The Insight Interviews

An informative discussion with Dr. Muhammad U. Faruque on his book “Sculpting the Self - Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing" Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series 'The Insight Interviews', promises to be an engaging conversation. The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

An informative discussion with Dr. Alessandro Cancian, on his book “The Emergence of Shi'i Sufism - Sultan 'Ali Shah Gunabadi and His Commentary on the Qur'an” Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series 'The Insight Interviews', promises to be an engaging conversation. The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

An informative discussion with Dr Hannah-Lena Hagemann on her book “The Khārijites in Early Islamic Historical Tradition” Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series 'The Insight Interviews', promises to be an engaging conversation. The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

An informative discussion with Dr George Warner, on his book “The Words of the Imams - Al-Shaykh al-Saduq and the Development of Twelver Shi’i Hadith Literature”. Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series 'The Insight Interviews', promises to be an engaging conversation. The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

An informative discussion with Dr. Farah Kawtharani on her book, "Political Thought in Contemporary Shi’a Islam". Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series 'The Insight Interviews', promises to be an engaging conversation. The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

Timestamps listed below An informative discussion with Dr. Mojdeh Shariatmadari, Founder and Director, Alaa Cultural Institute Tehran. The topic of discussion will be the role of psychology and its study in Islam and Shi'ism. Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series ‘The Insight Interviews’, promises to be an engaging conversation. 00:00 / Beginning 00:29 / Guest Introduction 02:15 / Discussing the link between psychology and spirituality 03:13 / Her journey to Islamic and Shia spiritual psychology 05:54 / Looking at the Shīʿī duʿāʾ corpus 07:02 / What is spiritual psychology? 08:01 / The Age of Insanity: Modernity and Mental Health by John F. Schumaker 09:49 / Breaking down spiritual psychology 10:10 / Divine love in Shīʿism and its connection to the subject 10:20 / Viewing Wilāya as a divine friendship 10:55 / Love of ʿAlī is a part of faith - ḥubbu ʿAlī min al-īmān 12:27 / Whoever loves you (the infallibles), loves God - al-Ziyāra al-Jāmiʿa al-Kabīra 12:52 / Wilāya as the most significant differentiating factor in Shīʿī spiritual psychology 15:44 / The role of duʿāʾ (supplication) in spiritual pyschology 17:19 / Is there such a thing as "Islamic psychology" and how can we define terms? 21:47 / Discussing the earliest written work on Islamic spiritual psychology 24:35 / Abu Zayd al-Balkhī and his 9th century work on mental health 27:24 / What is unique about the Twelver Shīʿī concept of saʿāda (flourishing) 30:16 / Theory of the personality in Islamic spirituality 32:14 / What exactly is spiritual flourishing? 34:17 / Dr. Martin Seligman's theory of well being 36:15 / Mourning for Imam Husayn and its connection to well being 43:44 / Loneliness and Islamic Spiritual Pscyhology 49:12 / The relationship between wilāya and inner peace 55:03 / How would Shīʿism treat the concept of grief and loss? 58:15 / Grief treated through the lens of religious history 59:05 / Conclusion The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

An informative discussion with Dr. Aun Hasan Ali, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, in the Department of Religious Studies, at the University of Colorado Boulder. The topic of discussion will be his latest book, ‘The School of Hillah and the Formation of Twelver Shi‘i Islamic Tradition‘, which provides the first extensive overview of the contribution of Shiʿī scholars who belonged to the school of Ḥillah (a city in Southern Iraq). This city and the scholars who hailed from there went on to become some of the most prolific producers of knowledge who had a lasting impact on the formation of Twelver Shīʿism. Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, this instalment in our series ‘The Insight Interviews’, promises to be an engaging conversation. Dr. Aun Hasan Ali is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at CU Boulder. He received his PhD from McGill University’s Institute of Islamic Studies. His research centers on Islamic intellectual history and he is the author of various publications. The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

Timestamps listed below An informative discussion with Dr. Cyrus Ali Zargar, Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor, Professor in the Department of Philosophy, at the University of Central Florida. The topic of discussion will be his latest book, The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism, an accessible monograph on virtue ethics in Islam as theorized and narrated by philosophical as well as mystical authors, both from the classical and the medieval periods. Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, the seventh instalment in our series ‘The Insight Interviews’, promises to be an engaging conversation. 0:00:00 / Start 0:00:26 / Introduction 0:02:55 / Distinction between Greek virtue ethics and Islamic ethics 0:06:01 / Enlightenment, European ethics and divergence with Islamic ethics 0:08:59 / The role of moral theology in Islam 0:11:50 / Difference Philosophy and Sufism in Islamic ethics 0:12:50 / Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on Ibn Sina 0:15:09 / Canonical/revealed sources of knowledge and rational sources: Is there a tension? 0:22:31 / Thriving as a human being 0:25:46 / Tolerating people as a virtue ethic 0:27:52 / Did the Qur'an and hadith influence the articulation of virtue ethics of philosophers? 0:29:32 / Philosophers and Sufism on concept of aql (intellect) 0:34:15 / The Brethren of Purity ( Ikhwan al-Safa) and Islamic ethics 0:38:57 / Brethren of Purity drew certain concepts from a common Islamicate vocabulary 0:42:23 / Were the Brethren of Purity working with Indian concepts as well? 0:45:53 / The presence of a teleological framework that runs through these discussions 0:46:55 / Is modern virtue devoid of a teleology? 0:50:03 / Role of Imam Jafar al-Sadiq in virtue ethics 0:52:32 / How a prostitute guided a pious man: A Narrative 0:58:25 / Futuwwa (manliness) in Islamic virtue 1:02:23 / Toxic masculinity and modern gender roles in an islamic context 1:03:44 / Conclusion The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

Timestamps listed below Episode 6: An informative discussion with Dr. Toby Matthiesen, PhD, and Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol. The topic of discussion will be on the his new book, The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shi’ism, which is an account of Islam’s schism that for centuries has shaped events in the Middle East and the Islamic world, in an attempt to obtain a deeper understanding of contemporary sectarian conflict and its historical roots. Hosted by Dr. Vinay Khetia, the sixth instalment in our series 'The Insight Interviews', promises to be an engaging conversation. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:54 Tell us about your journey to writing this book 00:06:46 Are Shi'as and Sunnis always at war with each other? 00:11:22 The availability of information on how people lived their everyday lives in history 00:12:59 Distinction between communalist contemporary historiography and actual historiography 00:18:23 What role did Sufism play in the Sunni-Shiʿi dynamic? 00:23:09 The Weaponization of Spirituality 00:25:48 The role of the Fatimid Ismaʿili Empire on Sunni-Shi'i relations 00:32:38 Did the Seljuk period bring about the Sunni Revival? 00:35:57 Did the Ottomans oppress Shi'ism? 00:38:06 The Shrines of the Ahl al-Bayt under Ottoman Sunni rule 00:43:02 ttomans use of the image of Dhulfiqār - Ali's sword 00:47:21 Were Iran and Iraq always Shi'i nations? 00:48:12 How did Iran become Shi'i under the Safavids? 00:50:49 The Effects of European Colonialism on Muslim Societies 00:51:49 How the British Raj reinforced Shi'i-Sunni identities through legal code 00:57:46 How the British Influenced Indian law regarding Muslim sects 00:59:51 Muharram participation by non-Shi'is and non-Muslims before the British division 01:01:56 Conclusion The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/

Episode 5: Dr. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, The Prophet Muhammad (ص) University Professor of Shia Islam Studies, at Florida International University. The topic of discussion will be on the Exploration of Mysticism and Theology Through Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Ibn ʿArabi. This episode is hosted by Dr. Sajjad Rizvi, a Professor of Islamic Intellectual History and Islamic Studies at Exeter University The Insight Interviews: An informative series of academic discussions, taking a deeper dive on a variety of unique topics. Learn more at https://shiaresearch.ca/insight-interviews View the series playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgu_sYFBPFVV5yBiwTU9snnvMmMlw41gp Follow us on: Instagram: https://instagram.com/ShiaResearchIns Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShiaResearchIns Facebok: https://facebook.com/ShiaResearchIns Contribute to SRI to help us continue creating high quality research and content: https://shiaresearch.ca/donate/