Entries by simar

A Critical Review of The Islamic Secular by Sherman A. Jackson (Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies)

How does Sherman A. Jackson’s interpretation of Islamic secularism compare to other contemporary interpretations within Islamic thought? What are the implications of Jackson’s arguments on the relationship between religion and state in predominantly Muslim countries? In what ways can Jackson’s critique of Islamic secularism inform current debates on secularism and pluralism in multicultural societies?

Al-Daghistani, R. (2022): “Invoking God`s Name and the Practice of Dhikr”

The chapter aims to systematically outline some of the most important aspects and features of dhikr – the central meditative technique of Islamic spirituality in general and of Sufi “initiatic practice” in particular. Dhikr, which can be translated as “remembrance”, “recollection”, “mentioning” or “invocation” of God or God’s most beautiful Names, is primarily discussed in […]

ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Shaʿrānī’s Laṭāʾif al-Minan and the Virtue of Sincere Immodesty

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 Suf authors like al-Shaʿrānī attempted to relieve […]

A Critical Review of The Islamic Secular by Sherman A. Jackson (Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies)

Can the “secular” ever be “Islamic?” Sherman Jackson’s e Islamic Secular is a profound exploration of a deeply misunderstood concept: the relationship between Islam and the secular. In an intellectual landscape oſten dominated by binaries, such as secularism versus religion, and tradition versus modernity, Jackson masterfully demonstrates that these categories fail to account for Islam’s […]

Scepticism as method in the study of Quranic origins: A review article of Stephen J. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur’an:A Historical-Critical Study (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2022

This paper presents a review article of Creating the Qur’an by Stephen J. Shoemaker, a monograph that is highly critical of Quranic studies as practised in the Western academy today, arguing, among other things, that Islamic studies scholars need to learn from scholarship in other fields, namely history of religions and biblical studies, and that […]

“Ethics of Selfhood and Human Flourishing in Islamic Thought.” In Oxford Handbook of Islamic Ethics, edited by Mustafa Shah. New York: Oxford University Press, completed and forthcoming [2026]

The present study investigates the ethics of selfhood and human flourishing in Islamic thought, which is intertwined with a distinct moral and spiritual view of human nature. Drawing on the repository of various texts and authors in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and theology, and Islamic ethical literature, this article argues that it is in terms of […]

Ibn ʿArabī in Contemporary Iran: Some Currents and Debates / Çağdaş İran’da İbn Arabî: Bazı Akım ve Tartışmalar – By Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies

By Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies Iran’s historical and complicated social situation has led to diverse attitudes toward Sufism and interpretations of Ibn ʿArabī’s legacy. Many of Ibn ʿArabī’s prominent followers and commentators were originally from Iran; however, many of his notable opponents were also from Iran. These two historical currents of followers and […]

Tirmidhi’s Kitāb al-‘Ilal – annotated translation – Jonathan Brown

Abū ʿĪsā [al-Tirmidhī] said: All the ḥadīths in this book are acted on in law, taken as proof by at least some of the People of Knowledge, with the exception of two ḥadīths. * The first is the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAbbās that the Prophet (ṣ) joined his Noon and Afternoon prayers, and his Evening […]

Review by Anthony F. Shaker of Repentance and the Return to God: Tawba in Early Sufism (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 32, no. 3 (2022): 707-709)

Baghdādī’s 1989 edion (al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya wa’l-wilāyāt al-dīniyya, ed. Aḥmad Mubārak al-Baghdādī [Kuwait: Dār Ibn Qutayba, 1409/1989]), which relied on the earlier printed edion by Maṭbaʿat al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, an eleventh-century manuscript from the Chester Beay Library (some folios evidently wrien by the author himself), another fiſteenth-century manuscript from the same library and, finally, an admittedly error-laden […]

Sufism in the United Arab Emirates – Ida Zilio-Grandi

This essay aims to provide a brief overview of Sufism in the United Arab Emirates, both in its historical and contemporary contexts. Consideration has been given firstly to the increasing support of local leaderships for the Sufi orientation of Islam as an antidote to the spread of Salafism and political Islam; and secondly to the […]

Review of Bedeviled: Jinn Doppelgangers in Islam & Akbarian Sufism (Dunja Rašić)

This book makes a unique contribution as a foundational source on jinn and jinnealogy and as an encyclopedic reference on jinn doppelgangers (quranāʾ) in particular. It succeeds in the author’s aim to discuss quranāʾ in the context of their jinn species, their human relationships, and their place in Akbarian spiritual cosmology. Furthermore, Bedeviled provides a […]