**1. Introduction**

The purpose of this chapter is to understand how seven different sects in Islam, namely Sunni, Shia, Whabbi, Salafi, Berelvi, Sufi and Deobandi (Seven Sects) have different perspectives on creativity in Islam.<sup>1</sup> As Islam is a complete way of life and the religious, financial and political platforms must be part of the assessment of creativity. Creativity in Islam can only be assessed by educated and intellectually qualified Islamic *Ulema* (scholars) that hold the relevant knowledge and are authentic *Ulemas*. This chapter will explore the stages of Islamic creative thinking, legal reasoning and deductive reasoning in Islam relating to the seven different *Ulemas* belonging to seven different Islamic sects. The *Ulemas* will provide a unique insight into their

<sup>1</sup> As a matter of openness and transparency, the author confirms that the research in this chapter from part of another chapter namely Islamic Creativity Framework [1] and such works have also been published with the same publisher. The previous works [1] focused on the Islamic Creativity Framework, but this chapter focuses only on the responses of the Seven Sects. This chapter includes new research and may have some repetition.

understanding and interpretations of Islamic scriptures and texts in relation to creativity and how their perceptions and practices of differing Islamic traditions compare with each other concerning creativity.

Prior to this study, there has been research conducted examining how creativity is effective in Islam [2]. However, that research did not focus on how Seven Sects assesses creativity. It does not look at the required support of *ulemas* and the application of Islamic reasoning to determine effective and approved creativity in Islam. It also does not examine how creativity is rejected in Islam. The need for this study was due to gaps in other studies. This study will explore the stage of Islamic creative thinking, legal reasoning, and deductive reasoning in Islam differs between Seven Sects and this comparison and differences have yet to be researched.

This study was conducted by examining seven different leading Islamic traditions based in the UK. Each sect provided unique insight into their understanding and interpretations of Islamic scriptures and texts in relation to creativity and its assessment. This study demonstrates how perceptions and practices of differing Islamic traditions compare with each other.<sup>2</sup> The uniqueness of creativity research in Islam is the explorative nature of this research that lends itself to qualitative studies, such as religious ethnography and discourse analysis will form two key approaches [3]. Religious ethnography will assist in eliciting responses from each of the Seven Sect's representatives, and discourse analysis will be used to identify different perspectives [4].
