Tag: islam
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The Day My Patient Called Me Son
During my sub-centre posting, there was a day I was posted alone. My co-interns were on leave, and the Medical Officer was expected to arrive late. So, it was just me, holding the fort. That morning, a woman in her sixties walked in with a warm smile. She instantly reminded me of my late grandmother—only…
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The Rise of Political Salafism in Bangladesh and Its Challenge to Traditional Sunni Authority
Bangladesh has a distinctive presence in global perceptions of the Muslim world. Its religious character has been shaped not by militant orthodoxy but by a multi-layered, syncretic Sunni culture that is bound up in centuries of Ḥanafī jurisprudence, Sufi devoutness and vernacular Islamic expression, with approximately 150 million Muslims making it the third-largest Muslim-majority nation…
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Asabiyyah, Social Cohesion, and Moral Renewal: Ibn Khaldūn’s Insights for Contemporary Muslim Societies
The rapid movement to urban centers has disrupted traditional family ties and the sense of community within neighborhoods, while the overwhelming reach of digital connectivity has, paradoxically, diminished the richness of daily interactions that once fostered moral responsibility. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406) stands out among pre-modern thinkers due to his systematic approach to analyzing the…
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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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The Mosque on Church Street
Despite his best efforts, Imam Kenan, upon seeing the meager congregation gathered before him, could not help but reminisce about the grand opening of this mosque here on Church Street.
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Sharīʿah in the Modern World: Reviewing Mashal Ayobi’s ‘The Light We Lost’
A Book Review of The Light We Lost: Grappling with Shariah in the Modern World by Mashal Ayobi The aftermath of the catastrophic Bondi shooting, and the start of Zohran Mamdani’s term as Mayor of New York, has put Muslims, terrorism, the Sharīʿah and the like back into the limelight of oriental focus, the favored…
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I am no Ibn Battuta
I have a friend who has travelled far and wide from the bustling streets of London to the dusty dunes of Mauritania and across the Islamic world. He often tells me that I am the true traveller and that he is not.
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After Bondi, Taking Responsibility
Shortly after the Bondi attack, on the quiet street in Canberra on which I live, an Australian flag appeared in front of one of the houses. Under normal circumstances that would be completely innocuous. But circumstances are not normal. Anyone who has been following happenings elsewhere can surmise what the flag might mean. Perhaps, and…
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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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Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: Returning to al-Attas’ Vision
This essay argues that the challenges faced by the contemporary Muslim ummah cannot be resolved by political slogans, technical reforms, or cultural revivals alone. Instead, it calls for a deep decolonization of the Muslim intellect—an epistemological transformation that revives adab and re-establishes knowledge in its proper hierarchy.