Category: Society & Culture
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The Embodied Pedagogy of Islamic Knowledge
Scholarship has increasingly examined historically grounded, textually cultivated traditional Muslim religious schools and their influence on the everyday life-worlds of the communities surrounding them. These institutions, as centres of religious education and spiritual practice, have played a central role across the Muslim world in shaping, informing, and reforming the daily engagements of believers. In doing…
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Toward a Contemporary Ihya’ of Sufism
Imam Al-Ghazali’s journey of spiritual and intellectual awakening highlights the importance of divine illumination over rigid proofs. This resonates with the my own struggles in contemporary Bengal, advocating for a revival of Sufi practices to meet spiritual needs today.
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The Uyghur Hijrah: Mapping the Diaspora as a Model for Refugee Integration and Social Cohesion
Introduction In the vast northwestern region of the People’s Republic of China lies Xinjiang, home to the Uyghur people, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group whose historical, cultural, and religious identity diverges sharply from the Han Chinese majority. The Uyghurs are descendants of ancient Turkic tribes and once ruled powerful kingdoms such as the Uyghur…
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Industrial Islamism and Manipulation in Turkiye
Industrial Islamism dismantles the common assumption that Islamism in modern Turkey arose primarily from cultural nostalgia or religious resentment against Westernization. Instead, he locates its roots in the rise of a distinct social class, the faubourgeoisie, that emerged from Turkey’s accelerated post-Cold-War industrialization.
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Vernacular Voices, Universal Wisdom: Liu Zhi and the Making of a Sino-Islamic Tradition
The Islamic intellectual tradition has never lived by doctrine alone; it has lived by its capacity to speak truly in the languages of the people who carry it. I believe its remedy is twofold: internal repair, a disciplined return to our theological and ethical sources; and lateral expansion, the cultivation of dialogues beyond the West,…
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Naruto and Other Godless Heroes: Can Manga Bear The Weight of Islam?
Bringing manga and Islam into conversation is, at its core, an attempt to explore where human moral imagination meets divine revelation. The question that begs to be answered is: can artistic imagination, through its sincerity, still orient the heart toward a transcendent source it no longer names? Is the persistence of moral beauty within the…
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Kayalpattinam – The ‘Cairo’ of the East
Kayalpattinam, a coastal town in Tamil Nadu, is historically significant for its long-standing connection to the gem trade, predominantly among its Muslim families.
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Strangers Upon the Earth: Musings on Life and Home
Exploring the notion of home, bringing together personal reflections on travel and spirituality with poetic musings on love and nostalgia.
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The Crucified Lover of God: Martyrdom in Al-Ḥallāj’s Poetry
The crucified lover of God stands in front of the court of Baghdad unfazed, crying, “Kill me, O my faithful friends….” He goes silent and Abu al-Ḥārith, his executioner, strikes him in the face, breaking his nose, blood running down his clothing.1 This moment of unspeakable cruelty for al-Ḥallāj was transformed into an act of…
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Development of Islamic Scholarship in the 16th Century: Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn Makhdūm and the Indian Ocean Network
Shaykh Ahmed Zayn al-Dīn al-Makhdūm II, a prominent Sunni scholar from Malabar born in 1531, was pivotal in Islamic education in the region. After studying in the Hijaz, he became a renowned teacher and author of key Islamic texts. He passed away in 1583, leaving a lasting impact on Islamic scholarship.