بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Community Leadership Certificate · A Hybrid Islamic Studies Program
Fluency in the tradition,
put to work in the community.
A two-year curriculum from the Empowerment Institute designed to develop qualified Islamic workers — people dedicated to empowering the downtrodden and capable of representing Islam and Muslims in mainstream American society.
Registration stays open until November 14, 2026 — every lecture is recorded, so you can still catch up.
From the lectures
A taste of the teaching.
Short excerpts from Shaykh Hamzah — the questions the programme spends two years on.
Test Clip
I love testing
Test Clip 2
Number 2
The Program
A certificate for people who are already doing the work.
Empowerment Institute's Community Leadership Program is a two-year curriculum designed to develop qualified Islamic workers dedicated to empowering the downtrodden, and capable of representing Islam and Muslims in mainstream American society.
The program integrates the classical Islamic sciences — including fiqh, aqidah, tafsir, hadith, and usul — with contemporary Islamic thought, leadership formation, and applied community practice.
Students will receive formal scholarly certification (ijaza) where applicable, grounding their training in an unbroken chain of transmission.
Graduates go on to work in
- Dawah
- Relief
- Revert Support
- Civic Engagement
- Social Justice
- Starts
- October 30, 2026
- Register by
- November 14, 2026
- Tuition
- $300 per semester
- Length
- 2 years
- Commitment
- 2 lectures a week · ~3–4 hours a week
- In person
- Quarterly in-person seminars
Truly Part-Time
2 lectures a week, ~3–4 hours a week, three courses a semester. Many "part-time" programs quietly demand twenty hours. This one is built to fit around a job, a family, and the community work you're already doing.
Classical Texts, Real Ijaza
Fiqh, aqidah, tafsir, hadith, usul — taught from their source texts, with formal certification (ijaza) where applicable. But the goal isn't to finish a book; it's to reason from the tradition when a real situation is in front of you.
Built for Islamic Work
Graduates bring enhanced training to dawah, relief, revert support, civic engagement, and social justice. What you learn on Tuesday should be usable on Friday — in Oak Cliff, in your masjid, or wherever you serve.
Experiential Learning
Quarterly in-person seminars in chaplaincy, recovery facilitation, and nonprofit management, plus intensives. Take any one on its own and earn its ijazah; the full certificate requires at least two.
Learning Paths
One tuition. Three ways to use it.
Every student that registers and pays tuition gains unlimited access to all Empowerment Institute courses, recordings, and workbooks. From there, you choose which Learning Path is right for you.
Explore
- What you do
- Takes individual courses based on their interests
- What you get
- Access to courses, plus any applicable course-specific Ijazah
Some students may register simply to explore topics that interest them. They are welcome to select individual courses without committing to the full curriculum. Registration provides access to all courses, so students are free to learn at their own pace and follow the subjects most relevant to them.
Engage
- What you do
- Takes several courses and participates in selected parts of the curriculum
- What you get
- Access to courses, plus any applicable Ijazah
Other students may choose to take several courses or focus on particular areas of study without completing the entire curriculum. These students can build their knowledge and skills according to their interests and goals. Certain courses also offer an Ijazah, awarded to students who successfully complete the requirements of that individual course.
Complete
- What you do
- Follows the full curriculum and completes all requirements
- What you get
- The Community Leadership Certificate, plus any applicable Ijazah
Students who want to complete the full Empowerment Institute curriculum may pursue the Community Leadership Certificate. To earn it, a student must:
- Successfully complete all required courses in the curriculum
- Complete a Capstone Project
- Attend and complete at least two experiential sessions
The Community Leadership Certificate recognizes students who have completed the Institute's full educational and practical leadership pathway.
Our Curriculum
A fusion of classical Islamic sciences and 21st-century America.
In 2 years, with 2 lectures a week and quarterly in-person seminars, students complete 12 courses — 3 a semester. Classical sciences are taught from their source texts; where applicable, students receive ijaza in an unbroken chain of transmission.
Semester 1
Now openFiqh
الفقهNur al-Idah wa Najat al-Arwah by Imam Hasan ibn Ammar al-Shurunbulali.
Ijaza available
40 Hadith
الأربعونAl-Arba'un al-Nawawiyya by Imam al-Nawawi.
Ijaza available
Tazkiyah
التزكيةThe Book of Assistance by Imam Abdallah ibn Alawi al-Haddad, and Ta'lim al-Muta'allim by Imam Burhan al-Din al-Zarnuji.
Ramadan Intensive
Held in person over the last ten nights.Shama'il
الشمائلAl-Shama'il al-Muhammadiyya by Imam Muhammad ibn Isa al-Tirmidhi.
Ijaza available
Semester 2
Fiqh
الفقهNur al-Idah wa Najat al-Arwah by Imam Hasan ibn Ammar al-Shurunbulali.
Ijaza available
Seerah
السيرةSource text to be announced.
Aqeedah
العقيدةAl-Kharida al-Bahiyya by Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Dardir.
Ijaza available
Semester 3
Fiqh of Marriage & Divorce
فقه النكاحMukhtasar al-Quduri by Imam al-Quduri.
Ijaza available
Usul al-Fiqh
أصول الفقهAl-Waraqat by Imam al-Juwayni.
Ijaza available
Tafsir
التفسيرA series on Juz Amma, synthesising the major works of tafsir.
Ramadan Intensive
Held in person over the last ten nights.Legal Maxims
القواعد الفقهيةShaykh Mustafa al-Zarqa's work on the legal maxims.
Semester 4
Fiqh of Marriage & Divorce
فقه النكاحMukhtasar al-Quduri by Imam al-Quduri.
Ijaza available
Islamic History
التاريخSource text to be announced.
Usul al-Hadith
أصول الحديثNukhbat al-Fikr by Imam Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani.
Ijaza available
A course listed in two consecutive semesters runs across the full year. Ijaza is granted on the texts marked above, in an unbroken chain of transmission.
In-House & Custom Courses
Built for the Muslim in America.
Taught based on material developed in-house by the Dean and his team of researchers, in collaboration with field experts.
- 01أمريكا
Islam in America: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow
- 02السياسة
Islamic Political Thought
- 03الفقه اليومي
Everyday Fiqh for American Muslims
- 04التحرير
Islamic Liberation Theology
Experiential Learning
Take one for its ijazah. Take two for the certificate.
The three seminars run quarterly alongside the core curriculum, and the first in-person intensive runs over the last ten nights of Ramadan. All are held in person at Oak Cliff Empowerment Center, Dallas. These are the transferable skills most students of knowledge never get — take the ones that serve your path. Each carries its own ijazah on completion, and the Community Leadership Certificate requires at least two. Recordings stay available to enrolled students.
Hospital & Prison Chaplaincy
What it actually means to sit with the sick, the dying, and the incarcerated as a Muslim — the fiqh of visiting, the etiquette of presence, and how chaplaincy programs are structured and entered.
12-Step Recovery Facilitation
How twelve-step programs work, why every one of them begins with surrender to God, and how a Muslim can facilitate or support recovery within an Islamic framework.
Nonprofit & Masjid Management
Running a Muslim organization both Islamically and legally: shura, the sanctity of donor money, accountability, and the IRS, tax-exemption, and board-liability basics that keep institutions open.
In-Person Intensives
The first intensive runs over the last ten nights of Ramadan: Shaykh Hamzah Raza returns to Dallas and it is hosted at Oak Cliff Empowerment Center — concentrated study, community, and worship alongside the people you have been learning with all year.
Meet the Dean
Taught by someone who still does the work.
Journalist, researcher, and scholar — the curriculum is taught by a practitioner whose training runs from Dar Al Iftaa in Cairo to the streets of American organizing.
Shaykh Hamzah Raza
Dean & Lead Instructor
Hamzah Raza is an American-born scholar raised in Maryland and New Jersey. As a journalist, he worked for a variety of news outlets and publishers including Jacobin, Grayzone, and Huffington Post, investigating injustices, confronting leaders of hate groups such as Canary Mission and the Tea Party Movement, and publishing his findings.
As a researcher, his works on political, social, and theological issues have been published by Harvard University, Vanderbilt University, and MuslimMatters. He co-authored a book with Dr. Cornel West on the wrongful incarceration of Imam Jamil Al-Amin.
Upon completing his studies at Dar Al Iftaa Misriyya, he will receive authorization to issue fatwas from the Grand Mufti of Egypt, becoming the first American graduate of the program. He is currently a faculty member at Suhaib Webb Institute of Sacred Sciences and Mishkaah University, and teaches a Continuing Islamic Education class for the staff of Oak Cliff Empowerment Center.
From Students
What it's like to study with Shaykh Hamzah.
From students who have taken his fiqh, hadith, and aqidah classes across North America.
I have taken other Islamic classes with other organizations and teachers but have absolutely loved doing Hanafi fiqh with Shaykh Hamzah in the past year. He takes his time with explaining concepts, is an extremely good teacher and engages with questions outside of class over WhatsApp. I can't recommend his classes enough.
When learning anything, having a teacher who loves what he's teaching makes a world of difference. For the Islamic sciences, Shaykh Hamzah is that guy. I took a class with him on Imam Nawawi's Forty Hadith and learned so much from the commentary and context he brought forth in our discussions. I'm excited to study fiqh for the first time in that same setting Shaykh Hamzah creates, and would recommend anyone considering it to join along as well.
Sheikh Hamza is a great teacher and mentor, and his classes and style of teaching express the prophetic path of learning. His classes are of the few that focus on learning together rather than completing a coursework. May Allah bless him and his students.
Alhamdulillah Shaykh Hamzah is an incredibly approachable shaykh who understands the problems that we face in the real world. In our course on Nur al-Idah Shaykh Hamzah helped us understand both the theoretical rulings that we should do our best to abide by, but also how to handle differences of opinion among our communities, something that is of vital importance for us living in such a mixed madhhab environment in the West. Whether Shaykh Hamzah is answering a random question or explaining the evidence of a Hanafi position, he leaves his students with an ability to understand our tradition and apply these ahkam in our world.
Scholarly Endorsements
“Sheikh Hamzah Raza is an excellent educator and communicator, bringing a keen awareness of students' needs. He can teach normative Islamic subjects and bridge them to today's context. He is exceptional in every way.”
Get Involved
Don't just watch. Come do the work with us.
Oak Cliff Empowerment Center feeds neighbors, walks with returning citizens, mentors youth, and welcomes new Muslims — in 75216, every week. The institute exists to bring more hands to that work. Whether you can give a Saturday or two years, there's a place for you.
Register
The first CLC cohort begins October 30, 2026.
Register and pay tuition ($300 per semester) for access to every course, recording and workbook. We'll follow up with the schedule and your student portal invitation. There's no fee to register.
Registration is open until November 14, 2026.
Every lecture is recorded, so registering after the 24th means catching up on what you missed — not waiting for the next cohort. Register before classes begin and you start with everyone else.
Already enrolled?
Students and faculty sign in to the portal for Google Classroom, lecture recordings, and program resources.
Go to Student & Faculty PortalSponsor a student
One of the core motivations behind Empowerment Institute is our dedication to providing classical Islamic training with practical applications to needy young Muslim reverts who cannot otherwise access or afford it.
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A few details about you, then we'll show you where to pay. Applying is free, and nothing is charged by the form itself. Register before October 30, 2026 to begin with the cohort. If you have questions about the course or the tuition, email us before you apply.
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