The Prophetic Method Prize

In the name of God, the Beneficent and the Merciful

May God send His peace and blessings to His Prophet, his family and his companions.

The Foundation of Imam Yassine for Research and Studies is pleased to launch the first edition of the “Prophetic Method Prize” which concerns written productions about the thought of Imam Abdessalam Yassine. By initiating this prize, the Foundation aims on the one hand to encourage academic research in innovative contemporary Islamic thought, and on the other hand to introduce the intellectual project of Imam Yassine to the wider academic community.

The subject of the Prize

The prize falls into two categories:

• Academic theses (PhD, MA and BA) that have been defended in the course of the last thirteen years, roughly 2006-2018.
• Books that approach the conceptual issues that Imam Yassine addressed within the framework of his theory of the Prophetic Method. The books that will be considered should:

a – address, elaborate on, and discuss one of the main themes of the prophetic method;

b – set Imam Yassine in comparison with one of the figures of the modern Islamic – or human – thought in terms of their thematic concerns and/or methodological choices.

The Objectives of the Prize

Launching this prize, the Foundation aims to:

• encourage researchers to discover and study the intellectual project of the Imam in its educational, epistemological, sociological and political perspectives;
• explore the practical ways in which the methodology and the ideas that the Imam adopted can be invested to study and analyze the thought and practices of Muslims – either at the individual or the communitarian levels – in both the past and the present.
• evaluate the Imam’s diagnosis of the crisis of the Ummah and his conception of its recovery at the concomitant levels of the individual and the community; a duality that the Imam stresses all through his writings.
• compare and contrast the intellectual school of the Imam – in terms of content, individual behavior and community building – with other contemporary Islamic intellectual schools.

The Value of the Prize

• The prize will be offered to three winners from each category. The winners will receive a cash prize, and they will have their works published.
• The prize will be withdrawn in case none of the proposed works meets the academic, methodological and referencing criteria.

Submission and adjudication process

Concerning the academic theses:

• The thesis should have been defended after 2006 either at a Moroccan or a foreign university.
• The candidate should send an electronic copy of his or her thesis in PDF format.
• The candidate should fill in the accompanied application form.
• The deadline of the reception of the theses is 15 April 2019.
• Entries will be judged by a scientific committee on the following criteria: academic quality in terms of content, methodology, and language; well-defined problematic; straightforward and comprehensive treatment of the topic; and clear conclusions.
• The results will be announced by 15 September 2019, and only the names of the first three winners will be displayed.
• The selected theses can only be published after the authors make the required modifications – in case the reviewers see fit.

Concerning books

• The word count of the books should range between 30000 and 80000.
• The reception of the book proposals starts from the date of the announcement of the prize until 15 April 2019.
• The book proposals should range between 2500 and 3000 words, and they should contain the following: a clear title, a well-formulated thesis, sub-themes, well-defined methodology, an outline including the previous elements, and a list of references.
• The proposals will be adjudicated by a scientific committee, and the results will be communicated to the winning authors by 15 May 2019.
• The selected authors are required to send the final versions of their books no later than 31 August 2019.
• After the last round of the adjudication, three winners – ranked in order – will be selected, and the Foundation will announce the final results by 20 November 2019.
• The selected books can only be published after the authors make the required modifications – in case the reviewers see fit.

Application Form

Organiser:

Foundation of Imam Abdessalam Yassine for Research and Studies

Communication

• All inquiries and submissions should be sent to communication@yassine.org

www.yassine.org