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How to (Try to) Tame a Disaster?
Annotating Approaches to the Integration of Politics and Power Strategies into the Creation of a Disasters Database in Classical Arabic Sources
By Ilaria Cicola, University of Bologna
The Disasters Corpus in Classical Arabic Sources (DiCCAS) was conceived as a resource that would encompass a diverse range of materials, including the Qur’an and the ḥadīth collections Saḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Saḥīḥ Muslim, as well as several significant historical orks, such as al-Ṭabarī’s Kitāb Tārīkh al-rusul wa-l-mulūk and Ibn Taghrībirdī’s Kitāb al-Nujūm al-zāhira fī mulūk Miṣr wa-l-Qāhira. The corpus also incorporates adab texts by al-Jāhiẓ, notably his Rasāʾil, and Ibn al-Jawzī’s al-Mudhish. DiCCAS is designed to allow historians to compare different accounts and narratives of disasters in a variety of classical sources. While the breadth of this corpus is essential to fulfil the objectives of the ‘Environmental Anomalies & Political Legitimacy in Global Eurasia, 12th–14th Century’ project, it presents a formidable challenge for the digital humanist whose job is developing a structure capable of accommodating a variety of text types and their respective idiosyncrasies. This paper discusses the validity of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) as an encoding language, on the basis that its inherent flexibility and adaptability make it an optimal tool for a project of such scope, and seeks to outline the methodological hurdles encountered in the creation of a historical corpus. Finally, it explores the potential for integrating contemporary technological tools with classical sources. In doing so, it aims to assess how these tools can facilitate the comparative analysis of multiple sources, allowing researchers to understand the political and power strategies employed during and after a disaster.
Link: https://doi.org/10.5617/jais.12791
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Tags: #Islam #History #Arabic
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Idealizing the Qur’an: A Phenomenological Account of Early Islamic Scriptural Canonization
By Ramon Harvey, Cambridge Muslim College
This article addresses a lack of engagement between Husserlian phenomenology and Qur’anic studies by applying Edmund Husserl’s “historical reduction” in his “The Origin of Geometry” essay to early Qur’anic canonization. I start by summarizing recent findings in the field to characterize a basic outline of the “ʿUthmānī canonization event,” the historical occurrence by which the third Islamic caliph, ʿUthmān b. ʿAffān (r. 644–656), oversaw the production of the canonical consonantal skeleton that is the origin for copies of the Qur’an today. I then develop my argument by critically discussing Husserl’s concepts of “idealization,” “traditionalization,” and “reactivation” in dialogue with influential interpretations by David Carr and Jacques Derrida. Finally, I use Husserl’s ideas to recast the early canonization of the Qur’an in phenomenological terms as a “founding act,” showing how a focus on intersubjectivity shifts the terms of debate over the interpretation of minor so-called scribal errors in key early manuscripts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfaf090
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Phenomenology
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Evil, Hiddenness, and Nonbelief in Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes:
A Contemporary Philosophical Reflection
By Bakinaz Abdalla, Nazarbayev University
The problem of evil has consistently challenged theistic belief. This challenge appears in both contemporary and medieval philosophical sources, including those written by Jewish and Muslim philosophers and theologians. Treatments of the problem vary across historical contexts. This study examines a significant, yet understudied, engagement with this problem by Abū al-Barakāt al-Baghdādī (a 12th-century Jewish philosopher who converted to Islam) in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, proposing to contribute to research on both intellectual history, within the realms of Islamic and Jewish philosophy and theology, and philosophy of religion. First, I reconstruct the problem of evil as presented in Abū al-Barakāt’s Judeo-Arabic commentary on Ecclesiastes (extant in manuscript form), highlighting the surrounding philosophical and theological trends that shaped its overall perspective. Second, reflecting a deeper philosophical dimension of the reconstructed problem of evil, I analyze it through the lens of contemporary philosophy of religion, particularly the evidential argument from evil and relevant aspects of the problem of divine hiddenness. I argue that Abū al-Barakāt’s formulation, distinct from customary articulations of the problem in his intellectual milieu, anticipates atheistic challenges posed by the evidential argument and divine hiddenness. Finally, I propose that potential complementary responses to these challenges can be developed by analyzing (1) Abū al-Barakāt’s conception of taqlīd (conformism) in light of Alvin Plantinga’s concept of the basicality of belief, and (2) his use of the Islamic doctrine of al-Qaḍāʾ wa al-Qadar (divine Decree and Predestination), which allows for a skeptical response.
Link: https://doi.org/10.14428/thl.v9i1.84943
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Tags: #Islam #PoE #Evil
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Reinterpreting Theology: ‘Abd Al-Jabbar Al-Rifā’ī and Neo-Kalam Discourse
By Mujaddid, Universitas Islam Internasional ; Syed Mohammad Hilmi bin Syed Abdul Rahman, University of Malaya
In recent decades, the renewal of Islamic thought has attracted the attention of many Muslim intellectuals. This discourse emerged primarily in the 19th century and has continued to expand. The decline of the Muslim community has fostered awareness of the importance of theological renewal, neo-kalam has finally become one of the prevailing debates in modern Islamic discourse. ‘Abd al-Jabbār al-Rifā’ī is a prominent figure and deeply involved in neo-kalam, as seen by his numerous works and academic endeavours. However, efforts to reform the science of kalam have not yet reached clear formulations and concepts as a collective consensus. In this regard, this article examines the impact of neo-kalam al-Rifā’ī’s ideas on issues of contemporary Islamic thought. This study employs a qualitative approach. Data was collected through library research, which was analysed using historical, inductive, deductive and comparative methods. This study finds that the idea of neo-kalamintroduced by al-Rifā’ī emerged as part of a paradigm shift. Al-Rifā’ī’s neo-kalam project seeks to deconstruct Islamic thought through the lens of a modern social science approach. This effort began by going through the framework of the formation of classical kalam in the aspects of its ontology, epistemology and axiology. However, his endeavours have generated critique and appreciation in the realm of current Islamic intellectual discourse.
Link: https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v10i2.755
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Tags: #Islam #Kalam #Theology
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Injustice in Contemporary Islamic Theology: Explanation, Punishment and the Hereafter
By Abdessamad Belhaj, University of Public Service
Since the 1980s, a theology of injustice has gained prominence in Islamic thought as a large body of literature has been written on the subject. One of the main tenets of this theology is the punishment of injustice in the afterlife, which emphasizes how unjust individuals will endure different punishments, including suffering in darkness on the Day of Resurrection. Some theologians use the divine punishment of unjust individuals in the hereafter as a rhetorical method of dissuasion from injustice in conjunction with warnings against the injustices that Muslims are currently facing or committing. Taking an ethical and normative stand, other theologians prohibit injustice, including violence against innocent people. Other Muslim theologians adopt an analytical perspective, developing concepts to understand the causes, effects, and ways to prevent injustice, including via God’s love. All theologians agree that God will punish the unjust on Earth and in the hereafter. This article discusses how injustice is explained in modern Muslim theology and closely examines and critically analyzes twelve contemporary theological Muslim texts in Arabic that have been produced in recent decades. In addition, I will place these modern theological discussions within the context of the development of modern Islamic thought and in relation to the ongoing discussions about theodicy, ethics, and the imagery of (after) death in modern society. This article argues that the theology of injustice has two purposes: it calls the unjust to accept responsibility and promises the victim delayed justice and retribution. I conclude that the punitive stance on injustice can be explained by the ongoing political and social struggles in the Muslim world as well as the spreading of traditionalist Islamic theology.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16101304
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Tags: #IslamicTheology #God #IslamicLaw
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Love Potions and Love Letters
An Argument that Libertarian Free Will isn’t Necessary for Loving God
By Netanel Ron, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Some free-will defenses appeal to the intuition that the love of creatures who God causally determined to love him is less valuable than the love of creatures who chose to love God freely, in the libertarian sense. I challenge that intuition directly. I attempt to discredit the intuition in question by demonstrating that no analogies regarding human-related cases can support it. In each case I treat, I argue either that the case is disanalogous to God’s case, or that granting the lover libertarian free will wouldn’t make the love in question more valuable.
Link: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.3.2
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Tags: #FreeWill #God #Libertanism
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Logic and Tradition: New Light on al-Farabi's Philosophy of Logic
By Seyyed Hosein Sajjadi, Islamic Azad University
In this paper I discuss the intricate relationship between logic and tradition and its crucial role in al-Farabi's political philosophy. An illustrative historical example of this relationship is Mattā–al-Sirāfi debate, particularly its focus on the conflict between logic and grammar and the problem of intelligibles. These issues are pivotal in my exposition of al-Farabi's philosophy of logic. The relation of logic to grammar possesses characteristics independent of specific traditions. To explain this, I introduce the concept of ‘meta-tradition’ where intelligibles and the path to attaining them, are situated. This path is depicted in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle and, according to al-Farabi's view, both philosophers shared the same understanding of happiness, which is only attainable through the widespread adoption of philosophy. This requires an education system that al-Farabi's approach to logic and his articulation of it, provide the framework for such a system, enabling the propagation of philosophical thought throughout the virtuous city.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2025.2550136
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Tags: #Islam #AlFarabi #Logic
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Deconstructing Traditional Muslim Sexual Morality: Approaches to a New Understanding of Legal and Illegal Sex in Muslim Theology Based on the Principle of Sexual Autonomy
By Ali Ghandour, University of Hamburg
This paper offers a critical analysis of traditional Muslim sexual morality and questions its validity in the present. It focuses on two elements: (1) nikāḥ as a legal marriage contract characterized by asymmetrical gender roles and (2) historically permitted sexual relations with enslaved women, as well as Muslim positions on sexual intercourse with minors. After a conceptual clarification of sexual autonomy, I examine the positions of different legal schools and contextualize their norms within broader social and intellectual histories. Building on the approach of “overcoming the text,” I argue that foundational religious texts can no longer serve as the normative basis for a contemporary sexual ethic. Instead, I redefine the notion of “illegitimate sexuality” (zinā) based on the principle of sexual autonomy and show how modern legal and social frameworks (rule of law, welfare state, medical evidence) render earlier functions of sexual regulation obsolete. The Qurʾanic concept of maʿrūfserves as a dynamic ethical reference point. The goal is a paradigm shift toward a Muslim sexual ethic that centers autonomy, equality, and human dignity while critically dismantling inherited structures.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091208
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Tags: #Ethics #Islam #Law
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Ancient Allah: An Epigraphic Reconstruction
By Ahmad Al-Jallad, The Ohio State University
The identity of the pre-Islamic Arabian deity, Allāh, has been the subject of much scholarly debate. Opinions vary from regarding him as the primary creator deity of the pre-Islamic Arabs to seeing him as a minor, peripheral superbeing with no associated cult. While the epigraphic evidence confirms that Allāh was worshipped across pre-Islamic Arabia, the texts known until now offered limited information about his role in ancestral Arabian religion. This article presents the discovery of a new archaeological site from the northeastern Jordanian Ḥarrah (MH09), which comprises a mortuary installation and a considerable number of Safaitic inscriptions. One of these carvings provides our first glimpse into Allāh mythology among the nomads east of Ḥawrān roughly two thousand years ago. This complex text proffers strong evidence for Allāh's role as a light-giving creator deity, called upon to act against death, represented by darkness. After a detailed analysis of this inscription, key to interpreting a number of other challenging Safaitic expressions and terms, the article concludes with a discussion of how this text informs our understanding of ancestral Arabian cosmology and how the ancient Arabs might have received biblical ideas about creation in late antiquity.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jss/fgaf012
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Tags: #God #Islam #History
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Reversing the problem of evil
By Yujin Nagasawa, University of Oklahoma
The problem of evil—particularly in the form that emphasizes the intense severity and unfair distribution of suffering in the world—is widely regarded as a major challenge to theistic belief in an omnipotent and perfectly good God. In this paper I discuss Richard Swinburne’s theistic response to this version of the problem. I argue that, drawing on Swinburne’s approach, we can “reverse” the problem of evil. That is, we can show that the existence of profound and unevenly distributed suffering poses a greater challenge to atheism than to theism.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-025-09971-3
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Tags: #PoE #Evil #God #Atheism
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Rational Force of Analogy/Qiyās in Law
Logic of Law in Islamic and Contemporary Legal Reasoning
By Muhammed Komath, Qatar Debate Centre
Analogy is an inherently fragile form of argument, as it derives the conclusion from similarity, while overlooking dissimilarities. Yet law fundamentally depends upon analogical reasoning to ensure consistency and predictability in its rulings. This entanglement of fragility and necessity compels the legal traditions, both Islamic and contemporary, to articulate a theory of legitimacy that justifies analogy when applied in law. The most successful explanation among different considerations, I argue, is the one that is anchored in logic. This logical grounding is a shared feature among contemporary legal theorist Scott Brewer, the informal logician Douglas Walton, and the 12th-century Muslim jurist-logician al-Ghazzālī, as all three insist that the justification of legal analogy is logical. This paper aims to trace the thematic contours of these logical frameworks in order to demonstrate, drawing primarily on al-Ghazzālī’s two works: al-Mustaṣfā fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh and al-Muntaḥal fī al-Jadal,that al-Ghazālī’s model of analogical reasoning effectively integrates key elements of Brewer’s abduction model and Walton’s model of defeasible argument.
Link: https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v45i3.10212
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Tags: #Islam #Logic #Law #Ghazali
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‘I Am Darkness’: On Liar-Style Anti-Dualist Arguments in Kalām
By Mohammad Saleh Zarepour, University of Manchester
In the medieval Islamic world, dualism—i.e. the view that reality is constituted of two incompatible ultimate substances, the light and the darkness—was sometimes criticised by appealing to liar-style paradoxes. Here, I discuss three of such criticisms developed in the tradition of classical Islamic Kalām at around the same time by Abū Bakr al-Baqillānī (d. 1013), Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 1025), and ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī (d. 1037).
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2025.2549617
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Tags: #Islam #Kalam #Dualism
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Where in the Torah and Gospel Is the Promise of Qur’an 9:111 Found?
By Abdulla Galadari, Khalifa University of Science and Technology
Q. 9:111 speaks of a business transaction using covenantal language: God purchases from the believers their selves and their money in return for heaven. The verse claims that fighting in the way of God is sanctioned in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Qur’an. The verse is compared with the rabbinic commentary on the Shemaʿ, which is a covenant (accepting [the yoke of] the kingdom of heaven), and interprets “with all your self (soul)” as “unto death and martyrdom,” and “with all your strength” as “with all your money.” This concept is also echoed in the Gospels’ narratives, where they describe the cost of discipleship, in which Jesus's followers need to deny themselves, carry their crosses, sell all their possessions and give to the poor, and lose their lives for Jesus's sake. Once we understand the possible subtexts to which the Qur’an attempts to allude, it becomes more evident that Q. 9:111 is not necessarily sanctioning violence. Instead, this passage is more likely discussing a spiritual struggle or a submissive role in losing their lives for the sake of God.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70008
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Tags: #Quran #Jesus #God #lReligion
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Aristotle’s insight on truth: ‘That p is true because p’
By Benjamin Schnieder, University of Vienna
Aristotle famously observed: That you are pale is true because you are pale—but not vice versa. This insight plays an important role in contemporary debates about truth by expressing truth’s dependency on being. However, how to account for this insight remains controversial. This paper employs the logic of grounding to derive Aristotle’s insight rigorously. The derivation requires a specific truth theory as its starting point. Here, Wolfgang Künne’s Modest Conception of Truth is chosen, but it can also be adapted to other theories of truth. As a by-product, this analysis uncovers a previously unnoticed problem in Künne’s theory—one for which I also propose a solution.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2025.2527710
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Tags: #Aristotle #Truth #Logic
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Jonah in the Qur’an and the Bible: A Theological Study
By Adam Dodds, Melbourne School of Theology; Joseph Kohring, Alphacrucis University College
This article examines the Qur’an’s theological use of biblical reflexes in relation to Jonah and Yūnus. In section 1, a tripartite categorization is proposed regarding the existing theories of theological intertextuality: essential continuity, qualified continuity, and essential discontinuity. Jonah and Yūnus are examined as a testcase for these three theological intertextual theories. Section 2 discusses the distinguishing features and literary genre of the biblical book of Jonah, including theological analysis, and concludes that Jonah is an anti-prophet who is not exemplary. Section 3 examines Yūnus in the Qur’an in the context of the punishment stories and qur’anic rasulology. Each of the six qurʾanic passages in which Yūnus appears is studied, along with a selection of tafsīr, before proceeding to critical theological reflection. In section 4, several elements of theological continuity are discussed between the qur’anic Yūnus and the biblical Jonah. Then, numerous instances of theological discontinuity are considered before offering a conclusion on which theological intertextual theory best fits the relation of the qur’anic Yūnus to the biblical Jonah.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2025.2547482
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Quran #Exegesis
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The Role of Ritual Prayer (Ṣalāh) in Self-Purification and Identity Formation: An Islamic Educational Perspective
By Adeeb Obaid Alsuhaymi and Fouad Ahmed Atallah, Jouf University
Ritual prayer (ṣalāh) is one of the most central and enduring practices in Islam, widely recognized for its spiritual significance. However, its educational and formative role in shaping the Muslim’s inner self and moral identity remains insufficiently explored in contemporary scholarship. This paper aims to examine ritual prayer as a core pedagogical tool within Islamic education, focusing on its transformative power in the processes of self-purification (tazkiyah) and identity formation. The study seeks to analyze the ethical and psychological dimensions of ṣalāh, drawing on classical Islamic sources, as well as integrating insights from contemporary critical philosophy—particularly Byung-Chul Han’s Vita Contemplativa—and Islamic virtue ethics, including perspectives such as those advanced by Elizabeth Bucar. Through this framework, the paper explores how prayer shapes inner dispositions like humility, mindfulness, sincerity, patience, and submission, reinforcing both spiritual awareness and communal belonging. Employing a descriptive-analytical methodology, the study engages Qur’anic verses, prophetic traditions, and traditional pedagogical literature to investigate how ṣalāh functions as a lived and repeated experience that cultivates the soul and molds ethical behavior. The discussion highlights how regular performance of prayer integrates belief with action and contributes to the formation of a reflective and morally grounded Muslim identity. This paper contributes to the field of Islamic Practical Theology by demonstrating how ritual prayer operates as a dynamic and holistic model for moral and spiritual development. It provides educators and scholars with a theoretical and applied vision for incorporating ṣalāh-based character education into Islamic curricula. Future research may explore how prayer interacts with modern lifestyles, digital spiritual practices, and intergenerational transmission of religious identity in diverse contexts.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16111347
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Tags: #Islam #Pedagogy #Religion
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On Literary Miracles and Social Credibility: The Epistemology of an Islamic Argument
By Erkki V. R. Kojonen, University of Helsinki
The idea that the Qur’an is miraculous is common in Islamic apologetics, but has received little attention in Western philosophy of religion. Despite the common claim that the supposed miracle of the Qur’an is distinct in not requiring testimonial support, testimonial considerations are central for many claims about Qur’anic inimitability. This article clarifies and evaluates the logic of such arguments for the purpose of fostering inter-religious understanding and raising the intellectual level of discourse. The analysis focuses on three different versions of the literary miracle claim: (1) arguments from early Muslim history, (2) arguments from Muslim aesthetic experience, and (3) arguments from Qur’anic literary features. Using recent advances in social epistemology and critical Islamic studies, the article explores how religious testimonial inferences can be evaluated and the difficulties involved in arguing for a literary miracle.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16101319
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Tags: #Islam #Quran #Miracles #Epistemology
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Examining Ḥadīth on Women as a Source of Fitna: Thematic and Contextual Approaches
By Alwi Padly Harahap, Fadhilah Is and Juli Julaiha P, Universitas Islam Negeri Sumatera Utara
Ḥadīth that refer to women as a source of fitna(temptation) are often interpreted in a way that sparks controversy regarding the role of women in Islam. In modern society, such interpretations can lead to gender injustice and discrimination against women. This study examines ḥadīth using thematic and contextual approaches. The method involves thematic analysis to identify key patterns and meanings in ḥadīth that discuss fitna and women, along with a contextual approach to understanding the historical, cultural and social circumstances during the time of Prophet Muḥammad. The findings indicate that ḥadīth describing women as a source of fitna are not meant to diminish their value; rather, they highlight the importance of maintaining morality and healthy social interactions. The discussion emphasises that holistic and contextual comprehension of these ḥadīth can assist to eliminate gender bias and encourage a more inclusive perspective on women’s role in Islam. Consequently, thorough understanding of the ḥadīth text can help prevent misinterpretations and discrimination. This study underscores the necessity of adopting a more critical and contextual approach in ḥadīth studies to support the principle of gender justice that aligns with Islamic teachings.
Link: https://doi.org/10.55831/ajis.v10i2.745
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Tags: #Islam #Hadith #Women
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Rewriting Women's History in Islam: Hajar/Hagar as an Example
By Hatoon Ajwad AL-FASSI, University of Manchester
This paper is an attempt to reflect on the story of Hagar/Hajar, the Egyptian housemaid/slave of Sarah/Sarai, wife/concubine of Abraham/Ibrahim, the father of prophets, who became the mother of a nation and faith. It aims also at understanding what is beyond the narrative given by the Jewish and Islamic accounts of her life. Then the paper will re-read the significance of her representation and symbolism. The questions that this paper raises are: Where do we get Hajar’s voice from? What does she mean to women and Islamic culture at large? How did she participate in building Islam’s theology and practice as we know it today? How did she affect the way we imagine women’s power or submissiveness in Islam? Strengths and weaknesses, leadership, and obedience?
The answer may vary from one person to another, or one generation to the next, but here, the paper will try to give Hajar the voice she has been denied. It will explore the different aspects of the significance of her personality, life, heritage, and Herstory from as many angles as possible: the imagined, the symbolic, and the historical. The rest will be left to the readers to add what they find most touching to their hearts and souls.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16101304
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Tags: #Islam #History #Women
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Kant on the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God: Why Conceivability Does Not Entail Real Possibility
By Lucas Thorpe, Boğaziçi University; Zübeyde Karadağ Thorpe, Kadir Has University
In the ontological argument for the existence of God, Descartes famously argues that the idea of God is the idea of a perfect being. As such, the idea of God must combine all of the perfections. Now, as (necessary) existence is a perfection, God must exist. Leibniz criticized Descartes’ argument, pointing out that it rests upon the hidden assumption that God is possible. Leibniz argues, however, that God is really possible because realities cannot oppose one another, and so there could be no real opposition between the perfections. So, at least in the case of God, conceivability entails real possibility. Kant rejects this assumption and insists that the non-contradictoriness of an idea is not an adequate criterion for the real possibility of the object of the idea, for although predicates may be combined in thought to form a concept, this does not entail the properties they indicate may be so combined in reality. For this reason, Kant believes that it is impossible to prove the real possibility of God, and so the ontological argument is not sound. In this paper, I examine Kant’s reasons for reaching this conclusion. I pay particular attention to Kant’s argument in the Amphiboly, which deals with the concepts of agreement and opposition, and where Kant stresses the importance of the distinction between logical and real opposition. I will argue that this distinction plays a crucial role in Kant’s rejection of the ontological argument and rationalist Leibnizian–Wolffian metaphysics in general. I also show how Kant’s rejection of the possibility of what he calls the complete determination of a concept in the Ideal of Pure Reason, plays a role in his rejection of the conceivability entails real possibility principle.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16101309
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Tags: #Kant #God #Descartes #Metaphysics
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A Kantian Approach to Objective Morality and God’s Existence
By Anne Jeffrey and Kelsey Maglio, Baylor University
In this article, we explain how Kant upends the terms of the debate concerning the relationship between God’s existence and an objective morality by looking at his moral-teleological argument for God’s existence in the third Critique. We explain Kant’s rejection of external sources of moral normativity and his method of grounding moral authority in the normativity of practical reason. We then turn to Kant’s argument justifying a practical belief in God as the moral author of nature. Kant’s claims about how we must conceptualize organisms teleologically and, as a result, how reason seeks an unconditioned end of nature, brings together our moral purpose with a conception of nature as an organized whole. Since our teleological concepts of organisms seem to require that human beings serve as the final, unconditioned end of nature, but morality and nature might be incompatible and divergent, we must also believe in a moral author of nature. This belief guards against demoralization and creates a unified view of the human moral agent and the world she inhabits, which Kant thinks of as indispensable for our practical lives. Kant notoriously blurs the lines between theology and ethics in nonstandard ways. Although he rejects many traditional approaches to grounding ethics in a conception of divine commands or eternal law, he still devotes a considerable amount of time to discussing the role of religion as a bulwark of the moral life. The goal of this paper is to defend Kant’s relevance to a discussion of the relationship between an objective ethics and the existence of God; his contribution deserves our notice precisely for the ways in which it promises to shift the terms of the contemporary debate and complicate possible answers to the question of whether there can be an objective morality without God. In contemporary philosophical literature, Kant’s argument contending that we must hope in God from a practical point of view on pain of irrationality of acting from duty has enjoyed substantial discussion. Here, however, we focus on a lesser-known suite of arguments that in order to so much as cognize ourselves and other species as the sorts of natural beings they are, we must believe in a supersensible moral author of these natures. This set of arguments ultimately dovetail with the more well-known argument for theistic hope and operate in much the same way. But they touch on facets of Kant’s whole philosophical system, such as his account of teleological judgment and the unity and final end of all of nature. Our goal is to explicate these arguments and illuminate their relevance of these Kantian arguments to the debate about the relevance of God to objective morality. We will argue that while an objective ethics is possible without God due to the active role of practical reason in rational agents, belief in God’s existence strengthens the claims of morality, both for psychological reasons but also by providing a more unified conception of moral and natural reality.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16101268
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Tags: #Morality #God #Kant
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William Lane Craig’s “Biblical” Doctrine of the Trinity
By Thomas Gaston, Independent Researcher
This article critically examines William Lane Craig’s defence of what he terms the ‘biblical doctrine of the Trinity’ as presented in his contribution to One God, Three Persons, Four Views and his Systematic Philosophical Theology. Craig formulates this doctrine using two core propositions: (1) there is exactly one God; and (2) there are exactly three distinct persons properly called ‘God’. While Craig contends that his formulation represents a biblical justification for the Trinity, the paper argues that his case is ultimately unconvincing.
This article examines aspects of Craig’s argument, including his remarkable claim that the New Testament authors lacked the concept of the identity relation. I argue that whilst the New Testament authors affirmed one God, they did so in a sense different from that required for Craig’s ‘biblical’ doctrine of the Trinity. His second proposition is equivocal and his criteria for evaluation are not specified. The milieu and the pattern of usage within the New Testament mean that finding a maximum of eight texts to justify his second proposition is surprising and tells against his conclusions. Therefore, the prior probability weighs strongly in favour of the alternative explanations for these eight texts that scholars have proposed.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.70005
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Tags: #God #WLC #Trinity
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Recognizing Recognition: Maʿrifain Sufi Thought
By Mohammed Rustom, Carleton University
This article delves into the Arabic noun maʿrifa as employed in a range of Arabic and Persian Sufi texts. After unpacking the semantics of the ʿ–r–froot in the Qurʾān and ḥadīth literature and juxtaposing maʿrifa with ʿilm, the piece seeks to demonstrate how Sufi authors specifically conceived of maʿrifa as a type of recognition of oneself and of God. This recognition is activated by the practice of dhikr or the remembrance of God, which in the end leads the recognizer to self-forgetting, perplexity, and bewilderment.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/etaf036
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Tags: #God #Islam #Sufism #Hadith
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Rhetorical Transformation in the Qurʾān and Pre-Islamic Poetry: A Comparative Analysis of Space, Animal, and Natural Figures
By Samed Yazar, Bursa Uludağ University and İslam Batur, Şırnak University
This study examines how selected place names, animal figures, and natural elements are used rhetorically in the Qurʾān and pre-Islamic Arabic poetry. It explores the rhetorical strategies associated with these elements, their frequency in pre-Islamic poetry, and their transformation within Qurʾānic discourse. Particular attention is given to how the Qurʾān reinterprets such figures, whether it assigns them new semantic layers, and what depth of meaning these usages convey. The study focuses on the Qurʾān and the Mu’allaqāt—the most prominent collection of pre-Islamic odes—and identifies semantic differences rooted in rhetorical style between the two traditions. While the Qurʾān employs a metaphor- and simile-rich narrative style, pre-Islamic poetry tends toward a direct, descriptive mode of expression. The symbolic function of landscape, animal, and cosmic imagery is analyzed in this context. Pre-Islamic poetry typically portrays the world as it is, often grounding meaning in the immediacy of the desert environment. In contrast, the Qurʾān embeds similar elements within a broader metaphysical framework, imbuing them with theological significance. The central aim is to investigate how the Qurʾān engages with and transforms the literary legacy of pre-Islamic poetry, and what rhetorical mechanisms it employs in this process. Thus, the study contributes to understanding the Qurʾān’s rhetorical structure and narrative method considering its linguistic and cultural context.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091186
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Tags: #Quran #Islam #History
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Limits on god, freedom for humans
By Nathan Huffine, University of Colorado
My plan has three parts. First, I address the concern that the problem between divine foreknowledge and free will is merely a pseudo-problem, arguing that it remains philosophically serious and warrants attention. To support this case, I consider Dennett’s dismissal of the divine foreknowledge-freedom problem, arguing that this dismissal is too hasty. Second, I argue that the eternity solution popularized by Stump and Kretzmann, and later defended by Rogers, Rota, Timpe, Diekemper, De Florio, and Frigerio, fails to respond to van Inwagen’s Freedom-Denying Prophetic Object thought experiment. Additionally, I offer an alternative explanation to van Inwagen’s for why even the mere possibility of divine prophecy threatens free will. Third, I defend van Inwagen’s limited foreknowledge approach by responding to recent critiques from Todd and Arbour and by addressing a uniquely Christian concern regarding Jesus as a freedom-denying prophetic object. The defense is not intended to defeat Todd and Arbour’s objections but only to neutralize them.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-025-09967-z
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Tags: #Christianity #God #Metaphysics
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Munazara and (non-)Authoritarian Argumentation
By Karim Sadek, Marmara University
I argue for broadening contemporary argumentation theory’s normative scope by introducing a novel category of argumentative norms that synthesize virtue-theoretic and procedural rules. These norms are derived from munazara, a discipline distinguished by its systematic integration of ethics into procedural rules. Framed within normative democratic theory, I advocate the requirement of non-authoritarian argumentation for regulating public debate, targeting howreasons are exchanged, not which reasons are offered. My contention is that munazara’s ethical-procedural norms not only enrich argumentation’s normative toolbox but also enable the operationalization of democratically enhancing public debate.
Link: https://doi.org/10.22329/il.v45i3.10214
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Tags: #Islam #Logic #Philosophy
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Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī on the Existence and Nature of the Jinn
By Shoaib Ahmed Malik, University of Edinburgh
This article reconstructs Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s (d. 1210) systematic treatment of the jinn in his Great Exegesis (al-Tafsīr al-Kabīr) and his summa The Sublime Objectives in Metaphysics (al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliya min al-ʿIlm al-Ilāhī). In these works, al-Rāzī treats the jinn not as a marginal curiosity but as a test case for probing core metaphysical categories such as substance, embodiment, and divine action. His analysis unfolds through a sequence of guiding questions. Do the jinnexist at all? If not, we arrive at (1) the Denialist View. If they do exist, they must be either immaterial or material. The first yields (2) the Immaterialist View. The second raises the further question of whether bodies differ in essence or share a single essence. If they differ, we arrive at (3) the Non-Essentialist Corporealist View. Notably, these first three views are associated, in different ways, with various figures in the falsafa tradition. If they share a single essence, this produces the Essentialist Corporealist position, which then divides according to whether bodily structure is metaphysically necessary for life and agency. If not necessary, this produces (4) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Independence View, associated with the Ashʿarīs. If necessary, it leads to (5) the Essentialist Corporealist—Structural Dependence View, associated with the Muʿtazilīs. Al-Rāzī rejects (1) and (5), but he leaves (2), (3), and (4) as live possibilities. While he shows greater sympathy for (4), his broader purpose is not to settle the matter but to map the full range of theological and philosophical options. Al-Rāzī’s comprehensive exposition reflects the wider dialectic between falsafa, Ashʿarī theology, and Muʿtazilī theology, showcasing a sophisticated willingness to engage and entertain multiple metaphysical possibilities side by side. The result is an exercise in systematic metaphysics, where the question of the jinn, as liminal beings, becomes a means for interrogating broader ontological commitments in Islamic theology and philosophy.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091141
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Tags: #Islam #AlRazi #Metaphysics #lReligion
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The Qur’an’S Narrative of Mary: Repressive or Emancipatory?
By Zahra Mohagheghian, Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies
Muslim feminists often interpret the story of Mary in the Qur’an favourably, seeing it as a story of chosenness, if not prophecy. However, given the Qur’an’s masculine discourse and the historical context of the Middle East in Late Antiquity, a question arises about whether this representation could be understood in a fundamentally different direction. In other words, does the qur’anic representation have the capacity to turn from a narrative regarding, and in favour of, women to one that serves male interests and desires? In this article, I argue that there are various indications within the Qur’an suggesting that Mary’s representation could be interpreted as masculine and male-centred. Finally, I conclude that, due to its symbolic language, this qur’anic narrative serves as a paean for the triumph of a masculine religion and a victory song for the annihilation of all traces of matriarchy in early Islamic society and religion.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2025.2548711
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Tags: #Quran #Feminism #Religion
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Chanting Ṣalawāt as a Form of Self-Cultivation
By Tuba Işık, Berlin Institute for Islamic Theology,
This article offers a descriptive analysis of a specific form (uṣūl) of prophetic eulogy (ṣalawāt) as vocally performed within Sufi orders such as the Rifāʿiyya, Qādiriyya, and Jarrahiyya of today’s Türkiye. It combines a music–theoretical and music–sociological as well as ritual–theoretical perspective to examine how the structured performance of these chants functions both as a spiritual practice and as a means of social formation. Drawing on this dual perspective, the article analyses the underlying musical structures and elements of the ṣalawāt chant, such as melody, rhythm, harmony, modal frameworks, and dynamics. By examining how these formal aspects shape the aesthetic experience, emotional resonance, and theological significance of the eulogy, the study aims to highlight its performative and affective potential within Sufi devotional practice. Within the ritual framework of Sufi orders (ṭarīqa), this rhythmic and collective performance acts as a practice of tazkiya an-nafs(self-purification), cultivating attentiveness, moral refinement, and communal belonging through synchronized voice, breath, and bodily presence. The repeated invocation of the Prophet Muḥammad, venerated as the perfect human (al-insān al-kāmil), thus becomes a means of fostering inner transformation and spiritual proximity. In this way, ṣalawātchanting mediates religious meaning not only through text but through embodied experience and performative devotion.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091104
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Tags: #Islam #Sufism #Religion
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Experience vs. Explanation: Jinn and Demons in Islam and the Desert Fathers as a Case Study in Spirituality
By Noreen LuAnn Herzfeld, Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary
The discipline of spirituality can be described as the study of human experience of encounter with the transcendent and our lived response to that encounter. There are commonalities to our experience of transcendence that cross the divides of culture and language, commonalities which are often obscured when we theologize about our experience. If we examine the concept of jinn, both among pre-Islamic peoples and in the Qur’an and Hadith and compare this to the demons described in The Life of Antony and The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, we see remarkable similarities. These similarities give evidence that the beliefs in jinn in early Islam and in demons among the Desert Fathers are grounded in a common desert experience. As the centers of theological activity move away from the desert, we find this experience explained by Christianity and Islam in diverse ways. The contrast between descriptive narrative and the subsequent theologizing exemplifies a movement from common spiritual experience to differing theological interpretation.
Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16091114
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Tags: #Islam #Christianity #Quran #Spirituality
