Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research is dedicated to the publication of original content on relevant topics that is academic, authentic, and accessible. Papers that provide answers to doubts for Muslims, and those that nurture conviction in their religion, remain the focus of Yaqeen’s academic line of inquiry.
By serving as a platform for scholarly discourse and elevating the voices of many talented scholars and academics within the Muslim community, Yaqeen aims to to inspire all Muslims to see the value of their religion and ultimately spur Islamically-rooted contribution within the broader society. As such, every paper submitted to Yaqeen must fulfill one or more of the following research goals:
Dismantling Doubts
What Islam isn’t. Refuting claims made against Islam, contextualizing texts or issues that have been problematized by Islamophobes, and offering frameworks to refute common misconceptions.
Nurturing Conviction
What Islam is. Offering content on how to spiritually and intellectually anchor and strengthen belief. This involves an Islamic equivalent to systematic theology. The goal is to reintroduce Allah and His Messenger (SAW) to people, instill strong faith in divine texts, root faith in the hearts, and offer spiritual guidance on how to practice in a way that keeps those roots nourished.
Inspiring Contribution
What Islam does. Telling the story of Islam properly, historically, and in the present. Reclaiming the glorious past of contribution and contextualizing when Muslims fell short of Islamic goals. This also includes discussions on ethics and what is unique about what Islam can offer to the world today. This represents the branches and fruits of the tree of faith that provide shade and benefit to humanity.
Contributions across all academic disciplines are welcome. We particularly encourage submissions in the following research areas: Faith, Shariah, Politics and Practical Theology, Psychology and Mental Health, History, Nature and Science, Family and Community and Muslim Community Data and Trends.
Application Submission Process
To have a paper considered for publication, we invite interested authors to first submit a brief 1-2 page proposal for feedback from our editorial review team. All submissions must be original work and should not have been published elsewhere previously nor be under consideration by another publication.
Proposals should:
- Be at least 400-500 words
- Align with and advance at least one component of our BASIC framework (a new holistic tool created to measure Islamic religiosity; for more details, see image below and read our full report)
- Explain the aim and motivation behind the work and its overall significance
- Demonstrate how the paper aligns with Yaqeen’s research goals (see here)
- Detail the central arguments and methodological approaches
- Provide tentative conclusions
- List out the key sources/literature/evidence that will be used to support the findings (both from traditional and western academic paradigms)
- Contain practical (spiritual) recommendations for how one might implement this knowledge in their day-to-day lives where relevant
Once a proposal is submitted, our Editorial Review Board will review the submission for:
- Alignment with Yaqeen’s research priorities, mission, and scope of orthodoxy
- Engagement with the foundational Islamic sources (i.e., Quran and Sunnah) and the dominant opinions within traditional Muslim scholarship where relevant
- Author’s credentials, preparation, and training in the subject matter
- Breadth of primary and secondary literature to be engaged (in both traditional and western paradigms where appropriate)
- Suitability of research methods as appropriate for the discipline
- Rigor of argumentation and use of sufficient evidence to support stated claims
- Accessibility and relevance to a general educated audience
- Quality of language, style, grammar, and formatting*
If a proposal is accepted, the author will be asked to submit a full-length paper** that adheres to our aforementioned evaluation criteria and formatting guidelines below. A team of expert peer reviewers, including members of our Editorial Review Board, will thoroughly review this paper before a final decision is made. Once all revisions have been accepted and the manuscript is approved, the paper will then move forward for onboarding toward publication.
*For non-native English speakers, please consider employing professional editing services prior to submission.
**Your final submission must be a complete research paper that adheres to our stated criteria and meets our standards of academic excellence. At this time, we do not currently accept reflection pieces, khutbahs/lectures, and term papers. If you would like to submit a book proposal, please review our Yaqeen Book Submission Guidelines and select the Book Proposal option in the drop-down menu below. Our Yaqeen Books team will thoroughly review those submissions and determine suitability for our platform.
Academic Integrity
Maintaining integrity in our work is not only a value Yaqeen promotes as an academic standard, but is an ethical value integral to the good character of a believing Muslim. Honesty in our writing and acknowledging our indebtedness to the works of others through proper citation and referencing, is both an academic and Islamic virtue. This is perhaps most evident in the isnad system developed for authenticating hadith and retracing the source of the information in a very detailed manner. We ask that you please maintain academic integrity and honor the tradition by giving proper credit through citations where credit is due, whether that be in the form of quotations, paraphrased sections, or even borrowed ideas or framing.
Formatting Guidelines
Font for main text
- Times New Roman
- Size 14 font with 1.15 line spacing
- 1-inch margins
- Fully justified
Font for footnotes
- Times New Roman
- Size 10 font with 1.00 line spacing
- Left-justified
- Transliteration of Arabic terms must adhere to the American Library Association - Library of Congress (ALA-LC). See Romanization table guidelines
Reference style
- Footnotes must be in accordance with Chicago Style.
- Please see Purdue Style Guide for a side-by-side comparison of Chicago style compared to other formats. Free automatic citation generators like Endnote and Zotero are great tools for tracking the sources you use and generating citations in a variety of formats.
Hadith Citation
- For the major books of hadith, include the name of the book and either the hadith number or the transliterated names of the kitab and bab where the hadith can be found. If volume and page numbers are cited instead of hadith numbers, please treat the source as a book and include the publication information.
- 1 Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, no. 6227.
- 2 Muwaṭṭa’ Mālik, kitāb qaṣr al-ṣalāt fī al-safar, bāb jāmiʿ al-ṣalāt.
- 3 Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, no. 2807, bk. 52, hadith 42.
- 4 Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhāri, kitâb al-maẓālim, bāb al-ghurfa wal-‘ulyá, no. 5505.
- Books of sharh (e.g., Fath al-bari) should include full publication information.
- 1 Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-bārī sharḥ ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, ed. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Bin Bāz and Muḥammad Fu’ād ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 16 vols. (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya, 1997), 11:525–27.
- If the hadith is not in Sahih Bukhari or Sahih Muslim, cite the reference from a primary source (i.e., one that has isnad) and also mention how the scholars of hadith have graded it.
- Avoid using a weak hadith unless it is necessary to support the overall argument. If there is a strong difference of opinion about a hadith’s authenticity, please mention that in the footnotes.
For any queries regarding our paper (or book) proposal/manuscript submission guidelines and overall review and publication process, please send us an email at [email protected]