Faculty of Islamic Sciences

I am Professor Doctor Abdurrahman Özdemir. I work at Istanbul University Faculty of Theology, Department of Arabic Language and Rhetoric. I have been appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences of Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University in the beginning of this year. I have been working as the dean for about 9 months. The Faculty of Islamic Sciences consists of 3 departments. Fundamental Islamic Sciences, Philosophy and Religious Sciences, Islamic History and Islamic Arts. As the name suggests, most of the courses of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences are focusing on that specific subject. 65-70 % of the curriculum includes fundamental Islamic science courses. Fundamental Islamic sciences consist of 8 departments. These include the Department of Reading and Quran, Department of Tafsir, Department of Arabic Language and Eloquence, Department of Hadith, Department of Islamic Law, and the Department of Islamic Sects. The Department of Philosophy and Religious Sciences consists of 2 departments and consists of 4 branches of science connected to each department. In the Department of Philosophy, we have the departments of Logic Science, Department of Philosophy, Department of Islamic Philosophy and Sciences of Religious Philosophy. The Department of Religious Sciences includes history of religions, religious education, sociology of religion and psychology of religion. The Department of Islamic History and Arts consists of 4 departments. The Department of Islamic History, Department of Turkish Islamic Literature, Department of Religious Music and Turkish Islamic Arts. These departments are academic subfields which do not provide their own diplomas. Our students take the courses of all departments and take only the diploma of the Faculty of Islamic Sciences. We have Arabic preparation class. Our faculty provides a 4 year program, consisting of 8 semesters, including a year of Arabic preparation. Every half year we have the Holy Quran course. We mainly have exegesis courses, hadith courses and Islamic law. History of Islamic Sects and Kalam courses, Islamic akaidi lessons. In addition, religious psychology, sociology of religion, history of religions, philosophy of religion, history of philosophy, history of Islam, Islamic art history, Turkish religious music and Turkish Islamic Literature, Ottoman Empire courses are also included. We have Persian courses provided as electives. We are a newly established faculty, so we have not yet formed a private laboratory or private course units. We plan to open a language laboratory to incorporate the courses so that students can develop 4 basic language skills within the framework of the language laboratory. These 4 basic language skills are listening, understanding, speaking and writing. We are on the verge of establishing a laboratory that will help students learn Arabic focusing on these 4 skills.
Students undertake internships in primary and secondary education institutions part of the Ministry of National Education, and teach religion courses as such in İmam Hatip High schools. Apart from that, in the context of professional competence, we bring together the mosques and community to our students in our oratory classes. Each of our students learn how to work and undertake the religious duties pertaining to prayers. However, we do not have students right now, when they come to our faculty, they will start their education with the congregation accompanied by competent teachers. If we start to recruit students, we plan to make bilateral agreements with Arab countries to exchange students within the framework of exchange programs such as Erasmus and Mevlana. In addition, we are planning to send all of our students who have achieved superior success in the preparatory class to relevant institutions or our own establishments. We have such a project. We have a very large business portfolio for our graduate students. They can become imam orators, preachers and muftis within the Presidency of Religious Affairs. All other areas of the Presidency of Religious Affairs provide human resources from graduates of the Faculty of Theology and the Faculty of Islamic Sciences. The most comprehensive institution that will employ our graduates is the Presidency of Religious Affairs. Secondly, within the Ministry of National Education, religious culture and ethics teaching in primary and secondary education, and vocational courses in imam hatip high schools are also included in our employment opportunities. In addition, graduates who find work in the Presidency of Religious Affairs can take part in overseas posts, consultancy services and similar duties. On the other hand, students who have developed their skills and competency can carry on pursuing an academic career.
We are involved in international organizations, and also partake in the planning of these, such as in international halal food organizations. We communicate with them. We are still in the planning phase, but it could be great if we set up a special unit in our faculty. We are a new faculty but we do have such plans. The people that will work in this unit can get in touch with organizations. Our students find Fundamental Islamic Sciences quite a bit challenging. A new language, Arabic, tafsir, hadith, fiqh and kalam, which are related to Arabic, are quite challenging subjects. But if they can learn the language in the preparatory class, they can develop their skills further. These courses, which are difficult to some, become quite enjoyable after a while. In fact, they provide certain principles that are important. My advice to the candidates who will choose this department is to do so willingly, and to be interested in religion, especially in the language of the Holy Quran, Arabic. To succeed in the İslamic Sciences Department you have to develop your Arabic language skills. This should become a passion of yours. I recommend them to learn a bit of the language before they come. If not, they should focus on the preparatory class. We provide a great program In this class. We have very competent teachers. They are passionate about education. These are people with a mission. It is hard to come by such a combination. We provide students who are in the top 10 with great opportunities, such as international education opportunities. In addition, we also provide support outside of class as well, focusing on modern and classic arabic. Our students will get all the help they need. We are waiting for the new students. I wish success to the students who will take the university exam, international students included. I especially thank students who will prefer us. We are waiting for you at Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University Faculty of Islamic Sciences.