Yorùbá [YOH-roo-BAH] mythology is sacred to a growing religious community of more than one hundred million practitioners, who can be found on every continent, and an inspiration to millions more, both on the African continent and in the diaspora. This community is composed of devotees of the òrìṣà [oh-ree-shah] (divinities) of the Yoruba people of […]
Every Saturday in Toronto, members of the Halveti-Jerrahi Order gather at the Canadian Sufi Cultural Centre on 270 Birmingham Street for an evening of remembrance (dhikr), prayer, spiritual instruction, and communion. 2 Although the main nucleus of attendees is made up of first- and second-generation Canadians of Turkish descent, the lodge, or dargah as they […]
Imagine an adolescent going through a difficult time. Fearing judgment, she does not confide in friends or family. But since she feels lonely, she does decide to reach out to something inexpensive, nonjudgmental, and available even at 2:00 a.m.: generative artificial intelligence (AI). She expresses concern to the AI chatbot that social media has damaged […]
Few works in Arabic literature have exerted simultaneous command of the heart, intellect, and tongue as powerfully as Nahj al-balāgha. Celebrated not only for its rhetorical brilliance but also for its enduring spiritual and moral insight, after the Quran it stands as one of the most profound treasuries of guidance in the Islamic tradition. Origins and […]
As human beings, we are given the intelligence to know the One who is the Origin and End of all things, who is Sat (Being), Chit (Consciousness), and Ānanda (Bliss). And to realize that this knowledge itself is the ultimate goal of human life, the crown of human existence, and what ultimately makes us human beings—who can discourse with the trees […]
The notion of “playing God” frequently comes to the fore in discussions of bioethics, especially in religious contexts. The phrase has always been analyzed and discussed from Christian and secular standpoints. Two interpretations exist in the literature. The first takes “God” seriously and “playing” playfully. It argues that this concept does not state a principle […]
By Eric Geoffroy While Ibn ‘Arabī (d. 1240) is known as the “greatest master” (al-shaykh al-akbar) of the spirituality and esotericism of Islam, the Emir Abd el-Kader (‘Abd al-Qādir al-Jazā’irī, d. 1883) is better known for his uprising against the French occupation between 1832 and 1847. Yet, he was brought up in a Sufi environment and […]
İslâm dini, insanın hem ruh hem de beden sağlığını önemseyen, dolayısıyla ruh ve beden eğitimine değer veren, bu konuda birçok hüküm belirleyen bir dindir. Buna göre insanın ruh eğitimi ve sağlığı önemli olduğu gibi, beden sağlığı ve beden eğitimi de oldukça önemlidir. bu çalışmada özel olarak beden eğitimi konusunda İslâmî kaynaklarda geçen bilgileri bir araya […]
The Naqshbandiyya Mujaddidiyya order is among the world’s largest and most geographically widespread Sufi orders, but it has long been assumed to be absent among Chinese-speaking Muslims. Despite a handful of isolated references to local Chinese Mujaddidī groups in studies of particular communities, comprehensive histories of Chinese Islams make no mention of the Mujaddidiyya, and […]
Anyone visiting the modern city of Cairo will surely be struck with the impression that medieval Egypt, and particularly the capital city of the Mamluk empire, remains close at hand. In fact, it remains literally at arm’s length through its monumental architecture, its ordering of the cityscape, and even its design aesthetic that in the […]
This book expands upon my doctoral dissertation at McGill’s Institute of Islamic Studies. It is the first comprehensive premodern intellectual and social history of the Bā ʿAlawi Sada and their Sufi tradition in the English language. While the Bā ʿAlawī tarīqa and its premodern origins remains poorly understood, this history addresses that lacuna by closely […]