This paper is a study of Ḥaydar Āmulī’s (d. ca. 787/1385) analysis of the basmala in his commentary on Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638/1240) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam. While Āmulī addresses this phrase, which he regards as the foremost verse in the entire Quran, in various sections of his work, his most comprehensive discussion focuses on the basmala […]
Building on the works of the Sufi philosopher Seyyed Hossein Nasr and the German sociologist Hartmut Rosa, this article argues that the climate crisis signals a deeper spiritual and existential crisis beyond technological solutions and carbon reduction strategies. Departing from conventional problem-solution narratives, it frames climate change as a crisis of human self-understanding and our […]
Short Biographies of the Authors of the Selected Texts Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (Rhazes or Rhasis) (d. 313/925) was an Islamic thinker who, emulating the example of the Hellenistic physician and philosopher Galen (d. c. 216 CE), became competent first in medicine and then in philosophy to the extent that he earned the title “the Galen of […]
From the Divine to the Human: Contemporary Islamic Thinkers on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic, edited by Muhammad U. Faruque and Mohammed Rustom, is a fresh and insightful engagement with one of the most challeng- ing questions of human thought, namely evil and human suffering, from an Islamic perspective. The volume takes a new […]
The essay below analyzes the substance and rhetoric of ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s (d. 973/1565) book Laṭāʾif al-minan wa-l-akhlāq (Subtle Blessings and Morals). While giving particular attention to the text’s introduction and concluding sections, in my analysis here I use the Laṭāʾif as a case study to illustrate how Sufi authors like al-Shaʿrānī attempted to relieve […]
Are all languages equal? Does the revelation of the Qur’an in Arabic elevate that language above all others? What is the goal of using language, and particularly of using it Islamically? The early twentieth-century Wolof-language poem The Wolofal Takhmīs takes on these questions in verse. In arguing that Wolof and Arabic are equally viable languages […]
The crises of the Islamic world revolve around “epistemic colonialism.” So, in order to decolonize the Muslim mind, we must be able to deconstruct the Western episteme, and this involves dissociating ourselves from the Eurocentric knowledge system that gradually became ascendent since the Renaissance through such ideas as progress and modernity. However, this does not […]
Few today would deny that the brain holds a preeminent place in the scientific imagination. In modern science, the brain is often seen as the organ of consciousness, thought, and identity. This view, rooted in neuroscience, psychology, and cognitive science, suggests that who we are —our emotions, memories, imagination, and even sense of free will—is […]
Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Arabic language, and the greatest and most influential Arabic Sufi poet, ‘Umar ibn ‘Alī ibn al-Fāriḍ, set the standard for Arabic Sufi poetry after him. Known as the “Sultan of the Lovers” (Sulṭān al-‘Āshiqīn), ibn al-Fāriḍ’s works inspired numerous commentaries, especially amongst the school of Ibn […]
Food insecurity, which is a growing issue in Canada, affecting one in eight households, has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting one in seven households (Tarasuk and Mitchell 2020). Ethnic and racialized communities, particularly Muslim households, are disproportionately affected. This chapter explores the potential of Muslim philanthropy, guided by Islamic food-related principles (Iftar, Fidya, […]
This talk aims to introduce the Cameleer manuscripts in Australia and highlight their adherence to Sufism. After an introduction to the importance of the Cameleers in Australia and the difficulties of the existing assertions of Sufism amongst the Cameleers. We will provide an overview of the existent Cameleer manuscripts which, despite their rarity, provide an […]
By Britta Timm Knudsen This document represents the ‘Methodological toolkit’ for the Horizon2020 Project ECHOES; European Colonial Heritage Modalities in Entangled Cities. The ECHOES Project brings together scholars from a wide range of disciplines and nationalities and entails cases in cityscapes from Asia, Africa and South America and from Northern, Western, Southern and Eastern Europe. ECHOES […]