What Students Study
Six levels, each building on the last. Advancement depends on passing each level's examination, not on age or secular school grade.
Level A1 (Hazirlik 1)
The first year builds reading ability starting from the Arabic alphabet through basic Quran recitation and tajweed rules. Students also begin the essentials of Islamic belief and practice, handwriting, and character education.
- Arabic Alphabet Primer (Elif Cuzu)
- The Quran Al-Kareem
- Tajweed, proper pronunciation and rules of recitation (Karabas)
- Basic Islamic Knowledge (Ilmihal)
- Arabic Handwriting (Rik'a)
- Seerah, the Life of the Prophet Muhammed (s.a.v)
- Character Building, Islamic Manners (Adab-i Muaseret)
- Practical Turkish (A1)
Level A2 (Hazirlik 2)
The second year deepens Quran recitation and tajweed. Students begin their first Arabic grammar text and continue their studies in belief, practice, and character.
- The Quran Al-Kareem
- Tajweed (Karabas)
- Basic Islamic Knowledge (Ilmihal)
- Arabic Handwriting (Rik'a)
- Islamic History (Silsiletuz-Zeheb)
- Seerah
- Character Building, Islamic Manners
- Practical Turkish (A1)
Level B1 (Ibtidai)
Students begin formal Arabic grammar and morphology through the classical primer sequence. Quran study continues, and students start basic conversation and composition practice.
- The Quran Al-Kareem
- Tajweed (Karabas)
- Emsile-Bina-Maksud (Arabic morphology primers)
- Avamil (Arabic grammar)
- Izhar (Arabic grammar)
- Tasrif-Terkib
- Arabic Speaking (Muhadese-1)
- Literary Composition
- Arabic Handwriting (Rik'a)
- Basic Islamic Knowledge (Ilmihal)
- Character Building, Islamic Manners
- Practical Turkish (A2)
Level B2 (Ihzari)
This stage moves into intermediate Arabic syntax and logic, a jurisprudence text, and rhetoric. Conversation and composition practice continue at a more advanced level.
- The Quran Al-Kareem
- Tajweed (Karabas)
- Nuru'l-Izah (Islamic jurisprudence)
- Kafiye (Arabic syntax)
- Emali (Islamic creed)
- Isagoci (Logic)
- Alaka (Rhetoric)
- Arabic Speaking (Muhadese-2)
- Tasrif-Terkib
- Literary Composition
- Islamic History (Silsiletuz-Zeheb)
- Practical Turkish (B1, then B2)
Preadvanced Level (Tekamul Alti)
The final preparatory year combines advanced logic, foundational jurisprudence, and rhetoric, alongside continued Arabic composition and conversation. Students also complete remote secular high school coursework during this stage.
- The Quran Al-Kareem
- Molla Cami, Isagoci (Advanced Arabic grammar and logic)
- Kuduri-i Serif (Islamic jurisprudence)
- Telhis (Rhetoric)
- Alaka-Menar (Rhetoric and legal theory)
- Tasrif-Terkib
- Arabic Speaking (Muhadese-3)
- Literary Composition
- Islamic History (Silsiletuz-Zeheb)
Advanced Level (Tekamul)
The final, advanced stage covers the core specializations of a traditional Islamic scholar. It culminates in ijazah, formal certification to teach.
- Mir'at al-Usul, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (مرآة الأصول في شرح مرقاة الوصول)
- Durar al-Hukkam, Islamic Jurisprudence (درر الحكام في شرح غرر الأحكام)
- Al-Risala al-Shamsiyya, Logic (الرسالة الشمسية)
- Al-As'ila wa'l-Ajwiba fi 'Ilm al-Kalam, Islamic Theology (الأسئلة والأجوبة من علم الكلام)
- Sharh Qasidah Burdat al-Busiri, commentary by Imam al-Busiri (شرح بردة البوصيري)
- Majallat al-Ahkam al-'Adliyyah, Islamic Civil Law (مجلة الأحكام العدلية)
- 'Ilm al-Faraiz, Islamic Inheritance Law (علم الفرائض و المواريث)
- Usul al-Hadith, Principles of Hadith Sciences (أصول الحديث)
Our lineage
The books we teach are the books taught by Suleyman Hilmi Tunahan (q.s.), in the same order, by the same method.
Suleyman Hilmi Tunahan (1888 to 1959) was an Ottoman-trained scholar from Silistra. He received his ijazah in 1913 from Ahmed Hamdi Efendi of Bafra, graduated from the Tafsir and Hadith department of the Suleymaniye Madrasa in 1919, and later completed the Madrasat al-Qudat, the faculty of law.
When the madrasas were closed in 1924, he addressed a gathering of scholars with a warning that has shaped everything since: if each of them taught even two or three students, the Islamic sciences would survive another fifty years. Most turned to other professions. He did not. For the next three decades he taught wherever he could, on farms, in forests, on intercity trains, in mosque chambers and basements, often under police surveillance and twice imprisoned.
In 1951 he opened the first official boarding Qur'an school, housing twenty-five students on the ground floor of an old mansion in Camlica. He then sent his graduates out to teach across Anatolia and Thrace. That is the model we continue: a full classical syllabus, taught in residence, with graduates sent where they are needed.
He did not write books. He said he preferred to raise people who could understand and teach the books that already existed. Of his method he said that he gives students the keys to knowledge, with which they can open the doors of the libraries themselves.
The syllabus he taught, which is the syllabus we teach
- Emsile, Bina, Maksud (morphology)
- Avamil, Izhar, Kafiye, Molla Cami (syntax)
- Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya, Qasida al-Amali (theology)
- Nur al-Idah, Quduri (jurisprudence)
- Mukhtasar al-Manar (legal theory)
- Isaghuji (logic)
- Risalat al-Alaqa, Talkhis al-Miftah (rhetoric)
- At the advanced level: Sharh al-Aqa'id, Durar al-Hukkam, Mir'at al-Usul, al-Shamsiyya, and the sciences of inheritance, tafsir, and hadith
From student to scholar
Ijazah is not simply a certificate. It is permission to transmit and teach, granted by a teacher who himself received it from his teacher, in a chain reaching back through the generations. It marks the point at which a student becomes part of that chain.
Where our graduates go
Since 1980, hundreds of our graduates have gone on to teach the religion and serve Muslim communities around the world.
Mosques and Islamic organizations across the country regularly reach out to us seeking qualified imams and teachers. The demand far exceeds the number of graduates available. Our students complete the program with a clear path to serve, whether as an imam, a teacher, or a community leader, here in America or anywhere in the world.