International Institute of Islamic thought (IIIT)

The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) is a private, non-profit, academic, cultural and educational institution, concerned with general issues of Islamic thought and education. The Institute was established in the United States of America in 1981 (1401 AH). It is independent of local politics, party orientations and ideological bias.

The headquarters of the Institute are situated in Herndon, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington DC. IIIT has established cooperation with a number of institutions and organizations in a number of capitals world-wide in order to carry out the Institute’s activities and programs. The Institute is governed by a Board of Trustees that meets regularly and periodically elects one of its members to serve as President.

The Institute is an intellectual forum working on educational, academic and societal issues from an Islamic perspective to promote and support research projects, organize intellectual and cultural meetings, publish scholarly works, and engage in teaching and training. It has established a distinct intellectual trend in Islamic thought which relates to the vivid legacy of the Muslim nations and its continuous efforts of intellectual and methodological reform, principally in the field of education, classical knowledge and social science. This involves a large number of researchers and scholars from various parts of the world.

The Institute conducts its educational and training activities and courses through its institutional division, The Fairfax Institute.

Mission

The International Institute of Islamic Thought is dedicated to the revival and reform of Islamic thought and its methodology in order to enable Muslim Societies to deal effectively with present challenges, and contribute to the progress of human civilization in ways that will give it a meaning and a direction derived from divine guidance.

The Institute promotes academic research on the methodology and philosophy of various disciplines, and gives special emphasis to the development of Islamic scholarship in contemporary social sciences. The program endeavors to elucidate Islamic concepts that integrate Islamic revealed knowledge with human knowledge and revives Islamic ethical and moral knowledge, through education, teaching and support of scholarly research.

IIIT aspires to conduct courses in order to promote its objective to reform Islamic thought, to bridge the intellectual divide between the Islamic tradition and Western civilization. In its teaching and selection of teachers and courses, IIIT endeavors promote moderation, inter-faith dialog and good citizenship.

Objectives

In its endeavor to teach and prepare teachers for the modern world and produce intellectuals who can relate their Islam to modern day challenges the Institute aims to:

1. Serve as a think tank in the field of Islamic education, culture and knowledge.
2. Formulate a comprehensive Islamic vision and methodology that will help Muslim scholars in their critical analysis of contemporary knowledge.
3. Develop an appropriate methodology for understanding the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet.
4. Develop an appropriate methodology for dealing with Islamic legacy and contemporary knowledge, in order to draw on the experiences of both past and present, to build a better future for the Ummah and humanity at large.
5. Develop an appropriate methodology for understanding and dealing with the present situation of both the Ummah and the world in general, and the field of education in particular, in view of contemporary challenges and opportunities.

The Institute seeks to achieve its objectives by:

• Teaching, training of teachers, publication of text books.
• Supporting researchers and scholars in universities and research centers, and publishing selected scholarly, cultural and intellectual works, in English, Arabic and several other languages.
• Directing research and studies to develop Islamic thought.
• Holding specialized scholarly, intellectual and cultural conferences, seminars and study circles.