Tag: Islam

Professor Nasr: A Tribute and a Reflection

Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr is among the most influential interpreters of Islam in the Western academy. Through dozens of books and hundreds of scholarly articles and lectures, he has conveyed a compelling, compassionate, and intellectually vibrant vision of Islam. I regard Professor Nasr as one of the foremost exponents of “Rahmani Islam”—the Islam of Compassion. Professor Nasr is a source of pride for Iran, Islam, and Shiʿism in the contemporary world. His many virtues far outweigh his few shortcomings—and who among us is free from error?

International Conference on Islamic Perspectives on Prophecy and Revelation

The Department of Islamic Philosophy and Theology at the Al-Mahdi Institute in Birmingham, in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies at Duke University, held an international conference on July 24–25, 2025, at Duke University. Although the event was affected by increasingly restrictive U.S. visa policies under the current U.S. administration, it was successfully held and was received well by the academic community. Organizing a conference on one of the most fundamental Islamic topics at a leading university during this challenging period in the US constitutes a significant achievement.

Islamic Perspectives on Prophecy and Revelation

The conference is crucial for fostering a nuanced understanding of how the ancient concepts of prophecy and revelation can be meaningfully integrated into modern thought and practice, helping to bridge the gap between traditional beliefs and contemporary intellectual concerns in these areas: The Nature and Function of Prophecy and Revelation in Islamic Thought; Prophecy, Revelation, and Epistemology; Prophecy, Revelation, and Philosophy of Language; Prophecy, Revelation, and Philosophy of Religion; Revelation, Unseen World, and Skeptical Theology; Prophecy, Revelation, and Comparative Abrahamic Traditions; and Contemporary Issues and Challenges to Prophecy and Revelation.

Islam and Modernism

Why is the experience of Muslims about modernization and modernity different from Western modernization and modernity? Why do we have modernities (plural), not modernity (singular)? How did modernity divide Muslims into conservative or traditionalists, fundamentalists or revolutionaries, quasi-conservatives, reformists, and revisionists? How does each of these five camps introduce Islam? This course tries to respond to such questions, as the key questions of Islam and modernism. We focus on the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries’ main debates, tensions, responses, and adaptations, and cover the major classics of this period.

Religion and Politics In Post-Revolutionary Iran

This course will narrate a fair and balanced critical and historical analysis, and is organized into five thematic sections: a brief overview of the relationship between religion and politics in Iran, an intellectual history of the Islamic Republic, examining the concept of the “sacred as secular” and exploring the dynamics of secularization within a theocratic system, the governance in the name of Islam, focusing on theology and theocratic rule in the Islamic Republic, and the revolt against theocracy: the Mahsa Movement and the feminist uprising against theocracy in Iran.

Comparative Religious Studies

The main goal of the seminar is a better understanding of the key concepts of Abrahamic traditions through comparative religious studies methodology. The seminar discusses theological subjects in the philosophical realm, descriptive not prescriptive, as a historian or an outsider of these traditions, not as an insider or believer. The discussions are purely neutral, critical analysis, historical, and based on modern scholarship of religious studies. Is the scripture infallible? Are Jews, Christians, and Muslims worshiping the same God? What is the initial capacity for violent interpretation in each tradition?

Islam (Introduction)

Islam is simultaneously one of the most frequently discussed and least understood of the world’s major religious traditions. This introductory course includes the foundational scripture (the Qur’an), the life of the Prophet (Muhammad), and major dimensions of Islamic thought and practice ranging from ethics/law and theology to mysticism and philosophy. This course will also include a unit on contemporary debates in Islam, by examining the legacy of American Muslims. It is designed for any student who wants to learn about Islam, its essential teachings, and its foundational sources.

Islam and Modernity

Crossroads: Islam and the Theological Origins of Modernity. Transformative Ideas: A Dialogue between Michael A. Gillespie (Professor of Political Science) and Mohsen Kadivar (Research Professor in the Department of Religious Studies): How did Western Europe arrive at modernity? Islam’s perspective on modernity, including what philosophical movements responded to nominalism and modernity on a theological level, and how Islamic societies and peoples have more broadly responded. How Western and Islamic perspectives are coming into closer contact, particularly with immigration to Western Europe and the global human rights framework that has arisen.

The Rights of Mankind: Human Rights and Reformist Islam

Anything that we call Islamic today must be reasonable, just, moral, and more functional according to the conventions of the present time. The main problem of traditional Islam is that it is living in the 21st century while breathing in the atmosphere of several centuries ago. It is possible to have a reading of the Qur’an and the Tradition of the Prophet and a methodology in ijtihad and jurisprudence that is consistent with the criteria of human rights. A critical and detailed introduction has been added to the new edition.

Islam

Spring 2022 Course: Islam is simultaneously one of the most frequently discussed and least understood of the world’s major religious traditions. It serves as an introduction to this religious tradition, including the foundational scripture (the Qur’an), the life of the Prophet (Muhammad), and major dimensions of Islamic thought and practice ranging from ethics/law and theology to mysticism and philosophy, as well as contemporary American Muslims. It is designed for any student (of any faith background, or none) who wants to learn about Islam, its essential teachings and its major sources.