Joint Statement on the Gaza Siege by Academics of Islamic and Religious Studies
We urgently call for an immediate cessation of attacks committed by Israel on Gaza, which have been labeled by humanitarian experts as entailing war crimes and genocide.
Photo of a 16th century Ottoman court record which mentions a Christian slave suing a free Muslim for owing him money. To prove that he spoke the truth the Christian stated “I swear by the Gospels that Allāh revealed to Jesus”, and he won the suit. [IMSSA, Istanbul Kadiligi 1-89]
Premodern Islam had a quality something modern Islam has lost: the quality to embrace multiplicity and ambiguity.
For centuries the Islamic intellectual tradition discussed in detail Qurʾānic multiplicity and ambiguity in meaning and recitation.
Professor Fuat Sezgin (1924-2018) has passed away yesterday. He was one of the most important scholars on Islamic manuscripts and intellectual history of the 20th-21st century.
May God shower His mercy on him.
إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون
This maxim tradition, here attributed to Ali, is classically attributed to the philosophers and has a long and fascinating tradition within Islamic thought:
الملك يبقى مع الكفر ولا يبقى مع الظلم
“Rulership remains with unbelief, and does not remain with injustice.”
A thread 1/
Grand Mufti of Bosnia (Imam Mustafa Cerić):
'There is a saying of Imam 'Alī, may God be pleased with him, that "A government can survive while disbelief is present, but cannot survive if oppression is present." God almighty does not help or listen to those who oppress.'
Islamic law demands remains should be treated according to the religion of its owner. Muslim remains may be exhumed, but always reburied. Not tupperwared. Disgraceful.
“The remains will be cataloged, stored for research and studied, Pina Pardos said.”
A very important addition to the English field of Islamic sciences: Safaruk Chowdhury’s translation, and extensive commentary, of Ṭāshkuprī’zādah (d. 1561CE)’s “treatise on disputation and argumentation” focused on the ethics and logical structure of debating disagreements.
Finally got my hands on it: Abū Ḥafṣ al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142)’s Qurʾān commentary, al-Taysīr fī al-Tafsīr. Most famous for his creedal work ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyya, this work represents Māturīdī exegesis before the Zamakhsharī/Rāzī turn, and was part of the Ottoman curriculum.
Beautiful new book on Islamic virtue ethics (futuwwah) by my teacher
@senturkrecep
published at
@usulacademy
. It connects the classical virtue insights of the 9th century al-Sulami with modern character issues.
What is the wisdom of creating mankind?
The Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam Kemālpāshazāde (d.940/1534) in his treatise on creed provides a small summary:
-God was a hidden secret→He wants to be known→creates creation.
-Of God’s Names, Light is manifested→from which...
Amazing graphs on the intellectual legacy three 7-8th hijri century key texts on Islamic philosophy of law (uṣūl al-fiqh) generated: Rāzī’s Maḥṣūl, Bayḍāwī’s Minhāj, and Nasafī’s Manār.
Usul-i fıkıh literatüründe Fahreddin Râzî.
Etkilendiği ve etkilediği kaynakların tablosu.
Kaynak: Teşcîru şecereti’l-usûliyyîn / Ömer b. Abdilaziz b. Ali es-Sâmil
A small thread on the Islamic theological theories of language:
Quran verse 2:31 “He taught Adam all the names” is central to the Islamic discussion on the nature of language. The majority of theologians among the Muʿtazila, early Ashʿarī, and Māturīdī schools understood... 1/
Language cannot be explained by evolutionary biology, and remains one of the greatest mysteries of science.
Interestedly, the Quran explicitly mentions language as being a Divine gift to mankind, and a miracle of the creation:
I’m in awe of Chowdhury’s book on Islamic theodicy. He provides both an introduction to theodicy and Islamic perspectives on evil, and a comparative study of human suffering (disability, hell), animal suffering, and its relation to evolution, through the lens of logic (manṭiq).
This is completely outrageous, and an assault on the scholarly community who are rightly critical of their regimes.
Saudi Arabia seeks death penalty for Sunni scholar Salman Odah | Middle East Eye
After pushing Islamic spiritual care into a two day conference it is now time to see how
@fitzmorrissey
has pushed 1400 years of Islamic thought in a book…
“The comparative study of religions has been rightly acclaimed as one of the great contributions of Muslim civilization to mankind’s intellectual progress.”
–Franz Rosenthal
Today started my first class again of my course ‘Modern Islamic Movements’ for the 4th year BA students Applied Islamic Theology
@IURotterdam
In the first class I always try to show them a spectrum of literature, some of which they need to read, but also recommended ones.
The 9th century Ibn Wahshiyya hacked the Egyptian hieroglyphs, as well as 93 other cryptic alphabets, including Babylonian, Semitic, Hellenistic and Hindu, in his Kitab Shawq al-Mustaham in which he gave symbols and their Arabic equivalent.
The Mauritanian scholar Shaykh Murabit al Haij (الشيخ العلامة المرابط الحاج), one of the most widely acknowledged scholars of the 20th-21st century and who has taught and educated thousands of scholars, has passed away yesterday.
إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون
Got a copy of
@tafsirdoctor
‘s superb translation of al-Rāzī. Translating and annotating is an underrated science and art form which are not counted as real publications within academia. So doing these translations is a work of love and faith. May Allāh reward you endlessly.
How could Islam erase culture when cultural customs (ʿādda) and norms (ʿurf) are sources of Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh)? Imam Malik famously stated it is 9/10th of Fiqh! Erasing culture would mean erasing the hermeneutical vehicle that makes it a living and practical religion.
Islam is one of the most diverse religions in terms of culture and history. Muslims in Mali and Muslims in Iraq have a unique culture that is very much rooted in their native cultures and Islam
UNBOXING: The Kashf Al-Zunun by the Ottoman scholar HAJJI KHALIFA (D.1657), a multivolume encyclopedia on all the written works on the Islamic sciences which he could find in the great libraries of his age (istanbul, damascus, cairo etc.)
The idea the Qurʾān only promotes a neutral “Abrahamic” ethical monotheism is a liberal trope that started with Muhammad Abduh (d.1905) & was promoted by modernists such as Muhammad Asad. It reduces terms to their “bare” linguistics and ignores larger coherent textual meanings.
In Islamic theology we have a maxim:
(مريد الخير والشر القبيح ولكن ليس يرضى بالمحال)
“God wills good and evil, but it’s impossible He desires the latter.”
Everything is willed into existence based on His wisdom, evil is a byproduct of natural processes and human freewill.
Aristotles named three types of friendships: friendships of utility (work, go to same sport/gym/school), friendships of pleasure (hangout friends who ease hearts), or friendships of the good (BFF). In Islamic ethics, Adāb and Futuwwa, these categories were retained and expanded.
The older you get, the more you realise the temporary nature of friendships. Friends from primary school weren’t there in secondary. Friends from secondary school were gone by uni. Friends from uni aren’t here today.
You stop opening up to people until they prove their loyalty.
In the Ḥanafī-Māturīdī school basic ethics (“kulliyat” universals) is grounded in human nature and reason. Faith had the ability to complete and perfect ethics. God is needed as Creator, but one can be an unbeliever and have basic ethics (do not murder, harm, cheat etc.).
Do people need to believe in
#God
to be
#moral
?
Poll shows that those Turks who say "Yes," have declined from 84 to 75 percent in the past 17 years.
Probably because they have seen so many people who praise God often, but who are also outrageously immoral.
Finally got the 1957 translation of Ottoman scholar Kātib Çelebī (Ḥajjī Khalīfa d.1068/1657)’s work on theology, Mīzān al-Ḥaqq fī ikhtiyār al-Aḥaqq (Balance of Truth in Choosing the Worthiest). He dives into all the controversies of his days.
Download:
As a convert and single father the feeling of belonging in the Muslim community remains one of the most difficult things even after 20+ years. @
@HaroonSidat
and I were talking this afternoon about the Peter Berger’s idea of the sacred canopy…1/
Fear of death is irrational, as man is the “living, rational, dying being”, whereby death is the “fulfillment of our nature”. To wish that there is no death is to wish there be no man...
Al-Kindi (d. 866 CE)
Just finished a two hour recording with
@freemonotheist
on Islam and the idea of human rights being compatible or conflicting with it, and how Muslims can and must take more ownership of the rights discourse present within Islamic thought. In-shāʾ-Allāh it will be uploaded soon.
It is amazing to see these projects become reality over time. It was an honor to read along with the draft of this text, and now
@RamonIHarvey
’s insightful, intellectual, and daring theological assessment and proposal for a 21st century Islamic theology is here for all to read.
My companions for Laylat al-Qadr to read the Quran together with. Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333) and Abū Ḥafṣ al-Nasafī (d. 537). They have been dead for a millennium, but their works make them speak to us as if they were alive and sitting at my table.
Oldest Quranic recitation of sura adhuha in 1885 in Mecca. The recording was done on wax records, which was the oldest form of voice recording machine. The film is purported to be in the belongings of Thomas Edison.
But there is no retaliation (qiṣāṣ) in war as Islamic war ethics (aḥkām al-ḥarb) reject attacking non-combatants (ghayri al-muqātilūn) or those who put their weapons down. Qiṣāṣ can only be between persons, not parties, and falls under criminal law (al-jināyāt).
A new edition of Bayḍāwī’s tafsīr Anwā al-Tanzīl wa Asrār al-Tāʾwīl, the standard exegesis in post-classic Islam, which is why it invited so many commentaries on it, and this edition includes the extensive ḥāshiya of al-Suyūṭī.
Am honored to announce that I’ll be a lecturer in Islamic theology and Qurʾānic studies at the Islamic University of Applied Sciences
@IURotterdam
for their English Islamic theology program which combines a traditional&modern curriculum (other teachers will be announced soon iA).
Am very happy with attaining this edition of the exegesis of the famous philologist ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī (d. 471/1079), the Durj al-durar fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (The desk of pearls in the exegesis of the great Qurʾān), which has many unexpected interpretations.
New addition: The Qurʾān commentary “Al-Tahdhīb fī al-Tafsīr” by Ḥanafī Muʿtazila/Zaydī Imām al-Ḥākim al-Jashmiyya (d. 494AH/1101CE). The largest Muʿtazila tafsīr in print with fascinating verse analysis of qirāʾāt, linguistics, grammar, implied meaning & ruling.
@tafsirdoctor
و قال ﷺ لو فسد العلماء لفسد العالم.
And he [the Prophet] ﷺ said: “If the scholars become corrupted then the world will become corrupted.”
Being a scholar means one keeps the world safe and sane. So are you doing that?
| ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄ ̄|
The idea that Islam has
no ethical contributions
to the modern world,
benefits extremists in &
outside of it.
|___________|
(\__/) ||
(•ㅅ•) ||
/ づ
#HistorianSignBunny
Working on some edits for my next
@yaqeeninstitute
article which is an introduction of a larger series on Islam and human rights. It tries to answer: what are HR, if Islam speaks the language of HR (it does), if this matters (it does), and what Islam can contribute to HR (a lot).
"If I had to choose between Christianity and Islam, I'd choose Christianity every single time."
Self-proclaimed 'cultural Christian', @RichardDawkins, tells
@RachelSJohnson
he's 'slightly horrified' to hear Ramadan lights were hung on Oxford Street rather than Easter lights.
Yesterday I gave the opening class for the module of Tafsīr for the Islamic Theology BA students of the Islamic University of Applied Sciences Rotterdam (IUASR)
@IURotterdam
I give them the same treatment online as in-class. So I wave a lot of books in front of the camera.
Today in my
@LeidenHum
class we discussed Islamic humanism and how we can rather speak of humanismS in intellectual history which all revolve around a set of sources and ideals, whereby Islamic humanism saw religion and humanism as complementary to one another. /1
The Turkish traditional scholar Molla Hüseyin Sisemi died today. He was infamous for reading scripture in an open grave, one of the most Stoic and Zuhd acts one can think of in embracing one own’s mortality & the metaphysical responsibility it entails.
إنا لله و إنا إليه راجعون
O da gitti…
Siirt’in önde gelen âlimlerinden Seyda Molla Hüseyin Sisemi vefat etmiştir. Rabbim mekânını cennet, makâmını âli eylesin.
Ölmeden önce ölenlerden idi.
These came in, and there are certainly some good articles in it, but to be honest I expected a bit more real Islamic *philosophy of religion* instead of a mix of philosophy and religious studies. We need a real revival of Islamic philosophy of religion to engage the modern world.
Being an academic is not politically neutral. As an intellectual you’ve an ethical responsibility towards the world to voice what is difficult to understand or say. In my position of safety it doesn’t need a lot of courage, so deep respect to those risking their livelihood&lives.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī (d. 1273), yes that Rumi, weaved his adherence to Ḥanafī-Māturīdī theology throughout his Mathnawī:
“Thankfulness (e.g. worship) to the Benefactor (e.g. God) is an obligation as required by reason, if neglected it opens the door to eternal wrath.”
I congratulate
@mikaeelahmeds
with his masterful translation which produces vital access to a beautiful work on Islamic pedagogy and epistemology by an Ottoman scholar. It now will be a standard addition to the readings I use in my classes on classical sciences.
@imamghazaliins
This approach to human rights as “secular” or “political” religion is not new. And the idea of human rights is not the problem. The problem is, to use de Sousa Santos’ term, does the West allow other “grammars” of human rights to speak?
This is by far one of the most profound and important questions facing the West in the next few decades.
Speaking is Hubert Védrine, France's former Foreign Minister and Secretary-General of the French presidency under president Mitterrand.
He says the West, "descendants of
Today
@LeidenHum
Omër Koçyigit had his successful PhD defense on the spread of ideas (pro-and anti-Ottoman) via modern technology within the Late Ottoman world.
@jeroen_vlug
was so kind to bring along a copy of his thesis. It is really fascinating and deserves to be published.
The Christmas shopping
@Palgrave
has arrived. Their books are generally highly overpriced, but with these large discount sales they are certainly worth it. And these small hardbacks are very enjoyable to read and hold.
In medieval Islamic political philosophy there is a maxim the world needs to live by:
بلد فيه معاص في حقوق الله تعالى فهو أولى من بلد فيه معاص في مظالم العباد
“A land in which the rights of God are violated is prefered over a land in which humans are violated [in their rights].”
Ok, lets have a small reflection on “Sharīʿa is comprehensive in ethical cosmology” versus “Sharīʿa covers every aspect of life”
As the Sharīʿa provides both specific and general ritual and ethical guidelines, almost every aspect of life can be ritualized or moralized. 1/
Shaykh
@shaykhamin
Kholwadia is to me one of the most important scholars of the Sunni intellectual tradition, combining deep philosophical theology with a deep humanity. To see his seminary being acknowledged as an academic institution is a milestone for Western Islamic studies.
Al–Salam ‘alaykum
Through the immeasurable Fadl of Allah, duas of our teachers and the dedicated efforts of the Darul Qasim application team, the _Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE)_ has *awarded Darul Qasim a license to operate as a college*.
(1/3)
All these premodern Islamic works on philosophy of law (uṣūl al-fiqh) from 10th-17thCE discuss
#humanrights
(ḥaqq al-ʿibād) extensively & have whole chapters on it. And whereby divine rights (ḥaqq Allāh) represented societal rights (ḥaqq al-ʿāmm).
#islamichumanism
Like thousands of Western Muslims, I’m going to the mosque for the Friday Jumaʿa prayer. The terror attack at
#Christchurch
doesn’t scare me away from it. But I’m affected by it. Normally I bring along my kids. Today I don’t. And yes, I’ll have the urge to look over my shoulders.
Finally
@ayedh_RS
Aldosari’s book on Ḥanafī Māturīdīsm has arrived. He provides an interesting analysis of the development of Māturīdī thought, and a critical edition of the 13th century Damascene scholar al-Khabbāzī’s creedal text al-Hādī.
Professor Dr. Murteza Bedir is one of the most eminent scholars on Islamic thought and law alive, but he is most of all a great person. Congrats dear Hoçam, may Allah make
@TDV_ISAM
even more successful.
TDV İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi'nin (İSAM) yeni başkanı Prof. Dr. Mürteza Bedir, Diyanet İşleri Başkanı Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş’ın da katıldığı törenle görevine başladı.
Shaykh Ṣābūnī, may Allah heal him, is very illl. He is the author of several Qurʾān commentaries, most famous being “Ṣafwat al-Tafāsīr” (“the best selection of the commentaries”) which during his lifetime (!) has become a standard text in many seminary curriculums (ʿālimiyya).
Kur’an ve Sünnet’in hizmetkarı hastalık yatağında...
Dün sabah kapımızın zili çaldı. Şeyh Sabuni’nin sağlığını kontrol etmek maksadıyla içeri girmek için izini bekleyerek (Allah ondan razı olsun Türk devleti tarafından) atanan bir sağlık ekibi vardı. Randevu almadan gelmişlerdi.
Interesting point by al-Māturīdī: If you believe in doing good, why then be adverse to the resurrection which rewards that good (fa-kayfa ankartum al-ba’ath)? Most people on earth are morally good, also atheists and agnostics, the resurrection should be a positive idea for them.
In this talk with
@freemonotheist
I try to show how Laylat al-Qadr provides a fascinating case study to map out the metaphysics of Islam. In what type of cosmology does Laylat al-Qadr make sense? Through what type of space and time is revelation “sent down” in?
What are the best works explaining & defending Ashʿarī & Māturīdī ʿaqāʾid? I am looking for works both from the classical period as well as works published in the Ottoman period
Right on time for my course on Islamic Theology at
@IURotterdam
. This amazing edition by
@zaytunacollege
has the English translation together with the Arabic original matn with full tashkīl. A better teaching tool you can not wish for.
When
@jeroen_vlug
and I decided to share an office that could house our private libraries (which are a rare thing in modern academia), it build into the idea of being a hub which showcases all the humanities and social sciences for our Muslim theology students
@IURotterdam
New additions to our intellectual Hub
@IURotterdam
. A colorful mixture of religious studies, philosophy, sociology and history, in multiple languages.
@ArnoldYasinMol
and I want to build an atmosphere of Bildung and intellectual range for our students of Islamic theology.
When
#tafsir
becomes biography: 12th century theologian and exegete al-Rāzī ends his commentary on sūrah Yusūf (Q.12 Joseph), i.e. the story of a lost son, with mentioning his grief over the loss of his own son and asks the reader to recite al-Fātiḥa for him...