Love, Romance, and Sexuality
For Teens 14+ / For Adults (Choose Teens or Adults Version at Checkout)
Taught by Hamza Karamali
Begin to analyze Western culture and creatively navigate it as a conservative Muslim. Analyze the literary devices, theme, setting, characters, and plot of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, comparing its Christian Renaissance culture with traditional Muslim culture, experiencing and navigating the conflict between romantic love and doing the right thing, and imagine how a fallible but faithful and well-educated Muslim in the shoes of the protagonist would play out the series of events that he or she encounters. Students will also apply the principles they learn in this course to an examination of modern LGBQT+ issues.
12 Live Classes (Recorded For Later Viewing) - 12 Supplementary Recorded Lessons - Guided Reading of Romeo and Juliet - Midterm - Final Exam
Start Date: October 3
End Date: December 25
Weekly Live Sessions (Recorded For Later Viewing):
Sundays 2.30 pm - 3.30 pm UTC
(SCROLL DOWN FOR THE MONTHLY PAYMENT OPTION)
Syllabus
01. ITALIAN RENAISSANCE CULTURE
Shakespeare sets his play at the end of the Italian Renaissance. Hamza Karamali uses the prologue and the first scene of Romeo and Juliet to introduce you to the interplay of religion and reason in Western history, describing how Christian Europe’s rediscovery of its Greek past (ironically through the Muslims!) shift its worldview from being God-centered to human-centered. He then helps you imagine how a religious Muslim culture might navigate the same shift.
02. ARRANGED MARRIAGE
For most of human history, women’s marriages have been arranged by their families. Hamza Karamali uses the second and third scenes of Romeo and Juliet to explore the meaning and purpose of marriage and then helps you contrast marriage in ancient Greece, in medieval Christian Europe, in the Italian renaissance, in modern societies, and in Islam.
03. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
What does it mean to fall in love? Does it require multiple encounters, or can it happen at a glance? Is it good or bad? What should we do if it happens to us? Explore these questions and more with Hamza Karamali in light of the fourth and fifth scenes of Act 1. Imagine how Romeo and Juliet might have played out differently in a religious Muslim culture.
04. HOW EMOTIONS CLOUD MORAL JUDGMENTS
Hamza Karamali uses the most famous scene in Romeo and Juliet to show how powerful literature draws its readers into an emotional experience that leads to unreasoned moral judgments. He then explores the source of moral judgments and helps you see how a master dramatist like Shakespeare can make you unwittingly believe that bad people are good.
05. ROMANTIC LOVE, RELIGION, AND MARRIAGE
The only religious man in Romeo and Juliet--the Friar--is sympathetic to the couple’s romance. But Christians like the Friar didn’t have a Sacred Law. Would (and should) a Muslim imam do the same thing? Hamza Karamali uses Shakespeare’s captivating description of young romantic love to explore its relation to religion and to marriage.
06. WOULD ROMEO HAVE MADE A GOOD HUSBAND?
Romeo first fell in love with Rosaline, forgot her instantly when he saw Juliet, slew Juliet’s cousin in a street duel, married her in secret, climbed her window to spent a night with her, and finally committed suicide. Hamza Karamali analyzes Romeo’s character and helps you imagine whether he might have made a good husband if he and Juliet had lived for a longer time.
MIDTERM Rewrite Romeo and Juliet in a religious and conservative Muslim culture.
07. WHEN PARENTS DON’T UNDERSTAND
Romeo is the son of Juliet’s parents’ enemies but she marries him anyway because she loves him. Classic love stories frequently feature parents who get in the way of their children’s love. That is no longer the case in Western culture but remains common among Muslims. Hamza Karamali uses the final scene of Act 3 to reflect on why that is the case and what children and parents should do about it.
08. IS LOVE HARAM?
If Romeo and Juliet had been Muslim, many of their most dramatic actions would have been haram. Does that mean love is haram? Read the first two scenes of Act 4 and then revisit the entire play with Hamza Karamali in light of Sacred Law to imagine what love might look like in a religious and conservative Muslim society.
09. WOULD JULIET HAVE MADE A GOOD MOTHER?
There is nothing in the world like a mother’s loving mercy. In the final scene of Act 4, Juliet drinks a potion to feign death so she can escape with Romeo to another city. Hamza Karamali helps you imagine whether Juliet would have grown up to be a loving and merciful mother and what that means for love and marriage.
10. GOD AND FATE
Romeo and Juliet employs the ancient Greek theme of a bitter and inescapable godless destiny. Throughout the play, both Romeo and Juliet see signs that their love will lead them to their deaths, and in the final act of the play, Romeo says, “Then I defy you, stars!” But it is his very decision to avoid his destiny that brings the lovers’ fate about. Hamza Karamali illustrates how an Islamic God-centered worldview turns unpleasant destiny into something sweet, and helps you imagine why Romeo and Juliet should have responded with patience rather than suicide.
11. UNDYING LOVE
Both Romeo and Juliet imagined that their love would reunite them if they committed suicide and lay in the same grave. But is that true? Hamza Karamali revisits what it means for something to be true, how we determine that it is true, and then explores what kind of love dies and what kind is undying.
12. GENDER AND SEXUALITY
Romeo and Juliet lived in a gendered and patriarchal society where adultery (particularly for a noblewoman like Juliet) was taboo. Modern Western norms have since changed--gender neutrality is now vogue, patriarchy has been eliminated, and adultery is no longer a sin. Hamza Karamali helps you extend your application of Sacred Law to the problems of gender and sexuality today with a special focus on questions raised by the LGBTQ+ movement.
FINAL Apply your knowledge to a variety of real-life problems.
