The Islamic sciences are a set of traditionally defined religious sciences practiced by Islamic scholars (ʿulamāʾ), aimed at the construction and interpretation of Islamic religious knowledge.

Different sciences

These sciences include:

In Shiʿi Islam

Shiʿi Islam Many of the same subjects are studied at Shiʿi seminaries (known as hawza), but there are some differences:

According to Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

The celebrated Islamic scholar Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali wrote on Islamic sciences in his well known book The Revival of Religious Sciences (Ihya `ulum al‑din). He argued that a Muslim has a religious obligation (wajib) to know whatever aspects of religious science are necessary for them to obey Shari'ah in doing whatever work it is they do. So, for example, someone working in animal husbandry should know rules concerning zakat; a merchant "doing business in an usurious environment", should learn rules about riba so as "to effectively avoid it". Sciences whose knowledge is wajib kifa'i (must be known by some people in society, although once enough people have met the obligation, the rest of the population is relieved of it). Al‑Ghazali considers wajib kifa'i religious sciences to be classified into four groups: Al‑Ghazzali aserts that not all religious sciences are "praiseworthy" (mahmud), as some proport to be "oriented towards the Shari'ah but actually deviate from its teachings". These are known as "undesirable" (madhmum).