The AMI Podcast

Ali Rida Rizek (Ph.D., Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Göttingen 2021) is a scholar of the social and intellectual history of Islam, with a particular focus on Twelver Shiʿism. He received his BA and MA in Arabic Language and Literature from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon. He has taught at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the Lebanese American University (LAU), the University of Leiden, the University of Göttingen, and the University of Bayreuth in Germany. His research focuses on the history of Islamic law, Qurʾanic studies, Arabic literature, and classical Islamic education. He has published studies on hadith, legal history, and the classical Islamic ethical discourse. His upcoming book examines, for the first time in a monograph, the life, work, and impact of two early Imāmī legal scholars, namely Ibn Abī ʿAqīl al-ʿUmānī and Ibn al-Junayd al-Iskāfī (both flourishing in the 4th/10th century).

Ali Aghaei is a Research Associate at the Institute of Islamic Theology of the University of Paderborn. He holds a MA and PhD in Qurʾan and Hadith Studies from Usul ad-Din College in Qom (2002) and Islamic Azad University in Tehran (2012). From 2004 to 2013, Aghaei contributed to the Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam (Dāneshnāmeh-ye Jahān-e Eslām) being a member of the Academic Board of the Encyclopedia Islamica Foundation, Tehran. In the academic year 2013/2014, he was a post-doctorate fellow in the EUME program of Forum Transregionale Studien (Berlin) and subsequently a Research Fellow in the Corpus Coranicum project at BBAW (2014-2015). He has conducted philological, palaeographical and codicological research on Qurʾanic manuscripts first as a Research fellow in the French-German project Paleocoran at BBAW (2016-2017) and then in his own project Irankoran, funded by BMBF hosted at BBAW (2017-2020). Since October 2020, Aghaei has taught hadith studies at the Paderborn Institute of Islamic Theology while pursuing his research interests in Qurʾanic manuscripts.

On 7th February 2024, Dr Ali Rida Rizek presented a research seminar at AMI entitiled ‘Between Ibn al-Junayd al-Iskāfī and al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī: Legal disagreement (khilāf) in Early Imami hadith Compendia.’ In his presentation, he spoke about the various tools and methods employed by Shiʿi scholars such as al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī and al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī and how they dealt with the legal and hadith disagreements regarding Ibn al-Junayd al-Iskāfī. Dr Rizek argued that while al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī made use of claims to sideline Ibn al-Junayd al-Iskāfī, al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī was more accommodating to this diversity of thought.

On 30th January 2024, Farhana Mayer presented a research seminar at AMI on ‘Qur’anic Principles of Integral Ecology’, based on her publication Praise to God, Lord of the Worlds, An Introduction to Qur’anic Ecology and Resonances with Laudato Si’ (Laudato Si’ Research Institute, Oxford, 2023). In her presentation, having highlighted that integral ecology is based on the idea that everything is interconnected and includes socio-economic as well as environmental matters, she explained how the Qur’anic integral ecological perspectives are founded on the scriptural viewpoints of: unity and the interconnectedness of God, humanity and the cosmos (tawḥīd); all creation as ‘signs of God’ (āyāt Allāh) and constituting a book of revelation; and humankind’s role as the divinely-chosen deputy/successor on earth (khalīfah fi’l-arḍ). She discussed how the key Qur’anic ethical virtues of justice (ʿadl), equitability (qisṭ), balance (mīzān/taʿādul), moderation (wasaṭīyah), and above all mercy (raḥmah) are applicable to integral ecology. Unpacking these, she related them to the principles enshrined in the Islamic names of God (asmāʾ Allāh al-ḥusnā) which, in addition to providing a portrait of God, also serve as an ethical framework within which to position good environmental and socio-economic practices. Describing the principles of the divine names as the ultimate scales, she drew attention to the pivotal role of raḥmah in configuring balance. Furthermore, she related the divine names to humankind’s God-endowed nature (fiṭrah), reinforcing the theological concept of humankind as deputies on earth. The ecological and environmental implications of the above were highlighted, including the evident imperatives for balanced, moderate, just, equitable and merciful ways for humanity to engage with each other, with the other living creatures on earth, and with regard to the planet and its resources.

In this research seminar, Ali highlighted the important but relatively unknown philosophical contributions of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, an influential 20th century Shia Islamic thinker from Iraq. He drew insightful parallels between al-Sadr’s ideas on morality and ethics and those of the modern philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. Ali noted how both thinkers are deeply critical of modernity and see potential in reviving and adapting Aristotelian virtue ethics to address contemporary moral problems. According to Ali, al-Sadr believed the Islamic ethical and moral tradition could provide solutions to problems created by the two dominant political philosophies of his time – capitalism and communism. Like MacIntyre, al-Sadr advocated forming small communities that consciously reject the values and institutions of modernity.

This book provides detailed and multidisciplinary coverage of a wealth of key Qur’anic terms, with incisive entries on crucial expressions ranging from the divine names allāh (“God”) and al-raḥmān (“the Merciful”) to the Qur’anic understanding of belief and self-surrender to God. It examines what the terms mean in Qur’anic usage, discusses how to translate them into English, and delineates the role they play in expressing the Qur’an’s distinctive understanding of God, humans, and the cosmos. It offers a comprehensive but nonreductionist investigation of the relationship of Qur’anic terms to earlier traditions such as Jewish and Christian literature, pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, and Arabian epigraphy. While the dictionary is primarily engaged in ascertaining what the Qur’an would have meant to its original recipients in late antique Arabia, it makes selective and critical use of later Muslim scholarship alongside an extensive body of secondary research in English, German, and French from the nineteenth century to today.

Ibn Taymiyya (1263–1328) of Damascus was one of the most prominent and controversial religious scholars of medieval Islam. He called for jihad against the Mongol invaders of Syria, appealed to the foundational sources of Islam for reform, and battled against religious innovation. Today, he inspires such diverse movements as Global Salafism, Islamic revivalism and modernism, and violent jihadism. This volume synthesizes the latest research, discusses many little-known aspects of Ibn Taymiyya’s thought, and highlights the religious utilitarianism that pervades his activism, ethics, and theology.

Modern biomedical technologies managed to revolutionise the End-of-Life Care (EoLC) in many aspects. The dying process can now be “engineered” by managing the accompanying physical symptoms or by “prolonging/hastening” death itself. Such interventions questioned and problematised long-established understandings of key moral concepts, such as good life, quality of life, pain, suffering, good death, appropriate death, dying well, etc. This volume examines how multifaceted EoLC moral questions can be addressed from interdisciplinary perspectives within the Islamic tradition.

This book examines all verses of the Quran involving knowledge related concepts. It begins with the argument that an analysis of the Quranic concept of ignorance points to epistemic virtues that can pave our way towards gaining knowledge and/or understanding. It deals with the Quranic concepts of perceptual, rational, and revelatory knowledge as well as understanding and wisdom in the light of recent discussions in Western analytic epistemology. It also argues that the relevant Quranic verses seem to involve concept of an epistemic conscience whose proper exercise can yield knowledge or understanding. While not overlooking the Quranic emphasis on revelation as a source of knowledge, the book draws our attention to a remarkable overlap between some strains of contemporary virtue epistemology and Quranic approach to knowledge. It shows that the Quranic verses suggest a progressive sequence from propositional knowledge to understanding to wisdom.

Dr. Nebil Husayn delivers a research seminar examining an early pro-ʿAlid epistle attributed to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) that defends his claims to leadership and critiques his rivals. The epistle emerged in the context of intra-army disputes after ʿAlī’s companions were murdered. While the work survives primarily in Twelver Shīʿī sources like those of al-Qummī, al-Kulaynī, Ibn Rustam al-Ṭabarī, and Ibn Ṭāwūs, some Sunni historians like al-Balādhurī also referenced it, indicating early circulation. Dr. Husayn analysed both the transmission and contents of this epistle, interrogating the relationship between the oral and written and the text’s role in shaping pro-ʿAlid identity and early Shi’ism.