research as a draft. So when you write a chapter or even if you finish a
chapter, it is still a draft. You will revise that draft, you will probably give it to other people to
read and to revise, you will give it to your supervisor who will speak about it and give you
suggestions, you will carry on with your research and find that there are things that doesn’t
make sense, or there are things that you will have to change within that chapter as well. So
always see your work as a draft.
2. The second thing is, because it is a draft, start with what is possible. For example you can’t
do the data analysis part because you haven’t gathered all of the data, it doesn’t mean that
you should wait until you gather all of the data and don’t do anything else. But do what you
can, and don’t necessarily start with things that you don’t know. So for example, the
conclusion in a thesis is normally the last chapter so you will not start with the conclusion, the

conclusion is one of the last things that you will do. Even introduction could be one of the last
things that you do.
Normally when you do academic research like a Masters or a Ph.D. or maybe any other type
of academic research, the introduction is one of the last things, not the first thing, the last
thing that you will write about. Even though chronologically when people come to read your
research, the introduction will be the first thing they will see, it will be at the beginning. And
the reason for this is that you don’t actually know how the research is going to turn out. But
within your introduction, you need to give an introduction to the whole of the research as a
finished product. But you don’t know what the finished product will be, what the results will
be of your research. And therefore it is premature to write about the introduction at the
beginning, but rather you leave it at the end.
One of the sections likewise right after the introduction is the Literature Review. And as we
said, as you go along through your research, that literature review will increase. So there is
no point writing about it at the beginning, but rather you just reference and make notes, you
keep the information with you and the write-up can come at the end as well. Even things
like the title of your thesis or the title of your book or your research. You don’t need to worry
about that at the moment. You can leave that until the end. One of the last things you do in
the Ph.D. thesis and it is normally when you are submitting your thesis that is when you
decide what the title is. Before that you have a Draft Title or a Working Title. So the final issue
of the title doesn’t need to be decided either.
So the point is, you do what you can, you start with what you can. You don’t have to start
with everything as it should be i.e. The Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and so on. It is a
draft. So a draft means you can do whatever chapters you like. And you can do parts of
different chapters as well. So that is the way you must see your research that it is a draft.
REVISING YOUR RESEARCH

And because it is a draft, therefore you will obviously do other things as well, one of the things that
you will definitely do then is revising your argument. That is the third issue that we want to mention
in this section of Planning, Drafting and Revising your research, that you will all be revising your
arguments and revising your research. That is the whole point of drafting your research; draft means
that it is not finished, that it is open to revision; it is open to amendments, open to change, open to
addition or deletion, so therefore you will revise.
And so as you are revising, you will find things that don’t make sense, certain arguments you had
don’t actually stack up or the evidence that you have found shows you different new things that you
didn’t think about before. Or maybe the literature review shows that people have already done this
and you may be duplicating it and so therefore you must change itslightly. And so you will always
constantly be revising the data, you will detect faulty arguments, you will amend stuff, add stuff,
delete stuff, you will receive new information, you will find things you didn’t expect to find. And so all

of this will make you then revise your research. So maybe you will write about something at the
beginning and then once you have done your data analysis, you will find that actually this is what
should have been written and so you will go back and you will revise it. And you will revise your
argument and you will change your argument on a number of points and so on and so forth until
you constantly adapting your research and your research is evolvingmaybe.
So the first point or the first issue is never the finished product. It is a draft that will keep on being
drafted and revised until Insha’Allah you are ready to finish everything and you have everything
together and while you actually come to do the final thing, the final version or the final edition is
once everything is complete in the sense that you have drafted all of your chapters and you have
got all of your data together and you have gathered it all and you have analysed it all and you have
taken the evaluation of all of the analysis and you’ve drawn all of the conclusions. Now you can go
back and make a final revision, a final draft that will become your final version and edition of your
research.
So therefore it is an evolving process, it is not something that you just start with and you finish it
straight away. It is something, which will take time. And that’s why it is very important that you
don’t procrastinate, it is very important that you have good time management, it is very important
that you don’t look it as a perfectionist type of research.
And so all of these issues that you do not have negative beliefs and so on, all of those problems that
we mention, it ties in with this issue here as well. Drafting your research, revising your research is
very important to making good research. And so for example you will probably have an issue, you go
and give it to your friend, other academics, people in your class, your colleagues, your supervisors,
your teachers, lecturers and they will read and they will make amendments and give suggestions and
so on and then you will go back and do something else. May be when you come to design your
questionnaire, you will realize that there is an issue that you didn’t even think about before, another
issue that you’d need to consider within your research and so then you will think about that issue as
well and then you will go back and put that within your research. And so it is constantly an evolving
process until Insha’Allah you will come to this stage where you write the final version, you make the
final amendments, the final revision and the final drafting and then Insha’Allah it will be the
complete research as well. So if you make mistakes, it is not a problem, if you are drafting it’s not a
problem, if you are not going through things in an order it’s not a problem, if you are doing just what
you can it’s not a problem, if your arguments doesn’t make sense you find that they are weak, they
are wrong, they are faulty it’s not a problem. All of these aren’t issuesto be worried about, they are
not mistakes you are making, it doesn’t mean that your research is no good, it actually means the
opposite that you are a good researcher, that you are drafting, you are revising, that you are open to
suggestions, that as you are learning, you are adapting, changing and Insha’Allah it will mean that
your research is of a very good and a high quality and standard, Bi ithnillahi Tabaraka wa Ta’ala.
ANALYSIS OF DATA
The fourth issue in this section that we want to mention is analysis of data. And this is something
that we touched upon in the previous section when we are preparing a good research argument, one
of the things that we spoke about was acknowledging and responding to other opponents’ views and
so on that means that you must do data analysis, compare, contrast and analyse data. And then we
said that we will speak about this in more detail and so here Insha’Allah we will speak about it in
detail - Analysis of Data.
One of the major aspects and parts and the most integral fundamental parts of your research is
analysing your data, you must analyse your data. It’s no good just having this entire gathering of
information, all of this data comes to you but then you don’t draw any conclusion or evaluations
from it. And the way that you draw these conclusions, that you evaluate these data is by first
analysing the data.
 What are the patterns?

 What are the issues here?
 What do we see?
 What are the trends?
 What are the things that people all seem to agree on?
 What is the difference of opinion on?
 What are the issues that are divisive, those issues that unite and unify?
 And so on and so forth.
Once you have this analysis, you have graphs, you have tables, you have charts, you have trends,
patterns, you have all of these things then Insha’Allah you will be able to draw conclusions a lot
easier and you will make your research a lot better as well Bi ithnillahi Tabaraka wa Ta’ala.
WHAT IS DATA ANALYSIS ?

Data analysis basically is a body of methods that helps for you to ascertain facts, to detect
patterns, to develop explanations and to test hypothesis. And so this data analysis, once you have
the information together, the process that you go through in order to analyse this data will help you
to describe the data that you have. The facts that you have gathered, the information you have
gathered, once you’ve analysed it:
1. You can describe it in a much better way.

2. It will help you to detect the patterns, i.e. the issues that everyone agrees upon, the issues
that are divisive, the trends that you saw in the pattern within the data gathering and
information.
3. You can develop explanations. So now this is the data that I have; these are the facts that
came out of it; these are the patterns why. Explain why, try to look out why. What is the
reason and why? Maybe for example it is because it is a certain people agree…
Video B
…on this issue, because it is marketed very well, or people are aware of it, or it is always in
the media, people always read and hear about it, whereas this other issue is something which
no one has ever heard of it before, because no one ever speaks about it. And therefore it is
something, which there wasn’t much data about it. So you look at these issues, and you
explain them as well.
4. You test your hypothesis, meaning your research argument, what you thought was going to
be the case, is it actually the case now that you have this data and you have analysed this
data?
One of the things that are always important when it comes to data analysis is to always refer back to
your research goals. Always refer back to that first point, your research goals, how you began, what
the actual issue was at the very beginning. And this is something which is very important that you
must always go back to that beginning point Insha’Allah, because that will help you to focus in while
analysing the data, you will always focus on your research goals, what it was that you were actually
trying to ascertain and revive. That is why when it even comes to the issue of putting your
questionnaire together, if you are going to do questionnaires, of putting your interview schedule
together, if you are going to do interviews; always go back to your research goals. Remember we said
that the vision and the goals and the objectives are like that landmark there that you always go
back to. It is like your guiding post, a lighthouse that you go back to, it is your anchor. And so you
always refer back to it so that you Insha’Allah you always make sure that it is objective and that
your research will always tie in together. So that is always something important to do.
HOW DO WE ANALYSE DATA?

Data analysis is basically of two main types; the information that you will have will be either
“Quantitative” or will be “Qualitative”.
 Quantitative, means basically it will be numbers, it will be things, which are numerical,
things like that which you can gather. Quantitative means quantity.
 Whereas Qualitative means that it will be descriptions, it will be qualities that are
described, it will be more words and sentences, things that you can’t really put into graphs
and tables, whereas quantities, numbers, volumes, things like this you can put into charts and
tables and you can actually make them into graphs and make them into charts and tables.
HOW DO WE ANALYSEQUANTITATIVE DATA?

When it comes to quantitative information, things like numbers and so on, so maybe you will ask:
 How many people refer to a Fiqh council?

 How many people research online for Fatwas?
 How many people are of this age group?
 How many people attend this college?
 How many people read this newspaper?

These are numbers that you will get in return; 40%, 50%, 200 as a number, average age like 13 or 14;
whatever the numbers are, that quantitative information with what you do with it:
1. MAKE A COPY
Is to always make a copy. Whenever you get this information, always make a copy. If it is online,
then back it up. If it is something, which you have, is on paper, make sure that you have a copy that
is electronic; maybe you will tabulate this information online. Maybe for example if it is a phone
interview that you are doing, then record it and then make a backup of this recording. It is very easy
to lose research or information, to misplace it. Maybe for example you had written it down and
maybe your children come and rip up the paper, maybe you lose the paper, maybe the paper gets
thrown into the garbage by accident, into the bin, maybe for example it is a recording and someone
records over it or deletes it, maybe which you have in your computer and the computer crashes or
your application doesn’t work or something else.
So if you don’t have a backup of this, it is very difficult to go back and do it again. You can’t just go
back specially if it is a survey that is anonymous; it is very difficult to track that person down again if
not impossible. And I call, even if it is an interview with someone you know, it will be difficult for
them to go back and repeat everything that they said, they won’t remember everything that they
said even if they agree, and probably they won’t agree to give you another interview again because it
shows that you have taken too much time, in fact you are asking them again and they may not
appreciate helping you a second time. So it is very important to make a backup copy, it is always
important to have this source of this information that you keep so that Insha’Allah you can refer it.
And Alhamdulillah nowadays you have external drives; you have emails, clouds of information where
you can store things online, remote server and so on and so forth. There are so many ways to
backup this information. But it is important to do so.
2. TABULATE INFORMATION
The second thing that you will do is to tabulate this information. So for example if the issue was Yes
or No, the answer was Yes or No or True orFalse. How many people said Yes, how many said No, how
many said True, how many said False. And so then you can tabulate this information like 20 said Yes,
10 said No, 100 said True and 30 said False. And so now you tabulate this information.
3. DETECT PATTERNS
You detect the patterns and you analyse the trends and the patterns, the averages and so on. So for
example you say, the average answer was that 20% of the people go online to look for a Fatwa i.e. it
seems 20% of the people go online for a Fatwa online. Or for example the average age who filled in
my questionnaire was 35 and so on. And so now you have average information, you can get averages
and also you detect patterns, for example it seems that people in the age group of 18-25 go online to
look for a Fatwa, people between age group 25-35 go for books for Fatwas, people between the age
group 35-40 would like to go and ask their local Imam for a Fatwa. And so because of these different

age groups, these are the trends and patterns. And so now you have this information in a graph or a
table, it is very easy to look at patterns and trends and averages.
4. ANALYSE AND DRAW CONCLUSIONS

You look at these answers and you analyse them and you evaluate things from them, you compare
them and you draw conclusions. So you will say for example, it seems from the averages, the
younger the people are the more likely they are to go for new technology for a Fatwa like the
internet, an app on their iPhone or mobile phone or smart phone, whereas the people who are older,
are still more traditional would like to go to their masjid, ask their localImam, ask their local scholar
or local Mufti for their answers that they need. And so now therefore you can analyse and draw the
information out.
And so these are the 4 steps when it comes to looking at quantitative information.
HOW DO WE ANALYSE QUALITATIVE DATA?

When it comes to analysingqualitative information, and qualitative we said is description, so maybe
you will ask a person why is it that you go to the internet to look for a Fatwa. So now, they will not
give you a number, they will not give you a percentage, they are not going to give you an age group,
what they are going to give you is information. They are going to say because it is easy, because it is
convenient, because it is quick, because for example they feel more comfortable, because sometimes
they feel shy speaking to people. They will give you information; qualities, information, facts,
whatever it is,they will give you words and sentences and paragraphs they will give you
information. Why is it that for example, people don’t use Islamic medicine? Maybe because they
don’t know about it, there are no books out there, there is no information out there. This is
qualitative information. How do we analyse this?
1. MAKE COPIES
2. READ ALL INFORMATION

Read all of the information, this is harder than the quantitative information because it was just
numbers and you can tabulate that and you don’t have to read that a person said 10, you will have to
read that a person said 20%, it doesn’t really matter individually because once you tabulate the
information, it will give you a better scenario, whereas with qualitative information you cannot
tabulate in that way. You must read it because no 2 answers will be the same. There will be
similarities, maybe a lot of people will say that internet is easier and convenient, but then you will
always have people that will see different things.And so you must read all of the information or
data.
3. ORGANIZE THE DATA

Organize the data; to organize it and to put it into different issues/categories and so on and so
forth. So for example, how many people said it is easy, and then how many people said Internet is
convenient, how many people said they weren’t aware, like this you put them into categories.
4. LOOK AT PATTERNS
You can start to label them, and look at the patterns again. So you can see that the majority of the
people are now saying that the Internet is easy. This is a pattern and that’s why most people are
likely to go to it, whereas older people say that the Internet is hard and they are not very computer
literate, so this is like another pattern.
5. INTERPRET THE INFORMATION

Interpret that information, i.e. analyse it in the sense that you draw conclusions and your
evaluation. For example you will put it into perspective; again you will look at the recommendations,
so again you will say that the people say that the internet is easy, convenient, easily accessible and so
on, whereas when I looked for this information from a different country, maybe a third world
country where the internet isn’t so popular, where people do not have access to it, there people say
that they will go to their local Imam simply because they don’t have that availability. So one of the
things that the people can do is that maybe the website is not available in the language of that
country. They may have good Internet connection, but the website is only available in English and
not in French or Spanish. So now one of the conclusions that you can draw from this is that if that
company/organization had a website in French or Spanish or Italian or German, then it will be far
more accessible and it will be easily marketable to those people as well.
So again what you are doing is you are analysing the data and again both of them are going to lead
you to the same conclusion whether it is quantitative or qualitative data. There are two different
ways that you start but eventually you start looking for trends or patterns and then you will draw
your conclusion. So they both meet up with the same type of end result, but you will have to
approach them in different ways, one is numbers and the other is more description in sentences and
words. And so there are two different approaches that you will use, but Insha’Allah which ever you
use, you will eventually come down to the patterns and the trends and then conclusions from them
as well. And that is basically how you analyse data.

SESSION 12
Video A
Bismillah
In the previous session, we are still speaking about the general section of planning, drafting and
revising your research and in the previous session, we spoke about the issues of drafting your
research and then revising your research and sometimes your research arguments as well and then
data analysis and then how to do data analysis both for quantitative and qualitative information.
Insha’Allah in today’s session, we will speak about the next section of planning, drafting and revising
the research and that is:
STRUCTURING YOUR RESEARCH

When it comes to research, what is the structure it should have in order for it to be good academic
research.
1. ABSTRACT
The first thing that you would do, and there are a number of things that we will mention here, but
the first thing you would have in your research specially if it is an academic type of research for
example for Masters, Ph.D., even for a book and so on. The first thing you would have is something
known as an abstract. And what an abstract is basically the issue where you go and you summarize
within one A4 page the essence of your whole thesis and so your abstract is something again which
you will write at the end of your research like your introduction, conclusions, etc. It is one of the last
things that you would do once everything is done, then you will have the final finished version of
your research. You will write a one page abstract and so it shows that you really know exactly what
your research is talking about. The fact that you have the ability to condense all of that into an
abstract that is one page, shows that you have the ability to really understand and know your
research and pick out the most important aspects to put onto one page.
The point of the abstract is really for the readers. So for example if I came across a research that was
on Fiqh councils, even if the title says Fiqh councils, I don’t really know what it is. So one of the ways
to find out is the abstract because that will tell me:
 The major issues that are discussed

 Major findings that you found
These two issues will be discussed in a very summarized or very briefly, obviously it is not your
thesis in an abridged version. It is just supposed to give you some information that will allow me to
know what this thesis is all about. So you have this abstract which is only one page long which you
will have in the very beginning of your thesis (the 1st page of your thesis).

2. DEDICATION
The second thing which is optional, again an abstract is something you must have but the second
thing in academic research you can have is optional is a dedication. Dedication, often found this in
books, novels, fiction and non-fiction books. People dedicate their work such as dedicate it to their
parents, wife, children or teachers or maybe to a group of people and so on. Dedication is something,
which is more known in western academia, you even get this in Muslim countries as well. I
remember the famous scholar of Madinah in our times who passed away (Rahimahullah) some years
ago now, he lived in our times, Shaikh Atiyyah Saalim (RA) the famous student of Shaikh Amin al
Shanqiti (RA). Shaikh Atiyya was a scholar in Madinah, he taught in the mosque of Prophet (salallahu
‘alaihi wa sallam). He was a professor for some years at the Islamic university of Madinah and he was
a judge as well in high court of Madinah. He wrote books, which he often dedicated in the
beginning. And so if a person wants to do it he can but it is optional.
3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is optional as well. It is basically acknowledging the people that helped you. As we learn from the
Hadeeth of Prophet (salallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) where he said, “whosoever hasn’t thanked people,
hasn’t thanked Allah.” Therefore, it is from the etiquettes of a Muslim generally but it is more for a
student of knowledge or researcher to acknowledge the people who helped him.
In your acknowledgment, you can start off by praising Allah (SWT) for allowing you and giving you the
ability to undertake this research and helping through the difficulty that you encountered. You may
also acknowledge people like your parents who helped you and supported you, maybe your spouse
or children, your supervisor and colleagues because of him being there helping you throughout the
steps, or organization or institute who helped you in your research in some way, whatever the issue
was, you would acknowledge them as well. This is also optional but people often acknowledge
people who have helped them throughout their research.
4. TABLE OF CONTENTS
This is not optional now to all of the following things you must have, the only optional is dedication
and acknowledgement. The fourth is Table of contents. This will be in detail with all of the headings
and subheadings throughout your research. The table of contents, which we all know and can find in
any book, it must be numbered in a logical way as well. One of the differences that you have for
example between fiction books, a novel and an academic book is numbers. Yes you will have Chapter
one but under the heading,they will be numbered as well like 1.1 is subheading, 1.1.1 is this issue
under the subheading. And so you will number it in a very concise way. If you go to any type of
academic book Insha’Allah, you will find what I mean by numbering system.
So the contents along with the abstract, you will also help the reader to understand what is
basically going to be discussed within this thesis. The two main reasons that the outsiders (reader)
will know before they read the thesis what it is about and the topics that are covered are:
1. Through your abstract
2. Through the table of contents
5. TABLE OF FIGURES
It is basically all the charts, graphs, pictures, tables and diagrams you have within your thesis will
have to be numbered. They are normally called Fig. as a short form. Now where is it going to be in
the table of contents? It will have its separate table. So after the table of contents, you will have
the table of figures where you will say for the 1st diagram, Fig.1 go to page#, Fig.2 goto page# and so
on.
6. TRANSLITERATION TABLE
This is optional as well depending on the type of thesis you are writing. For most Islamic books,it is
something which you will need. There will be transliteration table. Transliteration table is basically
(Insha’Allah we’ll talk in detail later) how to write, transliterate Arabic words in English. For
example, everyone knows that Arabic language has certain letters which we don’t have in English
language like ‫ع‬, ‫ص‬, etc.you will not find them in English. Like ‫ه‬and‫ح‬they are very similar in their
attributes, whereas in English language we only have ‘H’ and it can’t be used for both, so what do
you do? This is where the system of transliteration that has been designed and then there is a
normal accepted way of transliteration. For example you may have the letter ‫ص‬and‫س‬you cannot
have ‘S’ spelled for both. So you have certain letters, which are difficult to give them the same type
of letter likewise we have Madd, but it’s not there In English. This is what the transliteration table will
do.
Now these are the things that you should have in the beginning. And now you actually begin with
your thesis and your research. And the next thing that you will bring is Introduction.
7. INTRODUCTION
It is basically introducing your research, but it will have a number of things under it that you will
speak about.
I. THE RATIONALE
What is the reason behind this research? Why is this research done?
II. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF YOUR STUDY

This is something you put in your introduction not only so that you know but also the readers
knows as well what your objectives are and they will able to see whether you fulfil them or
not.
III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
IV. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

Meaning how wide out you are going. And limitations meaning how limited you are. So
what are the scopes to this research and what are the limits to it. For example if you are
studying Fiqh council, your scope and limit is Western Fiqh council only…
Video B
…and you didn’t have the resource and ability to go and study Fiqh councilsall around the
world like Muslims countries etc. that is now a limit. You may mention the difficulties and
problems you faced during research like you were only able to do surveys online and you
couldn’t afford to mail or call people on the phone. So you are preparing people on what is
about to come. You are being honest, frank and open and telling people what exactly they
should expect.
V. LITERATURE REVIEW
Something which we have been speaking a lot about. The major books, those are already
available in this field. What they speak about and what they do not speak about, what are
the gaps. You will do this in a concise way. It is not supposed to be a detailed review of every
single book but you could say for example that there are 3-4 books that generally talk about
this issue, one of them details this and one of them details that, in a general and concise way.
VI. METHODOLOGY
Exactly the methodology you employed throughout your research. It is important to study
the subject because the reader will also hold you in account for the methodology that you
used.
VII. STRUCTURE OF YOUR STUDY

You will say, for example there is one introduction and conclusion and 6 chapters, in Chapter
1, I speak about this issue, Chapter 2 this issue. So you give the outline of your study. And this
is why we are discussing this now here the structure of your research. You will actually
mention this in your introduction.
8. CHAPTERS
After you finish your introduction chapter, you will now speak about the main part of the thesis. You
will actually go through all of the chapters, Chapter 1 then 2 then 3 and so on. Normally in research
academia or Ph.D. level, we normally have between 6-10 chapters. So there are not too many
chapters and they are not very small because it’s not a novel nor it is too bigand long that people will
become tired of reading but they will be in average like 8000-10000 words for a chapter.
Chapters obviously must have a logical progression.
 So you mention something that built up to your introduction in the beginning.

 So if it’s about Fiqh council that you are studying, you speak about Muslim minorities in
general, the issues that face them, the need for them.
 Then next in Chapter 2, you speak about history of Fiqh councils and how they developed
over time.
 In Chapter 3, you give them examples of general Fiqh councils all over the world.
 Then Chapter 4, you focus on Western Fiqh councils.
And so you have these different chapters you will have throughout your thesis Insha’Allah.
It is important to remember that each chapter should have the mini introduction and mini
conclusion as well. So at the beginning of the chapter you must mention, what it is that you are
going to do in that chapter and what you spoke in the previous chapter and how the two are linked
because again we want to show the logical progression and that there is a systematic approach to
this. Like “in the previous chapter, we spoke about this now we must move on to this because this is
the reason and in this chapter, I will speak about this.” Then in 3-4 paragraphs, very short
introduction. And then at the end, you will mention a very short conclusion to that chapter, so it will
be like “from this chapter this is what we have learnt and now we will speak about this in the next
chapter.” Now it has a very beautiful progression to it. The person reading it can see the flow. It is
not patchy and blocky or random but rather there is a flow to it. So it will make it a very good read
for the reader. Normally in academic research, they put alot of emphasis on it that it must be a
good read, meaning the English is good, grammar is good, no spelling or punctuation mistakes, etc.
it is good and in the flow and easy to read. It is not something that we have to keep going back to
the previous chapter and see what you are saying and how it links to this and how it makes sense.
Therefore all of it should flow in a steady way Insha’Allah. So these are the chapters you will write
about in 6-10 chapters.
9. CONCLUSION
Then the final thing you will say after all of these chapters is the conclusion. The conclusion is
basically your main findings that you have found. It is not the summary of your findings. You do not
repeat everything that you just study but rather you draw conclusions, what is that you actually
learnt from it. Now that you finished this journey, what are the main findings? What are the main
things that you have seen? You can even list them as a summary of your main findings. Normally
what people do in their conclusion is,they write their conclusion and then in the end have the
summary of their main findings. Then we have further research. Remember we said in the
beginning that one of the ways you look for research topics is going to other books and seeing what
they have written as being further research, things that other people can do, so likewise you must
also do that in your conclusion, write about further research. What are the things you are unable to
research, things that other people can possibly look at, that links to the subject. So now you have
the:
1. Main conclusion
2. Summary of your findings and
3. Further research
These are 3, which you will mention in your conclusion. After this the last couple of things you will
have in your structure are:

10. APPENDIX
Things which are not really the part of the thesis, but things that people may benefit from. For
example, if you did an interview with a member of Fiqh councils, you are not really going to copy and
paste it within a chapter. What you are going to mention in the chapter is the analysis of the
interview and then evaluate conclusions that you drew but you are not really going to copy word for
word. But you can put that in the appendix and whether they want to go to the whole interview and
read everything that was discussed. They can go back to that. For example if you did a questionnaire,
you are not actually going to show questionnaires in your chapters because you are only going to
analysing the data from it. But if someone wants to see how your questionnaire looks like or what
exactly the questions were, you can show your copy within your appendix. So appendix is something
that is linked to your research but not necessarily be a part of your research. It is not a part of your
word count, if you have 80 000 words limit then that will be from the introduction not even from
your table of contents or your abstract but from introduction to conclusion, anything before that
and anything after that like appendices, table of contents or dedication, none of them counts to your
word count or none of them are part of the word count.
11. BIBLIOGRAPHY
This is the final thing. Basically it is mentioning all of the books and resources that you used or
benefited from, whether it is online journals or newspaper articles, whether it is a video or program
or the books that you used.
So this is your structure of research. To recap again we said about:
 Abstract
 Dedication
 Acknowledgment
 Table of contents
 Table of figures
 Transliteration table
 Introduction
 Chapters
 Conclusion
 Appendices
 Bibliography
So these are the 11 stages, sometimes people may add or take some of it out. Maybe some people
don’t need transliteration or maybe dedication. Or some people may add something to this like index
or glossary of terms (for technical subjects) where it will explain the glossary of words, what they
mean at the end of the thesis. But generally these are the structure of your research.
There are two other important things to remember when it comes to structuring your research:

The logical coherency: you must cohere it in a logical way meaning everything should make sense,
the arguments that you make, the numbering of chapters, your headlines and subheadings, the way
you mention this topic 1st then that topic 2nd, all should make sense. There is a logical coherency
throughout your thesis.
The argument must be coherent: The beginning of your thesis should match till the end of your
thesis, it must all come together and all tie in. They can’t be just random blocks of things you have
copied and pasted which don’t really interrelate with one another.
There should be logical coherence and coherency in your argument throughout your thesis. With
that we conclude this lesson. In the next session, we will speak about presenting information and
speak about things like style revision.

SESSION 13
Video A
In the previous lesson, we were still considering and talking about the section of this course entitled
planning, drafting and revising your research and the important place that this plays within research
methodology, in terms of writing up the material that you have gathered, the information that you
have gathered and how you analyse that data and then present it.
And so, in the previous session, we were speaking about structuring your research and basically how
your finished product would look. So, by the finished version or product, we mean your thesis after
you have written it up, what types of things would be included therein.
And this is important because normally when people study, they study and they just think about the
bulk of their thesis in terms of their chapters, but often they do not pay much attention to things like:
 the abstract,
 the introduction, maybe even,
 the conclusion and other things like,
 the contents page and
 the bibliography.
And all of them have an important place and an important role that they play within the issue or
within this context of research methodology.
So today’s lesson InshaAllah and today’s session, we will speak about the remaining issues InshaAllah
that are within the section of the course about planning, drafting and revising your research.
The next issue and this is issue Number 6.So so far, we have spoken about:
1. Planning your research then

2. Drafting the report or drafting your research
3. Revising your research
4. Analysing data
5. Structuring research
The sixth issue that InshaAllah today we will begin with is:
PRESENTING INFORMATION
Presenting the information in a general way even though everything that we have spoken about this
far has some type of input in terms of how you present your information.
WHY IS PRESENTATION IMPORTANT?

Presentation is very important simply because like with everything,people normally look at things
and the way that they are presented.
 If they are aesthetically pleasing then it is a lot easier for people to embrace it and to be
infused about reading it or embarking upon that issue.
 Whereas if it is something which does not look appealing, it is not really presented very well
then that is very difficult to motivate yourself to read it. And you look at that in any kind of
sphere of life.
For example: It is not just about research but everything. If you have for example, two cakes side by
side:
 One of them is presented very well, it is made very well and has decorations on it and has
icing on it and has all of these things that beautify it aesthetically and
 The other cake is just plain, no decorations, no icing, no chocolate, no strawberries, nothing.
It is just a plain cake.
Now even though the plain one may taste better and even though you have not actually tasted one
or the other if you were to ask a person, normally, generally speaking, which of the two they would
choose? They would probably choose the decorated one. Simply because it is aesthetically more
pleasing. It is presented better. Even though in taste, it may not deliver the same result.
Likewise, if we have a certain book, you have two types of books, one of them is a book which is not
written very well, and it is not presented very well. And the font and the typeset are not done very
well. Whereas the other book is presented much much better, and it looks much much better and it
is presented very well. And the typesetting is done very well. The one that is presented better is
something which motivates people to read it a lot more and read it with a lot more vigour and
passion as well. So presenting information is very important.
There are a number of points that we want to mention within this issue, presentation in terms of
graphs and charts and visual presentation.
GRAPHS AND CHARTS

This is very important as well. Especially if you are presenting information or data that you yourself
have gathered.
So for example, you are doing things like field research. InshaAllah we will speak about this more
later on and primary data which again we will speak about later on InshaAllah.
But if for example you are doing questionnaires and you are doing interviews and you gather
information and we spoke about how to analyse this information a couple of lessons ago.Whether it
is quantitative or qualitative, this information, once you have, the way that you presented within
your thesis is very important.

If you have for example quantitative information, information that can be put into tables and charts
and graphs and diagrams, then it is important to do so.
It is very important to do so simply because it will make it a lot easier for people to understand.
 When they see for example a pie chart and they see that seventy five percent is one colour
and twenty five percent is another colour that even without knowing the background to it
automatically visually, they will understand that the majority have said Yes.
The majority have said seventy five percent agree with this issue, they do not even know
what the issue is. But automatically it has been embedded within their mind.
 Likewise if they have for example a graph of different, a bar graph of different things, people
asking or giving different options, how many people for example chose the internet as a
means of gathering information and books and journals.And so the internet has a very long
bar, and then books has a medium bar, and then journals has a very small bar.
Even though they do not know the context behind it yet, meaning they have not read your
explanation of the graph which you will also do, they will automatically know that internet is
more popular.
And so automatically you have made a connection with that reader even before you embark upon
that explanation. So along with that graph and that diagram or that chart or whatever it is, you will
then obviously explain what it is that you found and try to analyse that data as well within the
written part of it.But the presentation is very important and it is something which is aesthetically
pleasing.
Likewise for example, if there is a connection between something, sometimes you can picturise or
diagrammatize these issues as well.
 So maybe it will be two circles that are combined, that are joined, that are linked and
therefore you are trying to see where there are two different issues but where the link is,
there is an interlink, there is an interconnection and within the interconnection, you will write
what the connection is.
 So maybe it is something very simple, Islamic medicine as a circle, general medicine as a
circle, but then they link and they link over certain issues which you can mention as well.
And so therefore the person when he sees this and it is presented very well, it is something which is
not only aesthetically pleasing but it is something which people are more likely then to go on to
and to accept and to embrace as well.
HEADINGS
Another thing which is also important here is the way that you have your headings. Headings are
very important in presenting your research.
What I mean by headings is obviously within each chapter you will have a title for the chapter but
within that chapter you will have so many subheadings.

And sometimes they will be many depending on what the issue is. But the fact that you have these
subheadings and you thought about it in a logical way and you have grouped this information
under the subheading, it shows that you thought about it a while and it is presented well.
And that then connects with the contents page so a person can easily refer to things. It is easily
referenced and referable and that is also important in presenting your research.
Someone does not just want to sit there from the beginning to end, eighty thousand words as a
single block or column. But rather, they want it broken up. And they want to understand how it is
broken up. And they want to understand the main headings that you have broken your information
and your data into and your research into. And so it is very important to pay attention to these
headings and these subheadings.
GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING

Likewise when we talk about presentation, it is also important the way that you type or the way that
it is written, things like grammar, things like punctuation, things like spelling, all of these are very
important things.
 No one wants to be reading a research paper and it is just full of spelling mistakes and you
find yourself doing the job of an English teacher where you are actually correcting people’s
spelling mistakes.
 Or the grammar does not make sense, it does not make sense linguistically. The grammar is
not right.
 Or there are punctuation issues, there are no commas, there are no full stops, there are no
question marks, all of these issues, even though they are very small, they are very important.
And that is why normally in post graduate research and even undergraduate research, when you are
doing a research paper, normally there is about five percent that the examiner will give just to these
issues, grammar and punctuation and so on.
And that is because when a person reaches that level of research, these things should be secondary.
They should be automatic. They should be things which are subliminal within your mind. Things that
you do not even have to think about. But they will assign, certain, a small percentage to it to show
that it is still important because it is the way that you present your information.
FONT
Likewise another issue is the font that you use. So the font that you use is very important and
normally it is fonts likeTimes New Romanor Arial or Gentium.Fonts that are somewhat classical and
they are not fonts that are very funky or things that are difficult for people to read. These days you
have fonts for example that look like people’s handwriting and that is very difficult for a person to
read if it is joined up and it looks like handwriting, maybe some people will find it difficult to read and
so normally Times New Roman is the normal way of using a font.

Likewise size, font size twelve is normally the norm when it comes to research as well. And so you
do not want the font size so small like a ten or an eight or a nine where people cannot actually see,
and they have to actually wear glasses or use the magnifying glass. You do not want it too big like a
fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, where it is taking up two or three lines because it is so big. So size twelve is
normally the size that people recommend for research when it comes to typing up.
SPACING
Likewise double spacing. Double spacing means that you use two spaces after each full stop. And so
at the end of each full stop, instead of pressing space once, you press space twice. And this is the
norm when it comes to doing research, it is double spaced.
And likewise, double spacing or double line space in terms of the distance between each line in your
Microsoft word application. And so there where you look at the line spacing options, 2.0 which is
double space, 2.0 is normally the norm as well. And therefore you have a nice space, it is not so
joined together where each line is mixing with the next or it is barely touching the top of the next,
and so it looks very cramped. But you have a 2.0 space between each line. It looks very spaced out.
It looks nice. It looks like it is something which is easy to read and it is inviting to read as well.
So again, all of these issues, even though, they may seem very simple, they may seem very basic,
they are always important to bear in mind.
INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION

The next issue within this section that we want to speak about is again the introduction and
conclusion.
We spoke about this in the previous session when we were talking about structural research. But
again I want to emphasize here on a point and that is, the importance of these sections.
Normally people think that their introduction and the conclusion do not really matter but in fact,
they are very important. The introduction because it is the first thing that people will read and it
will give people, it will set the tone for the whole research and the conclusion because it
summarises what you actually learned, what the main findings were…
Video B
…What was so ground-breaking, and so original, and so unique in the research that you have. And so
it is important to emphasize and to concentrate on both. And not just to do them in a way that is
haphazard and exactly what you mentioned within the introduction and conclusion. This is
something which we spoke about in the previous session when we were talking about structuring
research in a general way.

STYLE REVISION
The final, the eighth and final issue that we want to mention in this section of planning, drafting and
revising your research is an issue of style revision or revision and style that you use.
There are a number of things that are very important that we want to mention here. Things that are
some of them we have mentioned before, some of them we have not.
CONTENTS PAGE
Number one is the contents page.
 It is very very important to have a contents page.

 That contents page must accurately reflect and it must accurately link to the contents
within your research.
 And so all of your headings, your chapter headings and all of your main subheadings within
that, you will mention them within your contents page.
 And obviously the page number that you mention within the contents page must reflect
accurately with the actual page number within your research.
One of the things that you can do is if you use Microsoft Word, they have within the application, you
have a way that you can actually set a new chapter heading and so you can actually devine style
headings and so you can mention that this will be, you will click on it and automatically the way that
you do your heading will automatically be done with that style.
And so for example, the heading or the chapter heading is always capital letters. And it is always
bold, and it is always of a certain font size. And so when you click on that button, automatically, not
only whether you make that title conform to that style but also at the same time, it would also
automatically mention it within the contents page. And it will reflect then accurately the number.
And this is very important the page number, it is very important because normally when you are
doing your research, maybe the pages will go down and maybe as you add more information, it will
move on to the next page and so as these chapter headings move on to the next page, you cannot
constantly be going back to the contents page and changing it.
You will forget, you will make mistakes and then when a person comes to read and they find that it
does not match, the contents page does not match to the research, the actual page numbers, they
will find that this is also a problem and it would not be very good presentation of your research.And
if it is something which for example, is being critiqued by your lecturers and your supervisor, they will
pick up on this and it will be an issue even though it is something which is small, it is just simply not
something which is accepted, and not something which a person can therefore use.
And so, it is always good to use these in-built tools that are around in applications like Microsoft
Word. They have done the hard work for you and so if you use this headings style and if you do not
know how to do it, then go to the help section of Microsoft Word and it will mention it there. But it
will help you so much because automatically it will make sure that everything is in its proper place.

Automatically it will mention everything is in its proper place. And so, this is very very important as
well.
STARTING A NEW CHAPTER

 One of the other things that we always find when it comes to research, that the chapter
always starts on a new page. It always starts on a new page.And so even though you may
have only written two lines to finish a chapter, you will not start the next chapter on the same
page, you will start on the next page. And that is the norm when it comes to chapters.
 And when it comes to chapter headings and normally that page will be the right hand
page.It will be the right hand page.
 And on the left hand page if you’re doing double sided printing. So that is when it comes to
the contents page. Again this is something which is very important. It is something which you
must remember. It is something which a person must always bear in mind.
GLOSSARY PAGE
Something else that we touched upon which is also important in the style depending on the type of
research that you are performing is the glossary.
And the glossary, we did not really touch upon in terms of structure and research because perhaps
many people will not need it. But glossary is very important if it is specially you are doing a very
technical term or maybe your readership is a group of people, the people that are going to read it
are not very familiar with the technical terminology.
 So maybe for example, if it is surgery, there are certain types of surgery terms that a person,
the average person will not be aware of.
 Maybe for example, if it is a certain type of Islamic law, maybe finance or something like this,
certain terminology that people will not be very familiar with.
 Or maybe sciences of Hadeeth and so terms like Mutawaatir and Shaaz and Ahaad and all of
these issues, Azeez and so many, Mashoor, all of these terminologies are things which normal
people do not understand. And so maybe therefore it would be good idea to have a glossary
of words.
Now within your research, when you come across a word that is not normally known, for example,
just say within your research, you write the word, Mutawaatir in Hadeeth, meaning that so many
people have narrated this Hadeeth that it is impossible for them to collude and to cooperate on
lying about it. It is Mutawaatir. It is narrated by so many people.
If you were to mention this word within your research, then what you would do within your
research as well is you would put a footnote. And within that footnote, you would mention the
definition, so you would say, Mutawaatir linguistically means and technically it means this and then
you will give the reference for that.

So it is not just from your mind, from your understanding, you will go back to a reputable book and
you will mention what it means. So for the linguistic meaning, maybe you will go back to Lisaan-ul-
arab, one of the books of Arabic language, for the technical meaning, you will go back to a book of
Mustalah-al-Hadeeth.
And so once you have done this, that is within the body of your research but also for ease of
reference, sometimes it is a good idea at the end, at the very end of your research to have a
glossary section, just a glossary of words.
And so therefore, a person can easily refer to it. So even though you mentioned it in one of your
footnotes, because you keep mentioning the word Mutawaatir throughout your research , if a person
forgets, it will be very difficult for them to go back and find that footnote because they will not
remember on what page that footnote was, or what number footnote it was. But rather what a
person can do instead is, they can go to the glossary and that is always there. Obviously the
glossary is done in alphabetical order and so it is easily referenced.
INDEX
One of the other issues that a person must also think about here is if they need an index. And an
index is normally things like issues, the main issues and then the page that a person will go and
refer to.
And so sometimes you have these issues, if you go for example to many of the Arabic books, many of
the books of Islamic academia, you will find that they have so many different indexes:
 They have an index of the names that are used,

 The famous names of scholars that are used within that book,
 Then they will have an index of books that are used and,
 Then maybe an index of the Hadeeth that are mentioned,
 And the Quranic verses that are mentioned and,
 The statements of the scholars that are mentioned.
And so you can always mention and add these things at the end of your thesis just for ease of
reference and again this is about presenting your information while having a good style and
presentation to your research and it is easily referenced.
And again, a person will be more inclined to then take your book and use it as a reference point
because they know that any verse that they are looking for in this subject, they do not have to go and
go through the whole of the research and the chapters but rather they can easily reference it in the
indexes.
And so therefore you will have, in many of these Islamic books that we have, you will find at the end
that you will have an index of Qur’anic verses, an index of the Hadeeth that are mentioned, the
Hadeeth of the Prophet (salallaahu ‘alahi wa sallam), the index of the statements of the companions

and the scholars, an index of the books that are used, maybe an index even of the famous scholars,
the names of the scholars that are mentioned with a brief biography.
And so these are important things that are done for revision, for style revision and for presentation
of your research and it is something which if a person wants to do, they may do it.
In Western academia, normally in western universities, they do not really have the norm of doing so
many indexes in terms of Qur’anic verses and books and names of people and places and so on. And
so it is not normally the practice in Western academia but it is the practice in many of the Muslim
universities, in many of the Islamic universities and in many of books written by Muslim scholars and
academics. And so therefore, it is something which also a person should bear in mind.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The final issue that we are going to mention in this issue and then in this section as well is the
bibliography and again it is something which we mentioned and again it is something which is done
at the end and again it is something which is done simply so that it is important for a person to be
able to reference.
And again it gives a person for example that wants to research further or a person that just wants to
know what type of literature there is on the subject, they will have all of the information within the
bibliography and again the bibliography is done in alphabetical order.
But how is it done?
The first thing that you will mention within the bibliography is the surname, it is the surname and
 Then you will mention the surname of the author and

 Then you will mention the first name of the author and
 Then you will mention the title of the book. Now, the title of the book whenever you mention
the title of a book, it is always in italics. Always it is in italics. Whether in the bibliography,
whether in the footnotes, whether in the main part of the research.A title of a book or a
journal or something like this is always written in italics. So you have the surname, you have
the first name, you have the title in italics.
 Then you have the place of publication. So where was it published? Was it Beirut? Was it
Riyadh? Was it London? Was it New York? Wherever it was published.
 Then you have the name of the publisher so that will be for example Dar Ibnul Qayyim, Dar
Tayyiba, Darus-salam, whatever the publication house is and
 Then you will have the edition and the year. So maybe the second edition, third edition,
fourth edition and the year of publication, maybe 1997, 1998, 2003, 1949, whatever that is
and that is how you will do your bibliography.
Now let me give you an example of this very quickly with the book that I have just behind me. This is
a book in Usool-ul-Fiqh known as al-Waadih fee Usool-ul-Fiqh, a book in the HambaleeMathhab of
Usool-ul-Fiqh.

This book is written by a scholar by the name of Abul Wafaa’ Ali ibnu Aqeel Ibnu Muhammad Ibnu
Aqeel.
 So the way that I write this that I would mention the surname first, and that is Aqeel.
 And then after this, I will put a comma and then I will mention all of his first names, Abul
Wafaa’ Ali Ibnu Aqeel Ibnu Muhammad ibn.
 And so the surname is first and then all of the first names and then I will mention the title of
the publication in italics, Al-Waadih fee Usool-ul-Fiqh.
 And then I will mention the place of publication which in this book is Beirut. So it is Beirut so I
will mention Beirut.
 And then I will mention the name of the publisher which is Mu’assasa Ar-Risalah.
 Then I will mention the edition and that is the first edition, At-Taba’atul oolaa, the first
edition.
 And then I will mention the year of publication and that is, 1999.
And so therefore this is what you would do in your bibliography and you would do this in
alphabetical order, all of the books that you have mentioned and then all of the journals that you
have used, all of the newspaper articles that you have used, any internet sites that you have used as
well.
And so with that InshaAllah we will conclude this issue and we conclude this section and InshaAllah in
the next lesson InshaAllah we will move on to the issue of Field and Library Research.

SESSION 14
Video A
INTRODUCTION
In the previous lesson of research methodology, we spoke and we concluded the second section of
our course entitled planning, drafting and revising your research.
And we spoke about three main issues in the previous lesson.
 Number One was the presentation of information, the presentation of your research.
 Number Two was we spoke about a couple of things concerning the importance of the
introduction and the conclusion and what you should bear in mind.
 Number Three was something called style revision in terms of things like the Indexes and
Glossaries and Bibliographies and so on and so forth.
In today’s lesson Insha Allah we are going to begin now the next section of our course, the fifth
section of our course and that is entitled:
CHAPTER FIVE: FIELD RESEARCH AND LIBRARY RESEARCH
And there are basically four main things that InshaAllah we are going to speak about within this
section.
1. Speaking about the library.

2. Speaking about primary data and secondary data
3. We will speak about field research itself and then
4. We will speak about research tools.
So this section is a very important section and that is field research and library research. As a
researcher, there are two main ways that you are going to do your research:
1. Library research
2. Field research
And Insha Allah as we go along, we will speak about both of these things. But these are your main
two tools of research, your main two, if you like, fields of research and your main two sections of
research.
The first thing that we are going to speak about InshaAllah today is the issue of library research.
LIBRARY RESEARCH

Now the library is one of your main resources and even with the advent of the Internet and the
World Wide Web and all sorts of electronic journals and so on, it is still one of the best ways to do
your research is to go to the library.
BOOKS VS. INTERNET

Simply because everything is there, you will have all of the books there.
 Even if, for example, on the internet you can find articles, you will not find books and books
are normally much more in-depth, they are much more comprehensive and they have a far
wider range of information than you will find in articles and in the electronic journals. That is
number one.
 Number two, you will find that even if you do find certain books, you will not have them
available on the Internet.
Maybe you will get a PDF of certain parts, maybe you will get a PDF of even a certain book but
you will not find all of these books within the internet.
 Although now, you do have especially for Islamic Books, you have, what is known as
Masoo’ash-Shaamila and also Islamic programs that mention and bring all of these books
together but sometimes even within them, it is really difficult to read.
 Sometimes a person finds it difficult to search through books or to do an online search and
sometimes people are more comfortable with books in terms of hard-copy books and books
that are actually published.
 One of the other issues that you have is electronic journals. Electronic journals, even though
it is something which a person can access online, he can access electronic journals online, but
the problem is that for most electronic journals, you need to be part of a university or some
type of educational institute. You need a passport and a login, a login and a password in
order to access these journals. So normally, a lot of students, if they are a part of a university,
they will be given that access as well.
But even if you are not, one of the ways that you can still gain access is by going to a library
because libraries will automatically be enrolled and have access to these journals as part of
the services that they offer.
 One of the other benefits, now that you have with the modern advent of the Internet is that
most libraries have an online, if you like, library search facility.
And so, you do not always have to go into search for your books, you can search for them
online, take down the reference number then go in and find them very easily in the library
itself.
And so, you can use all of these sources together to help you with the research but even so, the
library is still one of the primary places that you will go to in order to do your research.
TYPES OF LIBRARIES
Now, as you know, there are many different types of libraries. As you can see, I am sitting in a library
as well.And so there are different types of libraries that are:
1. Libraries like this one which focus just mainly on Islamic books.
2. There are libraries which are general libraries like a university library or a public library.
3. Thenyou will have national libraries which will have manuscripts and so many other books on
a wide range of sections and wide range of issues.
4. You will have libraries which focus just on manuscripts or focus just on a certain aspect of
information and so there are so many things.
5. You may even have a personal library at home where many of the books that you would
normally require, you have access to at home.
6. Or maybe, yourlocal Masjid has a library,
7. Or maybe yourlocal institute has a library and so on and so forth.
And so there are so many different ways of going to the library but when it comes to the library and
going to the library, there are four main things that you must remember.
Four main things that InshaAllah we are going to speak about within this issue.
 Number One is planning your research.
 Number Two is using the library.
 Number Three is locating your books.
 And Number Four is referencing.
So the first issue is planning your research.
PLANNING YOUR RESEARCH

We spoke about planning your research generally. Now we are going to speak about planning your
research in the context of libraries.
There is no point and one of the things again when we speak about good time management, when
we speak about things like using the time wisely, about doing things with a positive way, one of the
problems is that you do not just want to go to a library without any plan.
And so you end up wasting hours upon hours simply looking for a book, because most libraries are
very big and they have vast sections and they are done in ways where they have their own unique
referencing system, the way that they referenced their books.
The numbers that they use is done in a unique way. And it is not normally always in an alphabetical
way, it is normally a numbering system. That numbering system is unique maybe perhaps to that
university.
So you must become accustomed and you must know and you must become familiar with that
system of referencing as well. And so therefore, one of the things that you do not want to do is to
just go to a library and you spend two, three, four hours simply locating four or five books.
Whereas you could have done that work beforehand, go into the library, take those books, find
exactly where they are, take those books, do your research and put them back as well. And so
therefore, it is good to plan your research.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR RESEARCH REGARDING LIBRARIES

What do we mean by this?
1. LOOKING AT THE SUBJECT AND SEARCHABLE KEY WORDS

Number one is when you are looking for books most likely, you will not know what books you need.
You will not know so what you need to do is look and analyse your research area and then break
that research area into searchable key words.
So normally, now when you come to do research, you will not know the books that are always out
there. You may know a couple, two, three, four, five, maybe even ten or twenty but you will not
know all of the books that are out there.
So how do you search for these books now, especially with computer systems and the internet and
so on? You use key words within the library’s own search system.
So that means that you must have a system or you must have first a subject that you have defined.
Example:
So maybe for example, it will be just say you are looking at the issue of Fiqh or Western Fiqh councils,
the issue that I researched.
Now, you must break this up into searchable key words. Key words are the things that you will type
in that one key word that you will type into the search system and it will produce for you so many
results InshaAllah.
 So, what you will do is you will start off, for example, you will start off by mentioning, you will
type in “Fiqh” and maybe then you will get so many results. Because Fiqh is a search word, it
is a key word but it is too general.
 So now, you will make it even smaller, maybe you will say, “Fiqh for Muslim minorities”, that
is another key word but now it is a lot more specific and a lot more focused than the general
key word of Fiqh.
 Maybe you will even type in “Fiqh council” to see what you get, or “Western Fiqh Council” or
maybe if you know the name of a Fiqh council like the Majma’a al-Fiqh, you will type in
“Majma’a al-Fiqh”.
And so you will type in all of these key words but the point is that before you go into the library to
type all of these in, it is better to have listed them down. So you take a blank piece of paper and you
list these things down.
So you look at your search area, then you look at these things. So maybe it is Islamic Medicine, you
will type in, “Medicine”, you will type in, “Islamic Medicine”, you will type in things like, for example,
“Ruqya”, you will type in things like, “Honey”, “Olive oil”. You will type in things that you know have a
connection to Islamic medicine and to see what the search results then that you get InshaAllah. So
that is the first thing when it comes to planning your research.
2. REFINING KEY WORDS

The second thing then is to refine those key words. So maybe you will have a key word that is too
wide, so you will look at honey for example, in Islamic medicine and you get so many things, you get
it biologists talking about it, you will get nutritionist talking about it, you will get people that are
talking about it from so many wide different issues. You will get people that are interested in bees
and they will speak about honey simply because they are interested in bees, not because they are
interested in the medicinal properties of honey.
And so now you must refine this key words because what you do not want is hundreds of search
words, you do not want hundreds of results because that is like going into a library with hundreds of
books. What you want to do is to refine and refine and refine until you have five or ten that you can
go and focus on InshaAllah. So you will refine this. So if honey does not work, type in “Honey
medicine” or “Honey in Islam” or “Islamic honey” or some type of key words, some type of
combination and it is a trial and error process that will InshaAllah then refine your results for you
InshaAllah. So that is the second thing that you would do.

3. UNDERSTANDING DIFFERENT RESOURCES AVAILABLE
The third thing that you would do then is to understand the different research tools that you have
at your disposal.
 So you have electronic journals,
 You have books,
 You have articles.
And normally within the library you will have access to all of them.
So maybe for example, when you look for a book on honey in Islam or the medicinal properties of
honey or Islamic medicine in honey, you will not find anything. But when you look at the electronic
journal section and again, you type in these key words, you will find that someone wrote an article.
It was not enough information to put into a book but someone wrote an article in a journal. And so
now, therefore, this is a different research tool where you have access to. Maybe there is a
newspaper article on this issue. Maybe there is a documentary on this issue. Maybe there is a
program on this issue. And so therefore, it is important to use all of these different research tools as
well. So that is number three.
4. COMBINING THEM TOGETHER

And then number four would be actually to list all of this and to combine together so that you
could, when you go in, you are ready to use it InshaAllah.
Video B
1. Look at the subject, the broad subject and then the searchable key word.
2. Refine those key words.
3. Understand the different resources that you have available.
4. Compile all of this together so that InshaAllah when you go into the library, you are ready to
begin and you are ready to start bi-ithnillaahi tabaaraka wata’aala.
SOME OF THE THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD BEAR IN MIND

When you look for these key words, some of the things that are important, always bear in mind,
things like:
1. SPELLING
Sometimes, the problem is that you miss-spell a word and so you do not get that key word. And
normally the way that these search engines work for libraries is not like Google where they will give
you similar matches or things like this.

What they will do is, they will give you precise wordings. They will give you precise results and
matches. And so, if you type in “honey” but you miss-spell for example, the “Y” at the end and you
type in “U” instead or “I” or you type in a different spelling, it will not give you the search result.
Maybe the problem is for example, the spelling that you have in different countries. So normally, in
English, you have the U.K standard spelling and then you have the American or the U.S. standard
spelling and so for example, the way that you write “Colour” in England, the way that you spell the
word “Colour” is different to the way that you spell “Color” in America. In the U.K, it is spelt, C-O-L-O-
U-R, whereas in America, it is spelt C-O-L-O-R. They do not have the “U”. And so sometimes, that is
the minute difference that will make an impact to your search results.
So maybe in terms of England, no one’s researched this issue with the key word of “Colour” in it but
in the States, they will have. Especially this is even more the case when it comes to transliteration.
So normally, when you are transliterating stuff from Arabic into English, you must also bear this in
mind. So for example, some people do not spell “Qur’an”, some people spell “Qu’ran” as Q-U-R-A-N.
Other people spell it as Q-U-R-A-A-N. Other people spell it as Q-U-R-‘A-N. And so these are three
different spellings for just one key word. And so when you bear that in mind, it will help you a lot
otherwise you will limit yourself to this spelling that you have just put in. And so you always bear this
in mind InshaAllah when it comes to your spelling.
Likewise, things like:
2. ABBREVIATIONS
Also things that you should bear in mind when it comes to your key word. Maybe things are
abbreviated, maybe people have not put it down to the extent that it should be. And so people have
abbreviated it instead and therefore you just go with the abbreviations rather than looking at
everything as well.
So for example, when it came to the Fiqh councils, there is a European council called the European
council of Fatwa and Research, but most people refer to it as E.C.F.R, they abbreviate it and they just
use the letters, E.C.F.R. Likewise, in America, you have AMJA which stands for American Muslim
Jurists Assembly, but people just refer to it as AMJA and so this is an abbreviation. And so therefore,
sometimes the key words will always also reflect the abbreviations as well and so that is something
we should also bear in mind.
Likewise, things like:
3. PLURALS
Sometimes, you type in for example, “Muslim” but the title is “Muslims”. You type in, for example,
“Council” but the word is, “Councils”, or, “Madhab” and it is “Madhahib”. And so therefore, it is
always important to bear in mind the singular and the plurals of these words and these are different
types of issues InshaAllah that will help you to define your issues InshaAllah and to help as well.

Likewise, another thing to bear in mind is:
4. CHANGES IN TERMINOLOGY
Terminology changes over time. And so, for example, if you wanted to research the original people
that lived in the United States of America, in North America, at certain times in history, they were
known as “Native Americans” and other times they were known as “Red Indians” or “Red Americans”
and other times, they were known as, “Inuits” or other times, they were known as , “The original
people “ or “The settlers” or, “The original people” or “The original nation” or “The founding nation”
or something like this. So over time, you will find that terminology also changes. And so when you
want to research this group of people, sometimes the problem is not that you are not typing in the
correct search word, but it is that over time, that search word has changed. And so you must also
bear this in mind as well when it comes to researching.
These are all issues InshaAllah that will help you to define your research.
So that is the first issue when it comes to library research.
The second issue is the actual use of the library.
USE OF THE LIBRARY

So now that you have done this research beforehand, you will actually come into the library to
actually take those books. And because you have done the search words, because you know exactly
where the search words are, you will go and you will be able to find them InshaAllah straightaway.
How do you find them straightaway?
Either the library will have an online search facility that you can access from home therefore you
can use your search words and your key words from home and get the results.
Or you will come in and they will have a computer terminal there or some type of a library
catalogue, either electronic or published and therefore you can use that to find Insha Allah the
books that you are searching for. And so this is the first thing that you do. So the first thing would
obviously be the forward planning like something which you did in the previous step.
The second thing is, you will actually come in and you would use the library catalogue whether it is
electronic or not.
One of the other things that you can also do is ask the staff as well. Normally librarians and people
that have especially been in that library for many many years are very knowledgeable concerning the
books that they have there. Either they will have their own system that they can search for or they
will know from the top of their head or they will realize that that book is available but it is not on

the shelves, it is in the stockroom or maybe they are processing it or they are doing something with
it.
And therefore, or maybe it is already been booked by someone else, it is reserved for someone else.
They will be able to help you as well. So once you have down your forward planning, you have used
your library catalogue or you asked the librarians, then now, you can go and you can actually locate
the books InshaAllah.
And that brings us to the third issue of locating books and journals and so on.
LOCATING BOOKS AND JOURNALS

Now, books are normally of a number of types.
Either:
 You will havepublished booksor normal books that you have in a library or,
 You will have an electronic book like an electronic journal or an e-book or something like this
or,
 You will have for examplea rare book which the library has but it is not kept in open because
it is so rare, it is kept behind a glass or it is kept behind some type of special room or,
 You will have a manuscript that is also kept by the library but is not on display.
And so what the referencing, what the library catalogue allows you to do once you have typed in
your search words, you have used the library catalogue, it will give you a reference number, the
numbering system that the library uses so it maybe for example, 1.431AC, and so therefore, you go
to this or it will be 1.341FQ. FQ standing for Fiqh, Number “1” standing for maybe a Madhab, 1.3 for
standing for a certain book.
Whatever the numbering system of that library is and normally each library will have a slightly
different numbering system so you must ask them and you must learn and you must familiarize
yourself with it.
And so once you have done that and you have got the referencing number, then you will go through
the shelves and normally they will be labelled. So, 1.1 all the way to 2.1 is in this aisle. And so you
will find that book within the aisle, you will go through it and you will find that book InshaAllah as
you go along.
When you come to looking up books and especially when you come to researching your books and
you find these search results, make sure that you always look for a number of things that are very
important:
1. Look for the relevance of the book. Is that book still relevant? Is that book, you do not want
sometimes a book, sometimes a book that is written 60 years ago is still good and it is very
relevant. But sometimes it’s out-dated, especially if it is on issue of medicine maybe, or
technology. Now, it has become out-dated because out of those 60 years, so much has
changed, no longer are people speaking about the concept of an internet, people are now
speaking about the next stage within this internet.
And so therefore, it is a different type of field now and so the book is no longer relevant.
2. You also want books that are authoritative, books that are written by well-known authors,
books that are well-known that are reference points, books that people refer to and even
when it comes to Islamic studies and books that are in Islamic sciences, when you go for
example through books, for example, of the Hanbali Madhab, the book of Ibn-Qudamah
Rahimahullaah, Al-Mughni, is considered to be something which is accepted by all of the
Hanbalis. It is something which is a reference point within this Madhab. So it is authoritative.
3. And also what you want to look at also is that you want something which is the current
edition. Normally especially when it comes to Islamic books, you will find that there are
different editions, because as always, books have mistakes, printing errors, or editing errors
and so you want the latest edition
4. And also one thing that you want to also look for is, books that have been edited and
checked by other people. And so Tahqeeqaat and so books which are Muhaqqaq, which have
been checked, which have edited are far better and easier to use than books that have not
had this editing done to them.
So for example, if you go to a book that has been edited, it will tell you the reference for all of
the different issues there, even the different Madhabs, it will reference their books as well
when the scholar mentions it, the author mentions it, within his own book. Likewise they will
tell you about the Ahaadeeth used, are they authentic? Are they weak? It will give you so
much extra information and it will be a lot easier for you to use as well InshaAllah.
REFERENCING
And the final thing that you must remember when it comes to library research is always reference
everything. Always reference everything. Any book that you use, even if it is only for a line or a
paragraph or one point of benefit, make sure you write those things that we mentioned last time in
terms of the bibliography.
The surname of the author, the first name, the title, the year of publication, the place of
publication, the edition, all of these, the publishing house, all of these issues are important. And
obviously if you are quoting and you are referring to a specific page, then make sure that you write
down the volume number and the page number. So if the book is over a number of volumes, what
volume number and what page number and obviously if the book is only one volume then you just
write down the page number.
And make sure that you always keep this information, it will help you in:
1. Referencing your footnotes,

2. Your bibliography,
3. It will help you if for example, you need to come back and check that book again just to
make sure of the extra information.
You have already got the information there and so it is easily referenced for you, easily for you to
refer back to, InshaAllah.
And so these are the four issues when it comes to library research:
 Plan your research.

 Use the library.
 Location of books and,
 Reference everything.
These are very important when it comes to using the library and it is something which is a wealth of
information that you will find within your local library or your university library and therefore you
must always take benefit of it InshaAllah within your research and sometimes you may even have to
travel to another city or another place to access an even better, more comprehensive library but
again, it is something which InshaAllah will be of benefit for you.
And with that InshaAllah we will conclude this session and in the next session, we will speak about
primary data and secondary data and field research InshaAllah.

SESSION 15
Video A
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to another lesson of research methodology. In the previous lesson that we had, we spoke
about the new section that we just began of this course - Field research and Library research. In the
previous session, we spoke more particularly on Library research and the different things we should
do in the library in order to conduct our research. In this session, we are going to speak about the
next issue within this section of Library Research and Field Research and now we are going to be
moving onmore to the Field Research aspect.
Although we only did one session on the library research, I think this is something most people are
familiar with and are more accustomed to whereas the issue of field research is an issue, a section, a
field which is not as well known amongst many people.
PRIMARY DATA VERSUS SECONDARY DATA

What are primary data and secondary data?
PRIMARY DATA
One of the main fundamental parts of your research will be the gathering of data and data
collection. It will be of a primary nature or a secondary nature.
The difference between the two is that primary data is what you yourself have primarily gathered.
You have not taken from any other secondary source.
Example:
If you commission a questionnaire then you, yourself have gathered this. You have not taken from a
second source or someone else’s results or from someone else’s book or reference or from a journal.
One of the benefits of primary data is that you, yourself are directly involved in the research.
Things like a questionnaire and an interview schedule is a type of primary data. It’s what you gather
first hand, it is raw data. Even if someone else were to do something similar, most likely they
wouldn’t be targeting the same people as you, so they wouldn’t get exactly the same results as you,
although there maybe similar trends and patterns.
In its own way it offers a unique and original contribution to research. One should try to combine
between this type of data and secondary data.
SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data is what you take from books, articles, journals and internet etc. So library research
is secondary data.

 When you go to a book and find that you can take something beneficial for your research, it is
secondary data whereas in primary data you have taken it from the source itself.
 In primary data there is nothing between you and the source whereas in secondary data
there is something between you and the source.
 It is important to combine between primary and secondary data. Primary data is critical and
unique because it is an original contribution.
When I was studying the Western Fiqh Councils, what I tried to do, to gather primary data was that I
interviewed some of the members of the Fiqh Council. And then I sent out questionnaires to Imams
of Masjids, scholars and lecturers to ask them their views on the Fiqh council. Then I did a general
questionnaire for the general Awaam(Muslim public) to ask them their views on the Fiqh council as
well. This is all primary data because this is what I myself gathered myself and there was no one in
between.
Secondary data will make up a lot of the backbone of your research as well. Books, articles and
journals are also very important.
FIELD RESEARCH
This is the primary type of data.
Field research is an activity aimed at collecting primary data, using methods that are known to
collect information and then summarizing that information and having observations of that
information.
So this is basically those tools, activities and methods by which we collect primary data.
In the field of sociology it is called social research. Both are somewhat linked because they are
primary forms of data.
THE BENEFITS OF FIELD RESEARCH

It is new, it is original and unique. These are words that are important in research.
If everyone just copies what others have already done, you won’t progress. If we only quote from
what the scholars of the past said, all you are doing is going around in a circle. One of the ways to
break out of the circle is to have new, unique research.
We have to look at it in different contexts, from different angles and have new data. To do this, you
do field research to gather new data, have the views of people, the feelings of people, you have the
way people interact and people react and do things, you have different number and figures and
charts. This will help you to look at things in different ways. Therefore it is something which is unique
and original.

TYPES OF FIELD RESEARCH
1. ETHNOGRAPHY
A way of building and understanding the culture and behaviour of a group of people.
Example 1: If a person were to observe the Muslim community within London – how they react to
things, what their culture is, their behaviours, the way they interact amongst themselves or with
others. This type of field research is ethnography. It is field research in the sense that it is primary
data that you are gathering by observation.
Example 2: One of the things I did for the “Western Fiqh Council Ph.D. Research” was I attended the
council meetings in Turkey and Montreal Canada. When I went to the meetings - I am not speaking to
anyone, I am not a member of the Council. I am not participating in the meeting but simply an
observer.
You can go purely as an observer to many places like The Houses of Parliament and the United
Nations at certain times. From this observation, you can learn about the practices and the way that
things go.
If I were to read in a book how a Fiqh council meets and how they issue a Fatwa, it’s very easy in and
of itself. But sometimes I may not be able to understand and appreciate the nuances, the dynamics,
the different angles, the benefits, the disadvantages, all of these issues until I myself are in the
middle of it observing them as a third party. When I am there, observing this I can see things in a
unique way.
In ethnography, you go to a group of people who have a culture that binds them, maybe a religion
or an ethnicity and you go there and you watch the way they work and interact. By being an
outsider, you learn a lot more by being able to see trends and patterns. For an insider, it is normal
and he sees it as the way things are. One of the benefits of being an outsider is that he can spot
things that the insider wouldn’t spot.
In my interview, I would ask the member of the Council why a thing was a particular way or why it
was not a particular way and the member would explain to me the reason or the benefit that I don’t
see. Sometimes he may say he doesn’t know. This unique perspective helps.
This is ethnography. It can be done by:

i. Observations – it is probably one of the best ways.
ii. Interviews – you speak and learn about them and ask them questions.
iii. Examining the documentation – Examine the data they give you. For example for Fiqh
Council, they had a governing document, a policy and procedure document - they will
have their own procedure. This is all field research in that you are collecting data.

Video B
2. ETHNOMETHODOLOGY
The study of common sense knowledge. How do individuals make sense of a certain type of
situation? What are the methods of reacting to a certain situation? See how people react to new
situations.
Example: A person had an iPhone 4 in a very poor part of Columbia (South America). There was a
poor small boy living in the slums. He was amazed by the iPhone. The man thought, let me give it to
him to see what the little boy will do. The boy is illiterate and poor, doesn’t speak English, never
seen one before, doesn’t know what it is and what it does, how will he use it? He gave him the
iPhone. After a few minutes, the boy got the hang of it. He could swipe the screen, open and close
the applications. The man was amazed that this phone was accessible to someone like this.
Again this is done by observations, questionnaires and interviews etc.
3. PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY
Understanding and experience of a study from a research participant’s point of view. This is looking
at things from the view of the people that are part of the research.
Example: The Fiqh council members looking at things just from their point of view. Why does the
council work in this way, why are Fatwas disseminated in this way, why are the topics chosen in this
way, what is the criteria and so on. You understand it just from their point of view only.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF FIELD RESEARCH

ADVANTAGES
1. It is first hand study, unique, new and original.
2. It is flexible – as you are doing your research and you are observing people, you can add an
observation into your interview schedule or questionnaire or add a question to your
interview.
Whereas in a book, you cannot add anything more to it. It is what it is. You cannot ask
questions to the book, or ask for explanation or clarification. It is inflexible.
Primary data is flexible. Where you can observe people at different times and situations.
There are variances in this type of research.
3. It is a natural environment – Most of the questionnaires, interviews are done in a natural
environment. There is no pressure on them, no expectations on them, they are not being
intimidated but rather they can do as they wish. One of the ways teachers and doctors learn
is by observation.
4. It is relatively inexpensive. It can be expensive if you have to travel to do this type of
research but mostly it is inexpensive. To do an online questionnaire or sit with people to an
interview or observing a group of people, isn’t very expensive. Unless you have to travel

because you can’t get that information in your city then it may become expensive otherwise
it is relatively inexpensive.
DISADVANTAGES
1. It is not always comprehensive. For example if you want to do a questionnaire – how many
responses will you get? Maybe just few hundred out of millions. A very small group from a
very large group. It is imperfect in that way that you may not get exact data. It’s not possible
to interview a large number, so you pick a few.
Example:
 When I sent out a questionnaire – the responses would be from just a very small number
that may not reflect the general view (a thousand Muslims out of millions).
 When I interviewed the Fiqh council members, I could interview only maybe 3 to 4 out of
60.
2. It is not always inclusive.
Example:
 An online questionnaire – the elder generation may not use the computer and
automatically you will not get their feedback. So you have automatically alienated those
over 50.
 A phone questionnaire – how many can you actually call even if you go through a phone
book?
3. You have to make generalizations. As it is not comprehensive and inclusive, then you will
only have the data of a couple of hundred people. So you have to make a generalization
based upon a small sample of people that everyone will fit in that same thing. So they would
fall in that same trend and pattern. That’s not always the case.
If you have alienated certain age groups of people or people who don’t have access to the
Internet or those who don’t speak your language then you will generalize it to complete your
research. You may say, “This is what people want”. So this is a disadvantage.
4. It may be biased – if you are doing a questionnaire you may start will people that you know.
You may email your friends and family. Or you go to a University or Masjid and you ask them
to send it to their contacts. If you send it only to your friends or family this is biased.
5. Sometimes it is hard to understand and deduct from and get good results, especially if
people don’t respond. If you are doing primary data maybe you will send out thousands of
emails but you only get a hundred responses. Maybe you want to interview a hundred people
but only five people will respond.
Even though there are advantages and disadvantages it is still very important to do field research
because of its unique contribution. Within research we MUST have integrity; we must be honest,
just and open and frank.
SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

Within our introduction is a sub-section called scope and limitations. In that section you will mention
that these are some of the limitations that we had. That we could only afford to do an online survey,

therefore the vast majority of people are under a particular age and you were unable to target other
people.
Example:When I was doing my research for the Fiqh Council – although the council was the European
Council I was able to target only the people in the UK because I was not able to translate my survey
into Spanish or French, Portuguese and German.
Even though it was somewhat disadvantageous to your research, you have to mention that this is
one of the problems and difficulties that you had when undergoing your research. You have to be
honest regarding your research.
In the next lessons we will speak more about the research tools that a person is able to do.

SESSION 16
Video A
Bismillah ir Rahmaan ir Raheem
Alhamdulillah Rabbil ‘Aalameen ar Rahmaan ir Raheem Maalikee Yawmid Deen
Wa Ash-hadu allaa Ilaaha Illallaah Wahdahu laa Shareekalah, Ilaahul Awwaleen wal Aakhireen
Wa Ash-hadu annaa Nabiyyanaa wa Sayyidanaa Muhammadan ‘Adbuhu wa Rassooluhun Nabiyyul
Mustwafal Ameen, Swalallahu wa sallama wa baarak ‘alaihi wa ‘alaa Aalihi wa Swahbihee
Ajma’een wa man Tabi’ahum bi Ihsaanin ilaa Yawmid Deen, wa Sallama Tasleeman Katheera,
Ammaa Ba’ad
My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to another lesson on Research Methodology. In the previous session, we spoke about
primary data and secondary data. We are still speaking in the section of Field Research and Library
Research. We spoke about primary data and secondary data and the differences between the two
and then we spoke about field research, what it is and some of the types of field research that we
have and the advantages and disadvantages of field research.
FIELD RESEARCH TOOLS

Insha Allah Tabaarak wa Ta’aala, in today’s lesson, we are going to start with the last issue that we
have remaining in this section of this course, concerning field research and library research. And that
is the research tools that are available to you and especially in particular what we are speaking
about here is the field research tools; the research tools that you have for field research.
1. SURVEYS AND QUESTIONNAIRES

The first one of these that I want to bring to your attention is the surveys and questionnaires. This is
a very important research tool for field research because it is something which you can do and you
can send that to so many people and you are more likely to get a greater response than other types
of methods of research tools that you use. And so therefore it is something which a person, if they
put a lot of effort and time into it, there will be a lot of benefit that they will gain as well. This is
something which people have done for a very long time and people continue to do now.
In many countries in the west for example:

 You will have even questionnaires that are always sent out, people asking for your feedback
if you go to a restaurant,
 People ask you for your feedback if you go and buy something from a store or from a shop or
you go and visit a certain type of museum.

 Likewise people ask you for questions and feedback generally on how to improve their
service, maybe at airline that you fly with, maybe a hotel that you went and stayed with.
 And other times, people would have questionnaires that they want to find and gather
information. So for example, in many countries in the west, they have a census, which they
do every 10 or 15 years where they find out how many people actually live in the country,
what their age group is, how they are working, what type of house they are living in;all of this
general information that they need in order for it to see how many people are in their
country.
And so questionnaires is something which people do all the time; surveys are things which
people do all the time. One of the benefits of questionnaires and surveys is that there are so
many ways that you can do them.
I. PUBLISHED SURVEYS
For example, you can have a published survey, meaning in the sense that you print out this survey,
you have a thousand copies and then you go and you distribute them by hand.
 So for example, you can stop in a shopping mall,
 You can go to a shopping centre,
 You can be outside the university campus,
 Maybe outside even a very big masjid, and as people come out you give them this by hand.
And then they will fill in and they will return it to you.
 Or maybe for example, you will go into a place where people are already sitting, they are
already there,
 Maybe into a classroom for example,
 Or maybe into a Masjid where people are already sitting in the prayer hall.
And you will give them this questionnaire and they will fill it in and they will respond and give it
back to you straight away.
And this is important because one of the problems that we mentioned as well previously with
questionnaires is that you do not always get a high rate of response. Not everyone will respond to
you and that is a problem because as a researcher, you want as much data as possible, you want to
gather as much information as possible.
And so what you want to do is to lock people in, to ensure and make sure that they actually give
you this information back.And so you will press them and you will try your best to lock them in into
this situation. That is why sometimes when you give a person a questionnaire and you say: Can you
please fill this in right now? They will respond and do it straight away, that way you can ensure that
you get a response.

Questionnaire design
One of the important things that you will have to remember when doing a questionnaire is that
questionnaires must be easy to understand and must be easy and quick to fill in.
 If you have a questionnaire that has very open-ended questions like for example, what do
you think of the internet? What do you think of this university? And then you give them 5 or 6
blank lines to write on. That will take time, now they have to think about it, then they have to
organise their thoughts then they have to write it down. That will take time and people do
not respond because of the time that it takes.
 Whereas if more of the questions were tick-box questions, Yes or No, True or False, where
you just gave the options and maybe only one or two were questions where they will have to
write,they will be a lot more inclined to fill that in because you can see that it is only ten
questions and it is only a tick-box and they will take not even a minute.
 And that is why it is important also to limit the questions to the most important ones. As a
researcher, you may want to ask a hundred questions. That will help you with your research.
But practically, realistically it is not going to happen. And so you must prioritise and choose
what questions you want to ask.
 And again that is why it is important to always refer back to the aims and objectives of your
study so that Insha Allah everything always ties in. You do not want to do a questionnaire and
you have missed out asking about one of the whole objectives of your research.
 And again you do not want to ask about so many things that do not have anything to do
with your objectives and aims so what you want to do is always make sure that things tie in.
 So you make it concise, you make it brief, you make it easily understood.
 Do not ask complex questions where that person does not know how to respond until they
ask you for further clarification.
 That will take so much time and if they cannot get hold of you, then they will just lose
interest and then they will not even fill in the questionnaire. So that is the published
questionnaire.
II. MAIL QUESTIONNAIRE

Another type of questionnaire that you have is a mail questionnaire, which again is a questionnaire
that you will print off but this time you will seal in in an envelope and you will mail it and post it to
the recipients and the participants. And maybe what you would do as well is you would give them
another envelope as part of that package that has the postage already paid for. It is free postage so
that then they can send it back to you because these people are doing you in essence a favour, in
the sense that they are helping you with your research. And so therefore, if you are going to ask
them to pay postage even though it may only be 40 pence or 50 pence or a few riyals or couple of
dollars, they will not be so inclined to send it back, it will not be a priority for them.
Maybe even if they want to send it, it is not something which they consider to be utter important,
maybe they will send it back when they get time. But you want that information now because you
have a schedule to stick to, a research plan that you must follow. So that is the second type of survey
or questionnaire that you can have.

III. TELEPHONE QUESTIONNAIRE
A third type of survey and questionnaire that you can have is a telephone questionnaire. And this is
normally something which is more expensive and it is something which you would do if you have
an already defined group of people. So for example, if it is only the people for example, on a certain
type of course that you are attending. You are doing research for example for the people that attend
the Fiqh course in your university. Now maybe that’s only 50 people. So now to ensure that you get
a response, maybe you will not get a response if you hand them the questionnaire or mail it to
them, you call them. And once you have them on the phone, then you know that you have them
locked at least for a short period of time and again you say: Can I ask you a few questions and you
get very quick answers from them.
But one of the problems with phone questionnaires is that it is all audio, it is not visual. And so
people cannot see the questions in front of them, they cannot see the options. So again you must
make it easy. If you have a question that has 10 possible answers, 10 options and you mention this
over the phone, you speak to them about these, by the time you reach option 10, that I forgot the
first 4 or 5.
And so again it is important to be precise, concise, to the point and make it easy for people, make it
always easy, simplify the process for people so that they will respond to you as well. But telephone
questionnaire is another way of doing it.
IV. ONLINE SURVEYS

And perhaps the most common now and probably the most common and the most popular, it is
gaining in popularity is the internet and online surveys. And one of the benefits, one of the beauties
of online surveys is that now you have these websites and these packages where not only will they
allow you to do online survey but they will tabulate the information and they will even put it into a
graph or a chart. So basically they do a lot of the work for you, whereas if you did a published one or
a mail one or a telephone one, you yourself would have to either write or wait for other people to
write in and then you yourself would have to go through and tabulate everything and categorise all
of this information and data.
Whereas on online surveyif you go for example to a company like Survey Monkey. Survey Monkey is
a website that you go to, you pay a subscription fee which is not much, maybe like ten dollars per
month depending on how many questionnaires and how many questions you want to send out and
how many questions you have within your questionnaire. And then you have a limited access to this
service now. You can send out as many emails as you want, as many links and people when they
want to respond, they click on that link, it takes them to the Survey Monkey website to your
questionnaire specifically, not just to the website but to actually your questionnaire. And in that
questionnaire, you can design it the way that you want, you can choose the colours the way that you
want, you can even choose the fonts the way that you want to make it more appealing, you can put
like a heading at the top to thank people and then at the bottom to thank people. You can have a
questionnaire where you can have one question per page. So when they click next, it takes to

another page where you can have all of them in one page, how ever you want to design and format
your questionnaire.
And then once you have done this, not only it will remember all that answers and store all of that
data but it will tabulate it for you as well. And then you can choose how to present this data and
how to export this data into Word or Excel or another software package. And so you can say for
example, I want a pie chart for this or I want a bar graph or I want this type of graph, 3-D graph,
whatever is that you want so that a person then can actually have a lot of this work done for them
Insha Allah Tabaaraka wa Ta’aala. And so that is something which is very important.
Something else which is important to remember especially when it comes to pilots and
questionnaires, is two things:
i. Something called sampling and this is Insha Allah something which I will give you more
information on when it comes to the notes that you will get Insha Allah with these videos and
I will speak about that in detail. It is something which Insha Allah will take too long to go into
now in this video to listen. So again that will be supplementary reading for you bi ithnillaah
ta’aala.
ii. But the other thing is piloting and again we said something about this before about piloting
your methodology but piloting your questionnaire is just as important if not more so. And
that is so that you can understand any problems that the people will have in understanding
your questions so that you can see what kind of responses you get, whether you need to be …
Video B
…more precise and define your question more. You can see what kind of response rate you
get, are people inclined to answer this type of questions and so forth and so on. And so you
pilot this test.
So what you would do, for example, you design your questionnaire and you pilot a small
group of people, maybe ten people that you know, ten people that you just pick at random,
and you say: Please give me your feedback. And so they give you their feedback concerning
the questionnaire but you also gain feedback from just the way they fill in the
questionnaire. You yourself can see whether it is the way that you expect things to return to
you or not and depending upon that, you can change things.
And that is why it is important to pilot it because what you do not want to do is send a mass
questionnaire, you get 200 responses and you find that actually people did not understand or
they misunderstood the question or they did not give the responses that you wanted,
meaning that they did not clearly define what you wanted them to define. But now that you
have done this and 300 people have responded you, you cannot ask them to repeat it. And to
repeat the whole process again to come up with a new questionnaire and to ask for more
people will be such a lengthy process, it would waste a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of

effort and resources on your part. And so therefore piloting is something which is always very
good.It is something sensible and it will ensure Insha Allah that you get the results that you
Insha Allah require and want.
2. INTERVIEW SCHEDULING
Another type of research tool that we will mention here is interview scheduling. Interviews are
something which are important as well especially if you are dealing with a certain individual and you
want their response and you want to see their point of view or maybe it is just a select group of
people.
So maybe for example, you are researching about KIU, you would go to the principal of KIU. You
would go to some other people who are board members of KIU. You would go to someone for
example, that is in charge of this department or that department or a lecturer or two or three
lecturers. And maybe even some fellow students. But because it is something where you want more
information, you do not just want something where they just tick the box, you want more
information. So you would go for example, to the founder of the university and you would want to
interview not a questionnaire because in a questionnaire they will tick a box but in an interview
they will tell you so much more information:
 Why did they set up this university?
 What was the reasoning behind it?
 What were the problems that they saw in the society that they were trying to correct?
 What was their vision for the university?
 How do they embark upon this project?
 What other advantages, disadvantages, its scopes, limitations, all of this information can be
honest and gathered through the interview.
And again with an interview, it can be done by phone, if you cannot meet with them but normally
the way that they do it is face to face if that is possible and again it is always better to do things face
to face in interviews simply because then you have that rapport and that connection as well.But it
can be done by phone, it can even be done by email or by writing if a person is willing to take out
that time and respond to you in that way. And again it is something which is important in giving you
unique gathering of data.
3. OBSERVATIONS
Another type of research tool as we have mentioned before as well is observations. And so
observations is when you go and actually view things and you yourself will note things down, things
that you saw, things that you observed, things that you noticed, things that seem good to you, things
that seem bad to you, questions that you had and what you want really to do in research if you can,
is you try to tie all of this together. So for my research when it came to Western Fiqh councils, I did
interviews, I did observations and I did questionnaires. And so again it is not always perfect nor it is
comprehensive or inclusive but it is something which will give you a lot of data that Insha Allah will
make your research very very good. And so this is the issue of research tools and with that Insha
Allah we have concluded this section of the course, the section entitled Field and Library Research.
CHAPTER SIX: ISLAMIC RESEARCH
INTRODUCTION
The sixth section of this course is entitled Islamic Research. So now that we have spoken about so
many issues concerning research generally. We spoke about introductions, about critical thinking, we
spoke about preparing a research argument, we spoke about planning and drafting, revising your
research, we spoke about library research, field research now we really want to focus on what most
of us are here to do and that is Islamic research. And so again Insha Allah we will now focus upon
this.
When it comes to Islamic research, there are a number of things that Insha Allah, we are going to be
speaking about:
1. The Islamic library and using the Islamic sources and major sources of Islamic sciences
2. And then we will speak about the issue of transliteration, something which we touched upon
before.
3. And then thirdly, we will speak about the differences between Muslim academia and
research and what is western and most secular type of research as well.
So let us begin Insha Allah Tabaaraka waTa’aala.
ISLAMIC LIBRARY
The first issue that we have here is concerning the Islamic library and using Muslim sources and
using Islamic sources. As we know Alhamdulillah from the blessings of Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta’aala,
we have so many sources now in Islam and the scholars of Islam since the very early generations of
Muslims until our times now, have written so many books, thousands upon thousands of volumes
in Islamic academia and in Islamic sciences. That ranged from topics like Tafseer to Fiqh to Aqeedah
to Hadeeth to Seerah to the Arabic language and so on and so forth. And so there is so much
information that is available.
Normally when it comes to the Islamic library, it is all so often, you find that it is structured in a
different way. It is not done as a normal academic library may be done. It may be slightly different.
But what you will have normally in Islamic library is that all of the books are categorised depending
on their general subject.
 So Tafseer and Uloomul Quran,
 You will have Hadeeth and Mustalahal Hadeeth,
 You will have Aqeedah,
 You will have Fiqh and Usoolul Fiqh, and maybe other topics linked to that like for example,
Tareeqah Tashree’, Qawaaid Fiqhiyah, Maqaasid ash Shar’eeyah
 Then you have the Arabic language, An Nahw, As Sarf and dictionaries,
 You will have for example Seerah and biographies and Islamic history and so on.
And so these are how the books will be established.

UNIQUENESS OF THE ISLAMIC LIBRARY
UMMAHAATUL KUTUB
But also what is something that we have that is also somewhat unique is that we have books in the
Arabic language or when it comes to Islamic academia that are considered Ummahaatul Kutub and
these Ummahaatul Kutub are major reference points in all of these fields. Whereas in western
academia, you do not really have this. You have many booksand no one will say that this is like the
reference point in this whole field. But rather they will probably be all of an equal nature or maybe
no one would really have categorised them in this way. Rather than in an Islamic library you will
have this.
 So inTafseer, people will say Tafseer At Tabaree is the book that you need to refer to.
 In Hadeeth, it is Saheeh Al Bukhaaree and Saheeh Muslim.
 In for example, in HambaleeFiqh, it is Al Mughnee and so on and so forth.
These are the Ummahaatul Kutub.
LEVELS OF BOOKS
1. MATAN
One of the other things that you have in the Islamic library that makes it unique as well is that you
have different levels of books. And again this is something unique especially when it comes to many
of the books that we have. You have what is known as Mutoon, a Matan, which is a very small text
in that science that will give you the very basics of information.
 So in Aqeedah, it will be things like Usooluth Thalaathah, Kitaabut Tawheed, Qawaaid
Arba’ah.
 In for example Hadeeth, it would be things like Bayqooniyah.
 Then in things like for example, in Fiqh, it will be things like Umdatul Fiqh and it will be things
like the different Mukhtasaraat that you get in the Mathaahib.
 You will get Ajroomiyah, in Nahw for example.
 You will get Jazariyyah, in Tajweed.
 And you will have Waraqaat in Usoolul Fiqh.
You will have these small different Mutoon, texts that are very brief and that basically lay down for
you the foundations of that science.
2. MUKHTASARAAT
Then you have the explanations to this and you have the Mukhtasaraat in a way that they explain
this and they build upon this or they abridge certain things concerning it.
3. MUTWAWAALAAT
And then you have the Mutwawwalaat, the encyclopaedias of the information where all of the
explanations and the differences of opinions and their reasoning and justifications are given. And

so this is something which makes unique the Islamic library; something which is unique about the
Islamic library.
4. FATAAWAA
One of the other things that a person must also remember when it comes to the Islamic library that
obviously now, it is not just about the books that we have but now especially in common times we
have Fataawa.
 Fataawa like Majmoo’ al Fataawa of Shaykhul Islam Ibn Taymiyyah which even though Ibn
Taymiyyah rahimahullah lived a long time ago, his Fataawa were only compiled a 100 or 200
years ago.
 And then you have like for example, the Fataawa of Shaykh Bin Baaz.
 And the Fataawa of Shaykh Uthaymeen.
 And the Fataawa of Shaykh Muhammad Ibraheem Al Shaykh.
 And the Fataawa of the Lajnatut Daaimah.
And all of these places and so the Fataawa books are also a very good source of information and it
is something which is again unique to an Islamic library.
5. RASAAIL
Likewise again nowadays you have many Rasaail. You have many theses that a person can also
access, Masters and Ph.D. theses and as you know, in many of the Middle East countries and the
Muslim countries, a Masters is a far longer and a Ph.D. is a far longer process than in western
academia. And so therefore you will have so many Ph.Ds. so many Masters that speak about the
different issues that a person needs to know. So all of these are important.
6. ABRIDGEMENTS
Likewise you have the abridgements. So nowadays you have people that abridge books that have
gone from before or they make things a lot easier or for example what the scholars will do is that
they will bring certain new angles that have come out that a person does not understand.
7. NAWAAZIR
There are books on Nawaazir, new issues that have come up, all of these things are unique in the
world of Islamic academia and something which makes the library unique. And so once you have a
feel for all of this and you understand all of this, then you will now be able Insha Allah not only to
use a normal library but you would also be able to benefit in your research from an Islamic library.
One of the most important things that a person must obviously need to know about the Islamic
library is that most of this wealth of information is in Arabic obviously. It is in the Arabic language
and therefore the Arabic language is the very important key and tool in order to access this
treasure of knowledge.
8. TAHKEEQAAT
Also in the Islamic libraries, one thing that a person must always look out for is Tahkeeqaat, books
that have been edited and checked. Because as we know most of the books were manuscripts and
then the scholars have come and they have edited them, they have checked them, they made sure
that they were authentic, they would classify the Ahaadeeth, they have gone through the reference
books, and they have given them footnotes and so on. All of this makes it a lot easier for you as a
researcher to go and to access this knowledge and again that is something which a person must not
only know and understand but it is something which you must appreciate Insha Allah Ta’aala as well
and it is something which you must benefit from as well.
9. ADDITIONS
And likewise you will have different additions, just like you have different additions in normal books,
in Islamic academia well you will have different additions as well. And sometimes it is good to go to
someone that knows the books, maybe a lecturer and a specialist in that field to ask him about the
best edition and the best edited version. So sometimes an older edition is better than a new
edition. An older printing is sometimes better than a newer print and sometimes this edited version
or the person or the editor is far more better than that editor, this person has more experience in
this field than that editor. And so therefore if you ask someone and they give you this information
and they give you this advice also, this is something which will help as well. So that is basically the
issue of an Islamic academic library. Insha Allah in the next lesson we will speak about the major
sources of Islamic sciences bi ithnillahi tabaaraka wa ta’aala.
Wa Swalallaahu wa Sallama alaa Nabiyyinaa Muhammad wa ‘alaa Aalihee wa Sahbihee Ajma’een

Wa Aakhiru Da’awaanaa Anilhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Aalameen
Wassalaamu’alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh

SESSION 17
Video A
MAJOR SOURCES OF ISLAAMIC SCIENCES

How do you build your own Islamic library?What are the main sources of knowledge that you need
for an Islamic library? When it comes to the major sources of Islamic sciences, what are they, and
what are those books that we need to know that will make up a very good academic library for us?
Below we will discuss a number of sciences and some of the books within those sciences. This is by
no means a comprehensive list. There are many books that we will miss out or fail to mention simply
because it is impossible to give such a comprehensive list.
SCIENCE OF QUR’AN ANDTAFSEER
1. SCIENCE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF TAFSEER – USOOL UTTAFSEER

 Probably one of the most famous is the Muqaddimah Usool at Tafseer by Sheikh ul Islam
Ibn Taymiyyah (translated and printed in English) – Introduction to the Principles of
Tafseer. In Arabic, there are many scholars who have explained this book like Shaykh Ibn
Uthaymeen and others
 Al Qawaid al Hisaan li Tafseer al Qur’aan by Shaykh As Saadiwho is the famous teacher
of Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen
 At-Tahbeer fee Ilmi Tafseer by Imam Suyooti
2. SCIENCE OF THE QUR’AN – ULOOM UL QUR’AN

 Probably one of the famous books in this science of the Qur’an areAl Itqaan fee Uloom al
Qur’aan by Imam Suyooti
 Al Burhaan by Imam Zarkhashi
 Manaahirul Urfaan by Imam Zarqaani.These are all books in Uloom ul Qur’an.
In the English language we have:

 An Introduction To the Sciences Of The Qur’an by Ahmad von Denver
 An Introduction To the Sciences Of The Qur’an by Yasir Qadhi
 Usool ut Tafseerby Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips. There are other books as well that
speak about different sciences of Qur’an and generally sciences of the Tafseer
3. SCIENCE OF TAFSEER ITSELF

TheTafseer of the Qur’an, there are many books of Tafseer, some of the famous among them are:
 Tafseer at Tabari, known as Jaamiul Bayaan ‘An Ta-weeli Aayil Qur’an, by Imam At –
Tabari. He died in year 310Hijri (R). This book, depending on the edition you have will
expand to many volumes and there is a famous story of Imam at-Tabari when it came to
writing of this book. He wrote this book because his student asked him to write a book on
Tafseer and he said to his student: Bring me 30000 blank pages and I will write for you a
book of Tafseer. So this student said: O’ Imam at-Tabari, we don’t want such a big book,
we want a small book, an abridged version, we don’t want 30000 pages, it is too long. So
he said to them: Subhanallah, no longer are people aspiring to be the best, people have
no aspiration to achieve. So instead he said:Bring me 3000, a tenth and with that tenth,
he wrote this great book, one of the greatest books of Tafseer that one can find.
 Tafseer Qurtubi, famous one also known as Al Jaami Ahkaamil Qur’an, by Imam Al
Qurtubi. He died in year 671H and this is an edition that has roughly 13 or 14 volumes and
again there are different editions for this as well. This is a very good and very well known
book of Tafseer.
 Tafseer Ibn Kathir, known as Tafseer Al Qur’anil Azeem, by Imam Ibn Kathir. (Probably
one of the most famous books and it is translated in English). He died in year 774H, the
abridged version is translated into English as well.
 Tafseer as Saadi
 Tafseer al Jalaalayn
 Tafseer al Baghawi
 Fathul Qadeer by Imam Ash Shawkaani and we have many many other Tafseers as well.
Once you have all of these books of Tafseer, they will give you a very good understanding of the book
of Allah. In our modern times, we also get many books that will focus on just a specific Surah. For
example: Tafseer of Suratul Fatiha, Juzz Amma’, Surah Al Kahf, Ayatul Khursiyy etc.
SCIENCE OF AQEEDAH
The books by the following 2 authors are very good books and are known to be reference points for
Aqeedah:
 Books of Ibn Taymiyyah

 Aqeedah al Waasitiyah
 Al Fatawa al Hamawiyyah
 Ar Risaal At Tadmuriyyah
 Books of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab

 Usool at Thalathah – Available in English
 Kashfush Shubuhaat - Available in English
 Qawaid al Arbah - Available in English
 Kitaab at Tawheed – A good explanation to it is Al Qawlul Mufeed by Ibn Uthaymeen,
as well as explanations of it by other scholars like Saalih Al Fawzaan as well as
descendants of Muhammad bn Abdul Wahhaab. It is very good when it comes to
Tawheed Uloohiyyah and the worship of Allah.
 Lum’atul I’itiqaad by Ibn Qudaamah

 Al Aqeedah at Tahawiyyah by Imaam At Tahaawi. It was then explained by another
famous scholar, Ibn Abil Izz Al Hanafee. The Ahaadeeth in it have been checked by Sheikh
Al Albaani.

 Sawaaìqul Mursalah by Ibn al-Qayyim
 Books by contemporary scholars like Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen and many scholars of Saudi
Arabia have focused on this issue of Aqeedah, Ph.D. theses on this subject, on different
issues on Aqeedah and belief and creed.
 Many theses on Aqeedah are available as well.
 In English, we have many famous books like Fundamentals of Tawheed by Dr. Abu
Ameena Bilal Philips and many of the books of Muhammad Abdul Wahhab like the
book of Qawaid Arba’, Kashfa Shubuhaat and the book of Usool Thalathah.
Some have been translated with explanations by Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen or Shaykh
Sa’dee. Others have been written by people like Shaykh Yasir Qadhi available in
English language.
SCIENCES OF HADEETH
1. MUSTALAH AL HADEETH
 Al Bayqooniyyah – one of the famous books you will get is a very short poetic version of
Al Bayqooniyyyah. It is a very simple book about the sciences of Hadeeth and it is done in
poetic version
 Nukhbat al Fiqr Fee Mustalah Ahlil Athar
 Muqaddimah Ibn Salah
 Alfiyyah Al Hadeeth lil Imam Al ‘Araaqee – 1 000 verses of poetry in the field of Hadeeth
2. GENERAL BOOKS OF HADEETH

 Like 40 Hadeeths of Imam an-Nawawi
 Books like …
Video B
…Explanations of that
 Jaamiul Uloom al Hikam by Ibn Rajab Al Hambalee
 Riyad us Saaliheen by Imam Nawawi
 Al Arbaeen by Imam Nawawi
3. FIQHEE HADEETH
Books of Hadeeth that only focus on Fiqhi issues
 Umdatul Ahkam by Ibn Qudaamah
 Bulugh al Maram by Ibn Hajar
4. SAHEEH SITTAH
Six books of Hadeeth, all are translated in English:
 Saheeh al Bukhaari
 Saheeh al Muslim
 Sunan Abi Dawood
 Sunan At Tirmidhi
 Sunan Ibn Majah
 Sunan An Nasaai
5. OTHER BOOKS OF HADEETH

Like:
 Muwatta al Malik
 Mustadarak of Imam Al Haakim
 Sunan Al Bayhaqi
 Musannaf Abdur Razzaaq which deals more with narrations of the companions and
scholars than it does with Ahaadeeth
All are traditions and narrations from the Prophet (salallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) or the companions or
great scholars of Islam.
Most of these books are translated in English.
 Musnad Ahmad is not translated in English. It is by Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the famous
scholar of Islam who died in 241 H. This is a very long book with thousands upon
thousands of Hadeeths of the Prophet (salallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam).
SCIENCE OF USOOL AL FIQH

The next science that I will bring to your attention is the science of Usool ul Fiqh and within this
science there are many different Madhaahib and many different books that aperson can take within
this science. Some of them are more famous than the others and one of the famous is the book of:
 Al-waraqaat by Al Juwaynee on Usool ul Fiqh
And you have many other famous:
 Bulbul of Imam At Tufee
 Mukthasar Rawdatun Naadhir by Imam At Tufee
 Matan al Minhaj by Imam Al Baydhaawee
 Mukhtasar Al Muntahaa by Ibnul Haajib
 Al Manaar lil Imam An Nasafee
 Matan at Tahreer by Ibnul Hammaam
 Rawdatun Naadir of Ibn Qudaamah, a very famous book
 Al Waadih fee Usool al Fiqh; book in HambaleeFiqh
The next that we will speak about is the science of the Fiqh itself and as we know Fiqh is divided into
four Mathhabs.

FIQH OF THE FOUR MATHAAHIB
Major sources found within those Mathhabs:
1. HANAFEEMATHHAB
 Mukhtasar of Imam al Qudooree
 Al Mabsoot of Imam Al Sarkhasi
 Haashiyat radd al Mukthar known as Haashiyat Ibn Aabiddeen
 Badaaius Sanaaee by Imam Al Kaasaany and many other books within Hanafee school of
Fiqh
2. MAALIKEE MATHHAB
 Mudawwanah by Imam Suhnoon
 Mukhtasar Khaleel
 Bigger books: Mawahibul Jaleel
 Mukhtasar of Ibn Al Haajib
 Sharhuz Zarqaani ‘ala Mukhtasar Khaleel
 Haashiyatad Dasooqi
 Az Zakheerah by Imam Al Qaraafi , one of the famous books
 Bidayatul Mujtahid by Ibn Ar Rushd – another famous book, despite being a Maalikee
scholar, he wrote his book in a more comparative way rather than just sticking to the
Maalikee approach.
3. SHAFIEE MATHHAB
When it comes to the Shafiee again we have many books within ShafieeMathhab and probably the
most famous of them is the book:
 Al Umm (which mean the Mother) writtenby ImamShafiee himself and this is aunique
point about ShafieeMathhab that in other Mathhabs;Maalikee, Hanafee and
HambaleeMathhab, the Imamsthemselves did not really write down the Fiqhas their
Mathhab. But ImamShafiee did it in his famous book known as Al Umm.
 Al Muhazzab lil Imam Ash-Shiraazi – one of the famous books, which has so many
different explanations
 Rawdat at Taalibeen of ImamAn Nawawee
 Al Majmoo’ – An explanation of Al Muhazzab, by Imam an Nawawee – he died before
completing this book but he has done a very great portion of it.
4. HAMBALEE MATHHAB
So many books it is very difficult to enumerate them:
 Mukhtasar al Khiraqee

 Umdatul Fiqh of Imam Ibn Qudaamah - probably one of the most famous scholars of the
HambaleeMathhab who started his book with the most basic of Mutoon that is Umdatul
Fiqh (the one in the teacher’s hand: Explanation of Umdatul Fiqh known as Al Uddah fil
Sharh al Umdah but the actual work is Umdatul Fiqh and this edition is edited by Dr.
Abdullah Al Turkee who has done a lot of service especially to the Hambalee Mathhab of
Fiqh, a very famous book in HambaleeFiqh)
 Al Kaafi of Imam Ibn Qudaamah died in year 621 Hijri, one edited by Shaykh Turkee
 Al Iqnaa’
 Al Insaaf
 One of the famous books nowadays is this book– in essence this book is 3 in 1 (famous in
Hambalee Mathhab), edited by Shaykh Turkee:
 Al Muqni’ by Imam Ibn Qudaamah
 Ash Sharhul Kabeer by a different Ibn Qudaamah
 Al Insaaf by Imam al Bardaawee
As you go through the book, you have 3 different sections that all speak about the same
issue.
 Al Mughni of Ibn Qudamah,one of the greatest books in the science of Fiqh – 15 volumes
edited by Dr Turkee, you can imagine how much knowledge and information is there.
 Majmoo’ al Fatawaa by Ibn Taymiyyah – it's not really a Fiqh book though. Majority of
the writings and articles are of Ibn Taymiyyah. so you will have issues of Aqeedah,
Tafseer, Hadeeth, but a large portion of it is also Fiqh.
BOOKS OF FIQH OUTSIDE THE FOUR MATHHABS

 Al Muhallah by Ibn Hazm – famous scholar of the Dhaahiree Mathhab, not from four
Mathhabsbut rather from a different point of view.
SCIENCE OF THE ARABIC LANGUAGE

 Lisaan al Arab
 Alfeeyah ibn Malik and its explanation by Ibn Aqeel in Nahw –grammar
BOOKS OF SEERAH
 Seerat an Nabaweeyah by Ibn Hishaam who died in year 213/218H
 Zaad al Maad Fee Hadyi Khayril ‘Ibaad by Ibn al Qayyim
GENERAL ISLAMIC HISTORY

 Taareekh of Ibn Khaldoon
 Al Bidaayah wan Nihaayah by Ibn Kathir, edited by Dr Turkee (R)

So these are just some of the books that we have in the various sciences of Islam, whether it's
Tafseer, Hadeeth, Fiqh, Aqeedah, etc.
And so it is important that when a person is developing their own Islamic academic library or if they
want to research in one of these fields, that they know the reference points in these books.
 So if you have an issue of Tafseer then go back to books like At Tabari, Al Qurtubi, and Ibn
Kathir.
 If you have an issue in HambaleeFiqh, go back to books like Al Mughni of Ibn Qudaamah.
 If you have an issue in Shaafiee Fiqh, then go back to something like Al Majmoo’ of Imam An
Nawawi.
 If you want to learn something in Seerah, then go back to books like Zaadul Ma’aad or
Seeratun Nabawiyyah.
 If you want to learn about general history, then go back to books like Al Bidaayah Wan
Nihaayah.
 If you want to learn about biographies, you have books like Seer A’alaamin Nubalaa.
And so each science has its reference points and its books. But also as we have mentioned, there
are many books that are now available in English as well.
For example Umdatul Fiqhthe text from HambaleeMathhab, the portion concerning Ibadaat meaning
purification, prayer, fasting, Zakat and Hajj. That portion has been translated into English and many
of the books now have been translated into English or someone has written about them in one way
or other or there are translations of them especially the books of Hadeeth and some of the books of
Tafseer you will find that they are now available in English.

SESSION 18
Video A
FIQH OF FOUR MATHAAHIB

In the previous lesson we spoke about major Islamic sources and we went through some of major
books and references within those of the sciences. So we spoke about Tafseer, Aqeedah, Seerah
Hadeeth and Fiqh. One of the things a person has to be able to do as a researcher is not only know
the major sources of Islamic sciences, not only know and be able to differentiate between a Hanafee,
Maalikee, Shafiee and Hambalee book of Fiqh, but you must also be familiar with these books of Fiqh.
 What do they within the Mathhabconsider to be their major books of Fiqh?
 What is considered to be the basis of their Fiqh?
 What books are considered to be the foundation of their Fiqh?
 What books are considered to be classical amongst them?
 What books are considered to be the explanations and the reference points for their Fiqh?
Another thing that we also need to understand is the terminologies within a certain Mathhab. So
sometimes within a Mathhab you have different types of opinions and different types of schools
within one Mathhab. And then you have different types of terminologies within that one Mathhab
as well. And so when you are studying these Mathhabs and you going through these books of Fiqh, as
a good researcher you must know what they stand for. So when someone says that this is the Qawl
(statement) of Imam Ahmad, or this is the Riwaayah (narration) of Imam Malik, or this is the Nass
(actual text) of ImamShafiee, then what do these words mean? Do they mean one and the same? Or
does each Mathhab have its own terminology? And if you were to look deeply and carefully, and if
you were to study this issue, you will find that each Mathhab has its own terminology. And that is
why you will find books that speak just about scholars of each Mathhab, and books that speak about
the terminologies that each Mathhab uses.
HANAFEEMATHHAB
FOUNDER
 Founded by Imam Abu Haneefah
 His name was Nu’maan ibn Thaabit
 He passed away in the year 150 AH
 He was buried in the city of Baghdad in modern day Iraq
 When you look at the books within his Mathhab you will find that they are more or less of 3
different categories of books:
One of the things that you will find throughout these Mathhabs is that many of these scholars didn’t
write their own Mathhabs. At the time of teaching their students and having these opinions, they
didn’t know that this will become a Mathhab that would be accepted worldwide. And that over 1 000
years later, these Mathhabs would still be remembered and studied and that there would be
hundreds of books on them. And so they didn’t really write their Mathhabs down as such. But their
students and the people around them helped to spread this Mathhab and teach this Mathhab. And
that is why it is important that students pay good attention to the knowledge that they have and
they continue to fulfil that knowledge, trust they have been endowed with and they continue to
spread this. As ImamShafiee has famously said concerning his teachers Layth ibn Sa’ad andImam
Malik, that Layth ibn Sa’ad was more knowledgeable than Imam Malik. He was Afqaha than Imam
Malik – he was more of a jurist than Imam Malik, however his students didn’t do their jobs. Meaning
that they didn’t go and spread his knowledge andhis Mathhab and as a result it did not become well-
known.
BOOKS OF THE HANAFEE MATHHAB
1. MASAAIL AL USOOL OR ZHAAHIR UR RIWAYAH (APPARENT NARRATIONS )

They refer to the books that speak about the narrations and the opinions of the 3 great Imams
of the HanafeeMathhab; ImamAbu Haneefah himself, as well as his 2 foremost students
ImamAbu Yusuf and ImamMuhammadIbn Hassan ash Shaybanee.
 At times, some of the scholars of the HanafeeFiqh will include with them the famous
scholar Zufar and Hassan Ibn Ziyaad. But generally speaking it is only the 3 main Imams of
the Mathhab.
 These books, Zhaahirur Riwaayah are a group of 6 books, all of which are written by
Muhammad ibn Hassan Ash Shaybaanee himself:
 Al Mabsoot
 Al Ziyaadaat
 Al Jaami as Sagheer
 As Siyar as Sagheer
 Al Jaami al Kabeer
 As Siyar al Kabeer
 These 6 books speak about the narrations as is reported by the 3 great Imams, and so
that is why they are the foundation of the HanafeeMathhab.
 These 6 books were then gathered into 1 by one of the scholars, Al Haakim ash Shaheed
who died in the year 344 AH. He gathered them into one compilation and he called them
“Al Kaafi”
 Al Kaafi was then explained by another great scholar Shamsul A-immah (sun of the
scholars),Imam Sarakhsi who passed away in the 490 AH. He wrote this book Al Mabsoot
which is a written explanation of these 6 books that have been gathered in Al Kaafi.
 Al Mabsootis considered to be one of the foremost reference points in the
HanafeeMathhab.
So this is first category of books.
2. AN NAWAADIR (RARE)

 The Nawaadir are also those issues that have been narrated from the Imams of the
Mathhab but they are not included within the Zaahirur Riwaayah; they are not from the
apparent narrations, but there are also other narrations that are mentioned and they are
called Nawaadir which means that they are rare. Rare meaning that they are not
mentioned in those 6 but they are outside of those 6 books and some of these books as
well were written by Muhammad Ibn Hassan Al Shaybaanee, such as:
 Al Haarooniyyat – which was written during the time of Haaroon Ar Rasheed, hence the
title.
 Al Kaisaaniyyaat - attributed to the person who compiled this from Muhammad Ibn
Hassan who is Shuaib Ibn Suleiman al Kaisaany. So this is the second book.
3. FATAAWAA AND AL-WAAQI’AAT

These are the books where the later scholars came and they deduced the other masaail of Fiqh
based upon the narrations and the principles of the Imams:
 Mukhtasar at Tahaawi is a famous book like that
 Mukhtasar al Khiraqi
 Mukhtasar Al Qudoori and many other books as well
Other books which are considered to be:
THE COMPARATIVE BOOKS OF THE MATHHAB

These are the books that gather everything and speak about the different Mathhabs and the
differences of opinion:
 Badaaius as Sanaee by Imam Al Kaasaany who passed away in 578 H
 Sharfatul Qadeer by Ibn Hamaam who passed away in 861 H
 Al Mabsoot by Imam Sarakhsi who passed away in 490 H
ORDER IN THEHANAFEEBOOKS OF FIQH

These books generally follow a set order, they normally start with Ibaadat:
 Fiqh ul Ibaadaat – Acts of worship, like purification, Salaah, Zakat, Saum, Hajj
 Munaaqihaat – Marriage and divorce and those types of issue
 Mu’aamalaat – Transactions (buying and selling action)
 Da’aawah and Bayyinaat – Claims and evidences
 Qadaa - Judicial process
 Uqoobaat - Penal code and punishments
 Jihaad

SOME TERMINOLOGIES IN THE HANAFEE MATHHAB
Some of the important terminologies used within the Fiqh books of the Hanafee Mathhab:
 Al Imam ul A’azham – The Great Imam whichalways refers to Imam Abu Haneefah
 A-immatunaa Thalaathah – Our 3 Imams which refer to the founder of the Mathhab and his
2 main students; Imam Abu Haneefah, Abu Yusuf, Muhammad Ibn Hassan ash Shaybanee
 Shaykhaan – the 2 Sheiks refers to Imam Abu Haneefah and his foremost student Abu Yusuf
 Tarafaan–meaning the two sides which refers to Imam Abu Haneefah and his other student
Muhammad Ibn Hassan
 Saahibaan/Saahibayn (the two companions) or Saalihaan/Saalihayn(the two righteous ones)
refers to Muhammad Ibn Hassan and Abu Yusuf, the two students
 Zhaahir ar Riwayah refers to the 6 books of Muhammad ibn Hassan wrote
 Zhaahirul Mathhab means that it is an apparent narration…
Video B
…within the Mathhab

 Shamsul A-immah, the sun of the scholars which refers to Imam Al Sarakhsi
So all of this helps us to understand the book of HanafeeFiqh.
MAALIKEE MATHHAB
FOUNDER
 Imam Malik lived from the years 93 – 179 AH.
 He passed away in Madeenah.
 Imam Malik wrote a famous book known as the Muwatta Imam Malik which is a book of
Hadeeth.
 Although the Muwatta is a book of Hadeeth, but within it he mentioned some of his opinions
in Fiqhas well.
 The Muwatta is something which we have that is attributed to this great Imam.
 But the most famous book in terms of the Fiqhi books of the Mathhab is Al Mudawwanah by
Imam Sahnoon. In it he gathered many of the opinions of Imam Malik and his famous
students.
BOOKS OF THE MAALIKEEMATHHAB

 Al Mudawwanah – famous Fiqh book by Imam Sahnoon
 Az-Zakheerah – a primary source and reference point in the MaalikeeMathhab by Imam Al
Qaraafiwho passed away in the year 684 H. In this book he gathered the books of all of the
Maalikeescholars. The Maalikee scholars and Imam Malik’s students went to different parts
of the world: North Africa, Iraq, etc. they spread out. And so what Imam Qaraafi did is that he
gathered the books that mention all of these different narrations whether from the east or
the west. He gathered them together and then spoke about them in this book of his. Those
books are:
 Al Mudawannah by Imam Suhnnoon
 Al Jawaahir us Thameenah fee Mathhabi aalim al Madeenah by Ibn Shaash
 At Talqeen by Al Qaadi Abul Wahhaab
 At Tafree by Ibn Jallaab
 Ar Risalaah by Ibn Abi Zayd al Qayrawaanee
These 5 books spoke about the Mathhab from different viewpoints and different students of the
Imam and different narrations from the Imam. So Imam Al Qaraafee gathered them altogether in his
famous book Al Zakheerah.
 Mukhtasar al Khalil- another famous book written by Imam Khalil who passed away in 767
AH. It is an abridgment of another book called Mukhtasar Ibnul Haajib. Because it is such an
abridged version of MaalikeeFiqh, it has been explained many a times by many of the scholars
in books like:
 Mawaahib al Jaleel
 At Taaj wal Iqleel, etc.
 Bidaayatul Mujtahid - by Ibn Rushd who passed away in 595 AH. This book is one of the
greater books of MaalikeeFiqh which speaks from a more comparative point of view even
though the author was Maalikee and from Southern Spain from Andalusia. When Imam Ar
Rushd wrote this book, he wrote it really as a note form for himself. They were his own notes
that he wrote, that he wanted then to go back and review and then to make it into a book.
But after he finished his notes, he passed away, so he was unable to actually go over them
again and review them. And so when his students found this book, they found it so amazing
that they published it even though it was only in note form. And as a result sometimes it is a
difficult book to follow simply because it was still in draft version.
 Al Istizkaar- by a great scholar of the MaalikeeMathhabIbn Abdil Barr who passed away in
463 H.
SOME TERMINOLOGIES IN THE MAALIKEEMATHHAB

Some important terminologies which can be found within the Maalikee Mathhab:
 Riwaayah –narration, which means statement /opinion of Imam Malik
 Aqwaal – sayings which refer to the opinions of the students of Imam Malik and the later
scholars that followed them in their footsteps.
 Al Madaniyyoon - those students of Imam Malik who went and settled in Madeenahlike:
 Ibn Maajishoon
 Al Mutarraf
 Ibn Maslamah, etc.
 Al Misriyyoon (The Egyptians)- those students of Imam Malik who went and settled in
Egyptlike:
 Ibn Al Qaasim
 Al Ash-hab
 Ibn Wahab, etc.
 Al Iraqiyyoon(The Iraqis) - those students of Imam Malik who went and settled in Iraq like:
 Al Qaadhi Ismaaeel
 Ibn Jallaab
 Al Qaadhi Abdul Wahhaab
 Al Maghaaribaa (The Moroccans)- those students of Imam Malik who went and settled in
Morocco like:
 Ibn Abi Zaid
 Al Baaji
 Ibn Abdil Barr
 Ibn Rushd
 Ibn Al Arabi
Morocco refers to the area which is normally considered west in relation to the east which is places
like modern day Saudi Arabia. Along with Morocco being Al Maghrib, they also include with that
Southern Spain and that kingdom which the Muslims ruled for so many centuries in Islam.
When you look at these different students, Egyptians, Iraqis, Madinans, Moroccans, Spanish, etc.
sometimes within the Maalikee books of Fiqh, you will find that they say that this is the difference of
opinion between the Egyptians and the Madeenans. And when this is the case, it is normally the
opinions of the Egyptians that are given preference to within the Mathhab. So the opinion of the
Egyptians will be given preference to over the opinions of the Madeenans, and likewise the opinions
of the Moroccans will be given preference over the opinions of the Iraqis.
So it is the Egyptians, then the Madeenans, then the Moroccans, then the Iraqis. Why? Because some
of the scholars say that it is because the most famous scholars of the MaalikeeMathhab were from
Egypt like Ibn Wahab and Ibn Qaasim and Ash-hab.
 Al Akhawaan – the 2 brothers, refers to Mutarrif and Ibn Al Maajishoon
 Ash Shaykhaan – the 2 sheiks, refers to 2 scholars Ibn Abi Zayd and Abul Hassan Al Qaabisi.
So this is the Maalikee’s Mathhab.
SHAAFIÈE MATHHAB
FOUNDER
 Imam Ash Shafiee was born in the year 150 AH, the same year that Imam Abu Hanifa passed
away, and he passed away in the year 204 AH.
 So he lived until the age of 54.
 He was born in Gaza.
 He spent most of his time in Makkah.
 Then he went to Baghdad.
 Then he went to Madeenah.

 And then finally he settled in Egypt.
 When it comes to his Mathhab, ImamShafiee is unique, in the sense that ImamShafiee is one
of the few scholars to have actually written down his Mathhab:
 So even though Imam Malik has his own book; the Muwatta which has some of his Fiqhi
opinions, it does not detail his Mathhab.
 Imam Abu Hanifa has no book.
 Imam Ahmad has the Musnad but that is a book of Hadeeth and not of his own Fiqh.
 But ImamShafiee actually wrote down his book of Fiqh which is famously known as Al
Umm.
 ImamShafiee’s book of Fiqh is known as Al Umm which literally means “The Mother”because
it is the mother and the foundation, the most fundamental aspect of the Mathhab of
ImamShafiee.
THE MATHHAB ITSELF

Imam ash Shafiee himself wrote his Mathhab down. And then after him when his students came,
there were 2 different schools of thoughts:
 The way of the people of Iraq - Tareeqat al Ahl al Iraaq
And amongst them you had scholars like:
 Abu Haamid
 Al Isfraayeeny
 Al Maawardee
 Abu Tayyib At Tabari
 Al Muhaamilee, etc.
 The way of the people of Khurasaan
And amongst them you had scholars like:
 Al Qaffaal As Sagheer
 Al Marwazi
 Abu Muhammad Al Juwayni
 And then you had other people who came and just joined both of these ways and they
merged between both of these ways. They wouldn’t have a bias towards the people of Iraq or
Khurasaan but they would take from both and merge. This was done by scholars like:
 Imam al Shaashi
 Imam al Haramayn
 Imam al Ghazaali
ORDER IN THE SHAFIEEBOOKS OF FIQH

 Fiqh ul Ibaadah – Purification, Salaah, Zakat, Sawm, Hajj, etc.
 Al Mu’aamalaat – Transactions (buying and selling)
 Al Munakahaat - Marriage anddivorce
 Al Uqoobat – Penal code

 Al Kafaaraat – Expiations
 Al Jihaad
 Al Qadaa – Judicial process
 Shahaadaat – Testimonies / testifications
 Da’aawah and Bayyinaat – Claims and proofs and evidences to support those claims.

SESSION 19
Video A
Welcome to another lesson of research methodology.
In the previous session, we were speaking about the four Mathhabs of Fiqh: the Hanafee, the
Maalikee, the Shafiee and the Hambalee and how they write their books, organize their books- some
of the famous books – as well as some of the terminologies we use. As researchers, we need to be
aware and familiarize ourselves with this.
We stopped in the previous session on the Mathhab of Imam Ash-Shafiee (rahimahullaah) and we
spoke about the books within that Mathhab and we spoke about some of the ways in which the
scholars of that Mathhab have written their books and what we have left to talk about is the
terminology within that Mathhab.
SOME TERMINOLOGIES IN THE SHAFIEEMATHHAB

Within that Mathhab, there are a lot of terminologies as well.
 Aqwaal: Aqwaal means the opinions or the sayings or the statements of Imaam Ash-Shafiee
(rahimahullaah). Imaam Ash-Shafiee (rahimahullaah) has two Mathhabs within the Shafiee,
he had two opinions that he noted down:
 His old opinions which he held in Iraaq known as Al Mathhab Al Qadeem i.e. The Old
Mathhab
 His new opinions which he held as he settled in Egypt known as Al Mathhab Al
Jadeedi.e. The New Mathhab.
So this is something which a person must be aware of, that there are older opinions that were
abrogated by newer opinions. So sometimes Imaam Ash-Shaafii (rahimahullaah) mentions both of
them in a single place within his book. Sometimes he mentions them at separate places, sometime
he would say: “this one is stronger” or “this one is newer” and sometimes, he wouldn’t even say this.
But the general ruling is that whenever you have a new opinion and an old opinion, the new
opinion is given precedence over the old opinionexcept in a very limited number of exceptions to
this rule. Generally, the new Mathhab is that which is followed and the old Mathhab is not that
which is followed.
 Al Awjuh: This means the views. This terminology is given to the students and the
companions of Imaam Ash-Shaafii (rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa) who based upon his principles
have deduced these views. So these are the views and the terminology and this is what is
meant by it.
 At Turq: Another terminology that you will find in the ShafieeFiqhi Mathhab is At-Turq which
means literally “ways” or “paths” and this is basically the difference of opinion among the
Shafiee scholars in the way that they discuss the Mathhab or in the opinions of the
Mathhab. Some of them will mention that there are two ways or there are two opinions and

so depending on what they use or what they say, it will be two different Tareeqahs just as we
said we have the Iraaqi way and we have the Khurasaani way as well.
 An Nass: This means “text” and actually means this is something which Imaam Ash-Shaafii
(rahimahullaah) actually said himself, word for word, these are his statements and this is
exactly what he wrote.
 At Takhreej is another famous terminology amongst them and that is when Imaam Ash-
Shaafii (rahimahullaah) gave two different rulings in two cases which seemed very similar.
So the two cases resemble one another but he gave two completely different rulings for them
and there is no logic as to why he did that. The scholars don’t know. So what they do is
instead they use their principles of their Mathhab and they themselves try to deduce why
he did this and if they do this that is known as Takhreej.
 As Saheeh: You have others as well. If you say for example the terminology as-Saheeh
meaning thecorrect opinion, that means there is the newer opinion of Imaam Ash-Shaafii
(rahimahullaah) or it’s the stronger and more favouredopinion of the Mathhab.
These are some of the terminologies we need to familiarize ourselves in the Mathhab of Imaam Ash-
Shaafii (rahimahullaah ta’aalaa).
HANBALEE MATHHAB
The next Mathhab and the final Mathhab that we are going to speak about is the Mathhab of the
great Imaam.
FOUNDER
 Imaam Ahmad ibn Hambal (rahimahullaah ta’aalaa) who was born in Baghdaad in the year
164 Hijri.
 He died in Baghdaad rahimahullaah in the year 241 Hijri rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa. One of the
greatest scholars of Islaam.
WHAT OTHER SCHOLARS SAY ABOUT HIM
1. IMAM ASH-SHAFIEE
That’s why Imaam Ash-Shaafii (rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa) said that Imaam Ahmad is an Imam in eight
(8) things; not just an Imam in one thing, he is an Imam in 8 things- An Imam in:
1. Hadeeth
2. Fiqh
3. Language
4. The Qur’aan
5. Poverty
6. Zuhd
7. Abstinence –abstency (wara)
8. Sunnah – Rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa

Al Imaam Ash-shaafii in another statement said: I have left Baghdaad and I haven’t left behind
anyone better or more knowledgeable, who has more understanding than Imaam Ahmad ibn Hambal
(rahimahullaah ta’aalaa).
2. ABU UBAYDAH AL QAASIM IBN SALAAM

Abu Ubaydah Al Qaasim Ibn Salaam said knowledge has ended with four people: Imaam Ahmad, Ali
ibn Madeenii, Yahya ibn Ma’een and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybahand as for Imaam Ahmad, he had
the most understanding from amongst those four rahimahumullaahu ta’aalaa.
 So Imaam Ahmad rahimahullaah was a great scholar of Islaam.

 His Mathhab is a very well known Mathhab.
 But Imaam Ahmad ibn Hambal (rahimahullaah) disliked that his views should be noted
down and his Mathhab should be known and that people should write his opinions and,
 He disliked that he himself should write down his Mathhab rahimahullaah ta’aalaa
 But rather he wanted people to only take from him and focus on the Sunnah of the Prophet
(sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam)
 but Allaah Az wa jal due to his sincerity (in shaa ALlaah), due to his Taqwa, preserved his
knowledge and so you have some of his foremost students who mention this within their own
works, the opinion of the Imam.So you have the famous scholar Abu Bakr Al Khallaal who
wrote most of his opinions in his book “Al Jaami’ah”
And then we have others from amongst his students, such as his two sons Saalih and
Abdullaah and you have others like Ibn Al Khawsaj- (they wrote what’s….6.40mins)known as
“Al Masaail”- the opinions of the issues that they presented to their father or to their
Shaykh and then he Imaam Ahmad (rahimahullaah) would reply and they would note this
down (rahimahumullaah).
BOOKS OF THE HAMBALEEMATHHAB

So what are the most famous books within this Mathhab?
 Mukhtasar Al Khiraqee:(rahimahullaah) which is one of the most famous books in this

Mathhab and many of the scholars of the HambaleeMathhab have put in a lot of time and
effort in explaining this book.
 Al Mughnee: The most famous explanation of which is Al Mughnii of Ibn Qudaamah
(rahimahullaah) and
 The books of Ibn Qudaamah are also very famous books within the Mathhab:
 ‘Umdatul Fiqh
 Al Kaafii
 Al Muqnii and
 Al Mughnii of Ibn Qudaamah (rahimahullaah).

 Al Ifsaah: Then you have the book Al Ifsaah of Ibn Ghubayrah Al Wazeer who died in 560
hijri. That’s a very famous book.
 Al ‘Uddah: You have Al ‘Uddhah which is an explanation of ‘Umdatul Fiqh by Bahaaudeen Al
Maqdasi who died in the year 624 Hijri.
 Ashahrul Kabeer: Then you have at the same time Ashahrul Kabeer by Imaam Ash-Shaafee
ibn Abi ‘Umar Al Maqdasii who died in the year 682 Hijri.
 Al Muharrar: You have at the same time Al Muharrar by Al Majd Ibn Taymiyyah who died in
652 Hijri.
 Al Mubdi’: Al Mubdi’ by Ibn Muflih who died in 884 Hijri.
 Al Insaaf: You have Al insaaf by Imaam Al Mardaawi who died in 885 Hijri.
And you have many other books as well such as Zaad Al Mustaqnii and today as well there are many
explanations of especially Zaad Al Mustaqnii and Umdatul Fiqh amongst many of the scholars such as
Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, Shaykh Ibn Baaz and many of the scholars have explained both of these two
books.
SOME TERMINOLOGIES IN THE HAMBALEE MATHHAB

What are some of the terminologies used within the Mathhab of Imam Ahmad (rahimahullaah)
 Ar-Riwaayah is one of the terminologies and that means the opinion of Imaam Ahmad
(rahimahullaah) that is actually attributed to him.
 Al Qawl is an opinion that is attributed to him but that isn’t actually his exact words unlike
ar-riwaayah which is his exact words.
 An-Nass is the opinion of the Imaam on an issue. So it’s something that is so explicit that it
can’t be interpreted in any other way
 At Tanbeeh: It’s the opinion of the Imaam but it’s implicit. It’s understood and it’s something
which you understand.
 Al Wajh: Another terminology which basically means that is deduced and derived by the
scholars of that Mathhab based upon the principles of the Mathhab.
So these are some of the different terminologies that we have within the Mathhab of Imaam Ahmad
Ibn Hambal (rahimahullaahu ta’aalaa). And with that we come to the end of the issue of the four
Mathhabs and familiarizing ourselves with the terminologies within that Mathhab but again it is
something which we need to focus on and it’s something which is very very important.
TRANSLITERATION
One of the other issues we wanted to speak about in the section of Islaamic research was
“Transliteration”
Transliteration and we touched upon this before is very important in the sense that in islaamic
research, you will have Arabic words that you must then put into the English language and that is
done yes by translation but also by transliteration so that people understand what it is.
So for example the word “Mutawaatir”, the word “Aahad” in Hadeeth, the word for example in Fiqh
like “Bid’ah” or the words that you have like “Fiqh” and “Sharee’ah” and all of these terminologies
that we have “Hajj” and so on and so forth, Eid; these are terms that we would transliterate as well
as translate if we need to.
WHY TRANSLITERATION ?
Transliteration because there are letters in the Arabic language that are not present in the English
language. Therefore, we must do certain things and in shaa Allaah in the notes that accompany one
of these lessons in shaa Allaah I will give you the transliteration table as well for your reference bi
idhnillaahi tabaaraka wa ta’aalaa.
The letters that we must focus on really are letters that within the Arabic language, there are 2 or 3
that are very similar but in the English language, there is only one.
FEW EXAMPLES OF LETTERS AND THEIR TRANSLITERATIONS

 So like ‫ه‬and ‫ح‬but we only have “H”, ‫س‬and ‫ص‬but we only have “S”. ‫ت‬and ‫ د‬and‫ط‬but we only
have “D” and “T” in the English language.
 So normally what you will do for the broader letters (ie the letters of isti’laa) like ‫ص ض ط‬
‫–ظ‬these types of letters, you will normally put a dot (.) underneath.So “t” with a dot
underneath is “ ‫“ط‬. “S” with a dot underneath is‫ ص‬. “H” with a dot underneath is ‫ح‬.
 Then you have certain words like ‫ع‬and ‫ا‬. So ‫ا‬is “A” but‫ع‬is an inverted apostrophe before the
“A”.
 Then you have words for example like ‫ذ‬which will be “dh” two letters joined will be the letter
‫ذ‬.
 Then you have for example ‫ظ‬which will be “Z” with a dot underneath and so on and so forth.
 One of the other things we also have in Arabic language is Huruuf Al Madd At-Tabee’iyyah.
So like an(alif) ‫ا‬at the end of a letter. So like and‫ع‬and ‫ا‬is ‫’ “عا‬Aa”.
 Then you have ‫ ي‬and ‫و‬. ‫ا‬, ‫ي‬, ‫و‬. These are huroof al madd- letters of elongation.How do we
transliterate elongation into English language? By putting a line on top of “A” or putting a line
on top of “U” or putting a line on top of “I”. So if it’s an (Alif with Sukoon)‫ا‬as a Harf Madd is A”
with a line on top. So Qur’aan……
VIDEO B
….Qur’aan is an ‘A’ with a line on top, a vertical line. Sorry, a horizontal line on top of the ‘A’.
And again in shaa Allah, this is something which I’ll bring to you in your transliteration table but it’s
important in your research that you transliterate it authentically and properly, using the system so

that the reader can understand, even those people who are not familiar with the Arabic language
will know how to read it properly in shaa Allahu Tabaraka wata’ala.
The final issue we’re going to speak about in this session was the difference between Muslim
academia and secular or western academia.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MUSLIM AND WESTERN ACADEMIA

Really, the couple of things that are very important are:
1. For us in Muslim academia, it is ibaadah. Seeking knowledge, research, reading and writing
and all of these things is an act of worship so we have sincerity and come closer to Allah.
Our motivation is not anything except the pleasure of Allah first and foremost and then other
things maybe secondary motivation as well.
2. The second thing I want to mention, the final thing I want to mention in this section and in
this issue is that,we don’t criticize everything within Islam. In western academia they teach
you to criticise everything, to be critical of everything. So for example, you won't say Allah
says in the Qur’aan but rather you will say the Qur’an says, because there are some people
that do not accept that Allah revealed the Qur’an. Likewise, other people don’t accept that
the Qur’an is in the correct order as it is that we find in the Mushaf. But they say that it
should be in chronological order; order of revelation, so it should begin with ‘Iqra’ bismi
rabbikalladhee khalaq’. And so again this is a critical type of thinking which in Islam we shun.
Our religion is based within a context of the Qur’an & the Sunnah of our
Prophet [‫]صلياللهعليهوسلم‬and so our research & our academia is also confined within that
context of these madhaahibs as well.
With that, Alhamdulilah, we have finished this session and now we move to the final session of
this course and that session is research ethics.
CHAPTER SEVEN: RESEARCH ETHICS
In research ethics, we’ll speak about three main things:

1. Ethics and values
2. Plagiarism
3. Referencing
ETHICS

In terms of ethics and values, ethics are moral principles or a code of conduct which governs what
people do. That is generally speaking. But in academia, ethics is a code of conduct for people who
are doing research. There are a number of things that a person must have:
1. Honesty – As we said before, you must be honest in the way you collect & present your data,
in the way you mention your limitations & scopes and so on, you must be honest.
2. Objectivity – you must always be objective. Always have your objectivity in mind. Don’t let
your biases & prejudices go against anything just because you don’t necessarily agree with
or because you're not part of that group. Always remain objective; you have your aims of
your study.
3. Integrity – Meaning that you keep promises. If you said to someone that it will be an
anonymous interview, then it should remain as an anonymous interview. Maintain your
integrity and always do things with that integrity.
4. Being correct or being precise and accurate – so that you don’t make silly mistakes, you
don’t make silly errors, you don’t misrepresent views, you are not negligent in the way that
you do things.
5. Confidentiality – this is very important. If someone told you something in confidence, then
you must report that in confidence in your research as well. Someone has brought you in so
that you can do your research and has accepted you, then you must reciprocate with a
certain level of confidentiality. If something happened which you shouldn’t have seen then it
is good to reciprocate this as well.
6. Likewise, Non Discrimination – non-discrimination in our religion as we know is not

something which we do. We don’t discriminate against people; we’re not biased with people
even though we may not agree with them as Allah says in the Quran, “Your hatred for a
people should not stop you from being just. But rather be just, that is closer to piety.”
7. Openness – is another ethical value, that we’re open & frank in the way that we report what
we do.
8. Respect for Intellectual property – if you mention something from a book, you reference
that book. If you benefit from something, you mention it in an open way.
9. Legality – if there are legal issues in terms of the way that you're doing stuff, then it is
important that you do things above board legally in a good way.
These are some of the research ethics and values that in shaa Allah, we all should have as Muslims
anyway and especially when it comes to academic research and seeking knowledge and so on and so
forth.

PLAGIARISM
The second issue here is plagiarism. Plagiarism is basically the theft of an author’s ideas or words.
So you take that concept that they have or came up with and you mention it within your book or
research without referring it to them. Or you take their words, meaning you copy their sentences,
their paragraphs & passages from their books and you don’t reference it. And so, this plagiarism is a
type of deceit because you’ve benefitted from something but you not upfront and casual about it
and tell people that this is what you did. And Nabi [‫ ]صلياللهعليهوسلم‬said: “whosoever deceives us is not
from us.”
And so it is important to be frank, to be open, to do things in a way that is ethical and in shaa Allah,
and first and foremost according to our religion as well.
HOW DO YOU AVOID PLAGIARISM?

There are 2 things that you should always do in order to avoid any issues of plagiarism:
1. Attribute everything. So when you quote from someone, you put it in speech marks or
indent it so that it looks like it is a quotation. And so therefore people will know that it is a
quotation.
2. Always cite and reference everything that you do. Mention the reference, where you got it
from, what book, what journal, which internet site, and in that way you have saved yourself.
It is no longer plagiarism because you haven’t stolen. People know that you took it from there
and they can see where you took it from because you referenced it. Whereas if you don’t
reference it then now it will be an act of plagiarism and that is something which isn’t
accepted.
If you were to do a post graduate qualification or some type of a research paper and you plagiarise
blatantly then it would just be rejected. It wouldn’t be accepted at all even if your research was of a
very good & high standard.
REFERENCING
So referencing is very important and that brings us to the final issue of this session and the final issue
of this course which in shaa Allah we’ll conclude the whole session and course is in shaa Allah, the
issue of referencing and proper referencing. There are many reference systems and what are
references? What I refer to here is the footnote that you make and the references that you mention
within the footnotes. So this is different to the bibliography which is at the end of the thesis or
paper. There are many referencing systems. There are different ways of doing referencing, and
depending on what you are doing and the subject that you are in, they will have a different way.
But referencing generally has 2 systems that I’ll mention for you in shaa Allaahu Ta’la:
 The Harvard system
 The Oxford system

They are the two most well-known & famous systems of referencing.
HARVARD SYSTEM
In the reference what you’ll do is that:
 You’ll mention the surname first.
 Then the initials,
 Then you’ll mention the year of publication,
 Then the title (in italics),
 Then the edition,
 Then the place of publication,
 And then the publisher’s name.
So let’s give a very quick example of that in shaa Allahu Ta’ala. In this book that I have here behind
me, a very famous book, a Fiqh written by Shayk Salih al Fawzan, Al Mulaqas al Fiqhee, also available
in the English language. According to the Harvard System, if I were to quote something, just say, I
quoted something from page 69, from Volume One of al Mulaqas al Fiqhee.
How will I reference it in the footnotes?

According to the Harvard system, I’ll mention the surname- Fawzan, then I’ll mention the initial ‘S’
for Salih, then I’ll mention the year of publication which in this instance is 1999, then I’ll mention the
title in italics which is al Mulaqas al Fiqhee, then I’ll mention the edition and that is eleven, this is the
eleventh edition of this book, then I’ll mention the place of publication, which is Riyaadh and then I’ll
mention the publisher which is Dar Ibn al-Jawzee. This is according to the Harvard system and then
after this, I’ll put another full stop and I’ll put volume number one, page number 69.
OXFORD SYSTEM
Now, if we were to look at the oxford system, they have a slightly different way of doing it.
 They mention the initial first,
 Then the surname,
 Then the title (in italics),
 Then the publisher’s name,
 The place of publication,
 The edition,
 And the year of publication.
So what they would do in the Oxford system is that they’ll mention ‘S’ Fauzaan, and then the title ‘al
Mulaqas al Fiqhee(in italics), then the publisher’s name-Dar Ibn al-Jawzee-, then the location which is
Riyaadh, and then the edition which is eleven and then the year which is 1999 and then you’ll
mention volume one, page number 69 or whatever the actual reference was.

So, this is the reference system of both Oxford and Harvard and these are the two of the most
famous referencing systems that we have. With that, we have not only concluded this last session of
our course-research ethics- but also, we have also, Alhamdulillah, concluded the whole of this course
in research methodology.
 We’ve spoken about the introduction to the course,

 We’ve spoken about critical thinking,
 We’ve spoken about preparing a good research argument,
 We’ve spoken about planning, drafting and revising,
 We’ve spoken about field research,
 Library research,
 Islamic research,
 Research ethics and values.
Alhamdulilah, we’ve spoken about so much information that in shaa Allah, I hope it will not only
allow you to produce very good academic standard of research but it will also make you appreciate
that a lot that which we’ve spoken about is an essential part of our religion as well. Things that we
found out that our scholars of Islam-Raheemahumullah- had always done from the very beginning
when they begin to write their works and their books.
May Allah-as wajal- bless you and may Allah guide you to that which He loves. I hope that you have
benefitted from this course. If there have been deficiencies and any mistakes, that is from me and I
apologise. Alll good is attributed to Allah. Jazaakumullahu khairan for listening.

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Research Methodology

Research Methodology Semester-7 P a g e | ii

Research Methodology Semester-7 P a g e | iii

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Research Methodology Semester-7 P a g e | vii

Research Methodology Semester-7 P a g e | viii

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh

IMPORTANCE OF SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

‫ك َّال ِذي َخَل َق‬

1. SEEKING KNOWLEDGE IS OBLIGATORY

‫ض ٌة َعَلى ُك ِِّل ُم ْسلِ ٍم َو ُم ْسلِ َم ٍة‬ ِ

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2. SEEKING KNOWLEDGE EASES THE PATH TO JANNAH

‫ط ِريًقا ِإَلى اْل َجَّن ِة‬

4. A SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE IS BETTER THAN A WORSHIPPER

WAYS OF SEEKING KNOWLEDGE

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WESTERN & ISLAAMIC CONCEPT OF RESEARCH & OUR APPROACH

CONTENTS OF THIS COURSE

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So that is basically a brief overview of what we will do.

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5. According to another researcher [Clifford Woody], he defined research as:

DEFINITIONS OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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WAYS OF DOING RESEARCH

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EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH IN ISLAAMIC HISTORY

2. ‘ABDULLAH IBN MAS‘OOD’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE QURAN

3. MUSA ‘ALAIHIS-SALAAM AND KHIDR ‘ALAIHIS-SALAAM

4. COMPILING THE BOOKS OF HADEETH AND FIQH

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Wassalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakaatuh

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Bismillah ir Rahmaan ir Raheem

Alhamdulillah Rabbil ‘Aalameen ar Rahmaan ir Raheem Maaliki Yawmid Deen

Assalamualaikum Wa Rahmatullah Wa Barakaatuh

SCHOLARS HAVING ATTACHMENT TO BOOKS AND RESEARCH

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EXAMPLES OF SCHOLARS HAVING ATTACHMENT TO BOOKS AND RESEARCH

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3. JUST ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY A BOOK

5. READING DURING ILLNESS

7. READING OUTSIDE THE BATHROOM

9. SLEEPING WITH BOOKS

10. IMAAM AL-BUKHAAREE

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11. IMAAM MUSLIM

12. IBN AL-JAWZEE

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13. THE KHALEEFAH

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14. TAKING BOOKS WHEN GOING OUT

15. SHAYKHUL-ISLAAM IBN TAYMIYYAH

16. SHAYKH AL-ALBAANEE

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REASONS FOR RESEARCH

Was-salaamu ‘alaikum wa Rahmatullaah

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