Tag: philosophy of religion

Islam & The Meaning of Life

The course explores how Islamic thought engages questions such as: What is the ultimate purpose of human existence? What is true happiness? How can human beings overcome alienation and find inner peace? How are faith and reason related in the search for meaning? What grounds moral obligations, justice, and human dignity? And how does belief in God shape the understanding of human destiny? The course approaches the meaning of life from three complementary perspectives within Islamic intellectual tradition: The Qur’anic perspective, the mystical perspective, and the philosophical and rational-theological perspective.

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.

The Problem of Evil

Spring 2022 Course: This is an introduction to the problem of evil that examines writings from ancient to present. ‘The problem of evil’ as the challenge of reconciling the existence of an absolutely perfect being (Omnipotent, Omniscient, and omnibenevolent God) with the existence of evil, suffering and sin has been one of the greatest problems of intellectual. The epistemic question posed by evil is whether the world contains undesirable states of affairs that provide the basis for an argument that makes it unreasonable to believe in the existence of God.