Islamic studies personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

I began reading about the history of the Qur'anic text because I wanted to answer a question my grandmother asked me: why do different printed copies of the Qur'an sometimes look slightly different from one another? Trying to explain the tradition of variant readings, and the care that went into recording them, took me from general introductions into Ziauddin Sardar's Reading the Qur'an and then into material on early manuscripts. What struck me was not a single dramatic discovery but how much of the subject involves patient work with texts, transmission and the people who copied and argued about them.

What draws me to Islamic studies as a degree is that it sits between disciplines I already enjoy. In History I have learned to ask who produced a source and why; in Religious Studies I have learned to describe a belief accurately before assessing arguments about it. Islamic studies demands both, alongside language work. I want to read Arabic well enough to follow a legal or exegetical argument in its own terms rather than through a translator's choices, and I am aware that this will take years of grammar and vocabulary rather than enthusiasm alone.

I am particularly interested in law and ethics: how jurists reasoned from limited textual material to practical rulings, and how that reasoning was adapted in very different societies. Reading about the development of the schools of law showed me that disagreement was built into the tradition and treated as legitimate, which is not the picture usually presented in public discussion. I would like to study this properly, including the modern period, where debates about reform, authority and minority communities in Europe raise questions I have heard argued over at home without ever hearing them settled.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

My A levels have given me complementary tools. History is my strongest subject and I chose the coursework option on nineteenth-century imperial administration, which involved comparing official reports with accounts written by people governed under them. Learning to handle sources that disagree, and to explain the disagreement rather than choose a side, is the habit I expect to rely on most at university.

Religious Studies covers philosophy of religion and ethics. Writing about arguments for the existence of God taught me to set out a position in its strongest form before responding to it, and I found the material on divine attributes useful when I later read about kalam and the debates between theologians over God's speech and the created or uncreated status of the Qur'an. English Literature has been less obviously connected but more useful than I expected: close reading a poem line by line, tracking imagery and structure, is not far from the way commentators work through a verse.

Outside the syllabus I have taught myself the Arabic alphabet and basic grammar using a textbook and recordings, working through it most evenings. I can read short vowelled passages slowly and recognise common verb patterns, though I know my vocabulary is small. I also attend a weekend class in Arabic calligraphy, which began as a way of improving my handwriting and became something I take more seriously. Practising thuluth taught me how much the script's proportions were governed by rules, and reading about manuscript production made me notice things in museum displays that I had previously walked past. Beyond that, I read Robert Irwin's writing on the Alhambra and follow a podcast on Ottoman history, which has drawn me towards the parts of the Islamic world beyond the Arabic-speaking centre.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

For the past two years I have helped my grandmother prepare for a weekly women's study circle at our local mosque. Her eyesight has weakened, so I read passages aloud, enlarge printed handouts and sometimes look up background information she wants to check. Sitting through those discussions has been a genuine education in how texts are used: the same verse produces different practical conclusions depending on which of the older commentators someone has been reading, and the participants' ages and countries of origin shape what they find convincing. It has also taught me to listen carefully to people whose knowledge is deep but organised quite differently from mine.

I work Saturdays in a bakery, serving customers and handling the till from opening. It is busy and physical, and it has made me reliable about time and calm when several people want attention at once. Balancing a shift with reading and essay deadlines has forced me to plan my week properly rather than work in bursts.

I also volunteer twice a month at a community library, shelving stock and helping at a children's reading hour. Persuading a seven-year-old to finish a book has improved my ability to explain things simply, and I have been asked to suggest additions to the small religion section, which meant thinking about what a general reader actually needs rather than what I happen to be interested in.

At college I am part of a debating group that meets at lunchtime. Arguing positions I do not hold has been useful practice in separating an argument's structure from my agreement with it. Together these commitments have made me steady, organised and used to working with people who see things differently, which is the sort of preparation I think a degree of this kind requires.

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