Nasrin Rouzati’s Review of Faruque and Rustom (eds.), From the Divine to the Human: Contemporary Islamic Thinkers on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic (Studia Islamica, 2025)

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 approach by focusing on the human subject and its potential and spiritual development in the face of evil and suffering. Although the overarching problem of evil is considered one of the most investigated questions in the field of philosophy of religion, the issue is mostly addressed in the context of God’s divine attributes with the objec- tive to justify the existence of a powerful and benevolent God and the fact that evil exists, hence the formation of various theodicies. The present volume, however, shifts the attention from the divine attributes to human capabilities, and while it does not overlook the metaphysical nature of evil and suffering, it draws attention to the anthropocentric conceptions of them, thereby address- ing both the theoretical and the practical dimensions of the problem.

The volume begins by a concise introduction where the editors intro- duce the topic and provide a short history of various versions of the problem of evil and suffering, as well as ways by which the philosophers of religions have largely addressed the issue. Following this background information, the reader is made aware of the unique approach of the present study and the redirection that will take place throughout the volume, i.e. drawing attention away from the traditional approach in philosophy of religion, where the focus is on God and His attributes, and directing the emphasis on human capacities and spiri- tual development. Subsequently, the contributors of the fourteen chapters of the volume attempt to achieve the aforementioned goal by investigating both pre-modern and contemporary Islamic literature to propose new avenues in studying the nature of evil and human suffering.

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Food insecurity among Toronto Muslim households during COVID and the role of key Muslim charitable institutions

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, Kaffara, Udhiya, and Aqeeqa), to address food insecurity in Toronto by reimagining them as the 5 Pillars of Sustainable Food Security (5PSFS). As an action research piece, the chapter, using a grounded theory approach with data from interviews of 15 charitable institutions, reveals that while more Muslims are turning to food banks, local charities underutilize the 5PSFS. This chapter underscores the need for a better understanding of the 5PSFS as a sustainable means of addressing local food insecurity and needs, aligning with Islamic ethics, Maqasid, and fostering stewardship.

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Methodological toolkit By Britta Timm Knudsen

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 focuses on various forms and levels of engagements with colonial heritage from local street performances to EU political discourse. The overall aim is to investigate decolonial heritage practices outside Europe in former colonized territories with multiple and different histories of colonialisms as well as to look at decolonial practices inside Europe while keeping in mind the very different trajectories of the different European colonial projects. The fact that Europe’s colonial past is simultaneously present as an undeniable heritage in its cities, institutions and international relationships, and also constantly ‘echoed’ back to it from the former colonized ‘outside’ constitutes both the challenge and the promise of the ECHOES project; to look for way in which to engage a decolonized future by seeking inspiration in how the colonial past is managed, transformed and worked on by various artistic, political, heritage or civil actors in cityscapes within and beyond the with European continent

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Why Self-Care Is Not Enough: The Nature of True Well-Being – Samuel Bendeck Sotillos

The notion of self-care—like its precursor, self-help—has emerged due to a spiritual vacuum in the contemporary world. The burgeoning mental health crisis that is prevalent today appears inseparable from the broader existential predicament facing humanity. Mainstream psychology and its therapies have not been able to address these challenges, in response to which we have seen the inevitable rise of self-care remedies. Across humanity’s diverse spiritual cultures, these have always been available, yet they were invariably grounded in a religious tradition and its sacred psychology. The more we are marginalized from such roots, the more self-care is required our current obsession with which is the unacknowledged search for wholeness due to modern people having lost their sense of the sacred

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Introduction: Knowledge, Power, and the “Settler Colonial Turn” in Palestine Studies – Ilan Pappe

Abstract:

This special issue presents articles on the topic of “Settler Colonialism in Palestine,” covering conceptual and empirical, historical and contemporary, as well as literary, legal and political aspects of the debate. All articles examine the validity and applicability of the settler colonial paradigm to the context of Palestine (West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and the 1948territories). They approach this paradigm as a powerful means to challenge and disarticulate established historiographies and narratives, and, as such, engage with settler colonialism as a structure (Wolfe, 1999, 2006), but also with the various forms of resistance and decolonization that aim at undoing this structure

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The 1948 Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine – Ilan Pappe

Abstract:

This article, excerpted and adapted from the early chapters of a new book, emphasizes the systematic preparations that laid the ground for the expulsion of more than 750,000 Palestinians from what became Israel in 1948. While sketching the context and diplomatic and polit- ical developments of the period, the article highlights in particular a multi-year “Village Files” project (1940–47) involving the systematic compilation of maps and intelligence for each Arab village and the elaboration—under the direction of an inner “caucus” of fewer than a dozen men led by David Ben-Gurion—of a series of military plans culminating in Plan Dalet, according to which the 1948 war was fought. The article ends with a statement of one of the author’s underlying goals in writing the book: to make the case for a paradigm of ethnic cleansing to replace the paradigm of war as the basis for the scholarly research of, and the public debate about, 1948

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2022 Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Lecture: Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike

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