“Immortality through AI?: Transhumanism, Islamic Philosophy, and the Quest for Spiritual Machines.” In Transhumanism, Immortality, and Religion. Edited by Timothy Knepper. New York: Springer, in press [2026]

This chapter critically engages the transhumanist vision articulated by Ray Kurzweil in works such as The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), The Singularity Is Near (2005), and The Singularity Is Nearer (2024), wherein he predicts an imminent convergence of human and machine intelligence culminating in the advent of artificial superintelligence (ASI). Central to this vision is the Singularity, a paradigmatic threshold after which technological enhancement purportedly enables the transcendence of biological constraints, including aging and mortality. Drawing on insights from Islamic philosophy, particularly its metaphysical and psychological reflections on consciousness, personhood, and the nature of the self, this chapter interrogates the ontological and ethical assumptions underlying transhumanist discourse. I argue that the viability and desirability of such a posthuman future ultimately rest upon contested conceptions of human nature, agency, and value.