Coordinator: Professor Nazlin Howell BSc PhD FRSC FIFST FRSA

 

Objectives 

• To develop short courses and academic programmes and curricula for promoting and imparting knowledge of Ginans and related devotional literature.

• To collaborate with key international Universities and Institutes, contributing to teaching and much-needed research in an under-explored area.

• To disseminate the above programmes in classrooms, on-line courses and webinars.

 

The Academic Section will launch our exciting ‘Short Courses on our Wonderful Ginan Tradition’ in 2022. This course, suitable for youth and adults, will consist of six modules, each comprising 5-8 lectures and will include an optional assessment e.g. a Quiz and a certificate of attendance. Lectures (40 minutes) will be delivered at intervals, using a pre-recorded video on Zoom with the lecturer in attendance to answer questions.The lectures will be available for downloading from the ASG website after each zoom class. The course will kick-off with Module 1 followed by others a summarised below: 

1.  MODULE 1: EXPLORATION OF GINANS involves an appreciation of the spirituality of selected Ginans as influenced by the teachings of The Holy Quran, Imams and Dais and Sufi principles. Eight lectures will discuss eight different Ginans together with their Khojki and Gujarati texts and recitation. 

2. MODULE 2: POETRY AND MUSIC FORMS AND RAAG will explore the forms of expression of devotional literature and poetry in terms of recitations and raags of Ginans, Qasidas, Sufi Ghazals, Qawwali, Bhajans and Garbi.

3. MODULE 3: LANGUAGE and SCRIPTS will involve the practice of basic reading and writing of Gujarati and Khojki using selected Ginan scripts.

4. MODULE 4: PIRS AND SAYYEDS will involve the discussion of the philosophy of the main Pirs and Sayyeds through selected Ginans and Granths.

5. MODULE 5 THEMES IN GINANS will discuss themes related to Instruction, Ritual, Supplication and Ethics in selected Ginans.

6. MODULE 6 GINAN RELATED LITERATURE will provide a brief overview of Islamic Literature and Poetry as well as multi-devotional literature.  Further, it will compare Ginanic and other religious literature described above.

 

We very much look forward to your participation!