Depok, A new chapter unfolds at the Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII), with the arrival of Dr. Jumana Elsamna in February 2026. Dr. Elsamna officially joins the Faculty of Islamic Studies, bringing the story and spirit of a Palestinian scholar from Gaza into UIII’s Turath Islam Program. A specialist in Hadith and Sunnah studies, she completed her PhD, master’s, and first bachelor’s degree at the Islamic University of Gaza in Arabic, followed by a second bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Applied Sciences in Gaza. At FIS UIII, she will teach Alsunaan wa manahij almuhaddithin and Islamic Studies in Western Academia, inviting students to engage both classical texts and contemporary scholarship.
Dr. Elsamna describes herself as tradition‑rooted, present‑driven, and future‑focused. For her, Hadith and Sunnah studies are not merely about preserving texts, but about tracing how knowledge has been transmitted, verified, and interpreted across centuries, and how it can still speak to today’s questions of authority and meaning. Her research seeks to show how Islamic knowledge traditions can engage modern academic frameworks without losing their integrity, a concern she sees as vital amid misrepresentation of Islam and intellectual fragmentation.
UIII, especially FIS, attracted her because it offers a space where academic standards meet Islamic traditions and where the principle of wasatiya—balance and moderation—guides scholarly life. She is particularly drawn to the diversity of UIII’s student body, seeing in it both a challenge and an opportunity: to create classrooms that are inclusive yet intellectually rigorous, where students feel safe to ask questions and think deeply. Beyond teaching, she hopes to build networks linking scholars in the Muslim world and Western academia through collaborative research and seminars, and to develop publications and teaching resources that make complex Hadith debates accessible to students at different levels.
Outside class, Dr. Elsamna recharges by walking and spending time with her family, and she finds that teaching itself can be energizing when it becomes meaningful dialogue rather than one-way lecturing. To her future students, she offers a simple message:
take your studies seriously, because every effort will one day bear fruit—not only for your own life, but, God willing, for the wider Muslim umma as well.
She comes to FIS UIII ready not only to teach, but also to learn alongside her students as they navigate the meeting point between tradition and the modern world.