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God’s Power and Natural Limits (the Concept of lim Δ)
By John F. Pohl, University of Utah
The theological concept of God’s omniscience in the natural world has been long debated. In the setting of both process theology and open and relational theology, God is in time and desires novelty or creativity. If God’s inclination is to want complete freedom in nature’s creativity, then nature can freely put limits in place as part of creativity. This natural limit can be defined as “lim Δ” or a limit (lim) to change (Δ). The human microbiome in specific organ systems is a biological and theological metaphor for lim Δ occurring in both nature and real time.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637227
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Tags: #ReligiousStudies #Philosophy #Theology #PhilosophyOfReligion
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From Ego-Politics to Rūḥ-Politics: Abderrahmane Taha’s Insurgent Ethics of Izʿāj as a Decolonial Imperative
By Achraf G. Idrissi, Abu Dhabi University
This article probes the Moroccan philosopher Abderrahmane Taha’s concept of izʿāj—literally agitation/disturbance—as an Islamic decolonial option. Reading it through his notion of al-majāl al-tadāwulī (the pragmatic discursive field), this study shows how izʿāj redirects Walter Mignolo’s “body-politics” of epistemic disobedience toward an insurgent rūḥ-politics, relocating agency in divine trusteeship (amānah) and innate human disposition (fiṭrah). Against both religionist quietism and secular activist models, Taha’s rūḥ-centred critique refuses any split between inner purification (tazkiyah) and outward struggle: al-zāʿij—the epistemoral agitator—fuses ethical sincerity (ikhlāṣ) with justice, and spiritual renewal with social liberation. Anchored in amānah (trusteeship) and animated by the logic of khilāfah (stewardship), Taha’ian resistance seeks to ‘insurgify’ political life by recalibrating worldly power through ethical responsibility. Thus, this intervention recasts decolonial resistance as a covenantal ethic that redefines the telos of resistant disobedience itself. To illustrate izʿāj in action, the discussion closes with a reading of Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s Ambiguous Adventure (1961), tracing how communal ritual, personal defiance, and interior crisis each unsettle the materialist and epistemic regimes of colonial modernity. This framework demonstrates that true liberation requires ethical insurgency, resisting the reduction of ethics to private piety. Izʿāj thus emerges as an Islamically grounded and morally integrated Islamic decolonial option.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v43i1-2.3812
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Tags: #IslamicStudies #Philosophy #ReligiousStudies #Ethics #PoliticalPhilosophy #TahaAbderrahman
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Past and Present References to Khaybar and the Jews in Medina: From Early Islamic Sources to Contemporary Antisemitism
By Göran Larsson, University of Gothenburg
The aim of this article is to address a specific episode in Jewish–Muslim relations, namely the period in Medina, and how this episode has been interpreted and utilized by later Muslim scholars. In addition to outlining how Jewish–Muslim relations are reported in early Islamic texts compiled or attributed to scholars such as Ibn Isḥāq (85–150/704–767), al-Wāqidī (130–207/747–823), Ibn Rāshid (96–153/714–770) and al-Ṭabarī (224–310/839–923), the article also aims to shed light on how this formative history has been employed by the Muslim Brotherhood and, more recently, by Hamas (Ḥarakat al-Muqāwama al-Islāmiyya), to legitimize anti-Jewish sentiments, antisemitism and violence against Jews and Israel. To address this question, I present a contextualization and analysis of the antisemitic slogan ‘Khaybar, Khaybar yā yahūd, jaysh Muḥammad sawf yaʿūd’ (‘Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! The army of Muhammad will return’), which was coined by Hamas during the First Intifada in 1987. By doing so, I demonstrate that interpretations of early Islamic history are relevant for understanding how, why and when antisemitic tropes are significant for movements like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2026.2637045
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Tags: #IslamicStudies #ReligiousStudies #IslamicHistory #MiddleEasternStudies #Antisemitism #MuslimBrotherhood #Hamas
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Al-Māturīdī’s Perspectival Account of Human Distinctiveness
By David Solomon Jalajel, King Saud University
A central concern in theological anthropology is the position of human beings within creation, to what extent and in what ways humans are unique and distinctive. This article examines relevant verses in Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī’s exegesis Ta’wilāt al-Qur’ān. What emerges is a cautious tendency to approach such matters from the perspective of human concerns, interests and needs, rather than in absolute ontological terms, which differs from anthropocentric tendencies prevalent in classical Islamic thought. This has relevance to current concerns in theological anthropology, like evolution, animal intelligence, and the possibility of extraterrestrials, which are arguably less challenging with al-Māturīdī’s perspectival approach.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637213
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Tags: #IslamicTheology #PhilosophyOfReligion #IslamAndScience #Maturidi #ReligiousStudies
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Theorized Evolutionary Creational Origin of Life/Species (Molecular Biology/Islam Perspectives)
By Bilal Ghareeb, Arab American University
To better understand the origin of life in contexts of mechanisms and time parameters, the coincidental appearance of cells and organisms is calculated at the molecular biology level (e.g. calculation of coincidental odds of synthesis of life’s molecules). Coincidence is proven to be practically impossible, which favors the approach of creation. To understand better the origin of species, the odds of coincidental similarity (homology) of life’s molecules is proven also to be practically impossible, which supports the approach of evolution. The combination of the two impossibilities plausibly gives rise to an extraordinary evolutionary creation of life, as theorized herein.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637222
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Tags: #IslamAndScience #Evolution #Creation #MolecularBiology #PhilosophyOfBiology
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Human Evolution and Islam: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and the Origins of Language
By Shoaib Ahmed Malik, University of Edinburgh
The relationship between Islam and human evolution remains contested. One possible tension concerns language, since Q. 2:31 is often read as implying that Adam was taught a complete revealed language, leaving little room for gradual linguistic development. Yet Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1210), in The Compendium on the Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh), examined four theories of language origin and suspended judgement (tawaqquf) after finding no decisive proof for any one view. This article argues that al-Rāzī’s analysis weakens a key theological barrier, allowing Muslims to consider scientific accounts of language origins within an Islamic framework.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637214
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Tags: #IslamAndScience #HumanEvolution #AlRazi #LanguageOrigins #IslamicThought
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Attachment, Religion, and Spirituality
By Edward (Ward) B. Davis, Wheaton College (Illinois); Pehr Granqvist, Stockholm University
Across the world, most people are religious or spiritual, and many have a strong relational-emotional bond (attachment relationship) with God(s). This Element summarizes social-scientific theory and research on these relationships. Part I outlines basic principles of attachment and religion/spirituality. Part II describes normative (human-universal) processes and patterns. It explains how God and other supernatural beings often serve as irreplaceable relational caregivers (attachment figures), safe havens, and secure bases for people. Then it examines how religious/spiritual development interacts with attachment maturation across the lifespan. Part III explores individual differences in human and religious/spiritual attachment. After describing human-attachment differences, it examines how such differences can manifest jointly in forms of emotionally/socially correspondent or emotionally compensatory human attachment and religion/spirituality. Part IV discusses applied theory and research on religious/spiritual attachment. It explores the relationship between religious/spiritual attachment and health/well-being and concludes discussing how transformation in religious/spiritual attachment can occur through psychospiritual intervention or healthy relationships. (Cambridge University Press & Assessment)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009501019
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Tags: #PsychologyOfReligion #AttachmentTheory #Spirituality #Religion #MentalHealth
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Can We Trust the Word of God? Defending Skeptical Theism from Skeptical Theology
By Joshua David McKeown, Mississippi College
I argue that skeptical theism does not imply skepticism about theologically indispensable propositions. I distinguish metaphorical truth and belief from “ordinary” or cognitive truth and belief. I then argue that the belief that theologically indispensable propositions like “Jesus is the Son of God” are true belongs to the former, metaphorical kind of belief. I therefore argue that God cannot tell us that they are true without commanding us to do something that is either moral or immoral. If then He loves us in the “parental” sense, and it is detrimental to our well-being to do something immoral, I argue that He cannot tell us that such a proposition is true unless it is.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-026-09991-7
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Tags: #SkepticalTheism #PhilosophyOfReligion #Theology #Epistemology
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From Taqlid to Digital Ijtihad: Al-Ghazali’s Epistemology and the Fake News Challenge
By Mesfer Alhayyani, Kuwait University
This paper argues that al-Ghazali’s (1058–1111) distinction between taqlid (uncritical acceptance of authority) and ijtihad (independent reasoning) can offer a normative response to the contemporary challenge of fake news, thereby connecting a medieval epistemic framework to a pressing twenty-first-century problem. This study treats fake news as both an epistemic and an ethical challenge. Epistemically, fake news undermines the aim of belief, which is the aspiration toward truth, by introducing and sustaining falsehoods within the testimonial networks on which individuals depend for knowledge. Ethically, it constitutes a form of deception that manipulates audiences, corrodes intellectual virtues such as honesty, and disintegrates the trust between individuals and public institutions that is essential for collective life. Methodologically, this paper adopts an analytical–critical approach. It examines recent philosophical literature on the epistemology of misinformation, reconstructs al-Ghazali’s taqlid–ijtihad framework from his original texts, and then adapts it to the conditions of digital information environments. The resulting model distinguishes between digital ijtihad, the responsible and competent verification of online information, and justified digital taqlid, the legitimate reliance on credible digital authorities when independent verification is impractical. The findings suggest that this adapted framework not only enriches contemporary epistemic theory but also offers practical normative guidance for cultivating responsible belief formation, including in educational contexts where teaching itself functions as a structured form of testimonial exchange.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020039
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Tags: #IslamicPhilosophy #AlGhazali #Epistemology #FakeNews #DigitalEthics
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Can Eliminativism Save Evolutionary Naturalism From Defeat?
By Jędrzej Gosiewski, Department of Philosophy and Cognitive Science; Doctoral School, University of Bialystok, Poland
This paper evaluates whether eliminativism – the thesis that the posits of folk psychology do not refer to anything real – can be employed by the naturalist to deflect Alvin Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN). I start by trotting out Plantinga’s argument. After that, I present the conditionalization problem and propose to treat eliminativism as a defeater-deflector against EAAN. I then argue that eliminativism does not fall prey to Plantinga’s response against other potential defeater-deflectors from philosophy of mind. The next part consists of showing why the probability that our cognitive faculties are reliable on evolutionary naturalism combined with eliminativism is high. The last part of the article is aimed at arguing that despite the initial appeal, eliminativism is not a solution most naturalists would be happy to adopt – that is because eliminativism forces the naturalist to interpret naturalism as a methodological postulate.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anag015
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #Naturalism #Eliminativism #Epistemology #PhilosophyOfMind
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Universe without a cause: a reply to David Lu
By Daniel Linford, Old Dominion University
David Lu has recently argued that denying the Modified Causal Principle (MCP)—that if the universe began to exist, then it has a cause—leads to the conclusion that we likely inhabit an Omphalos universe, one that began recently with the appearance of age. Lu goes on to argue that if the universe is likely Omphalos, then independent measurements of the universe’s age are unlikely to agree. I offer three families of objections. First, Lu’s probabilistic reasoning faces technical challenges and, even if those challenges are overcome, cannot rule out an Omphalos universe. Second, I propose an alternative hypothesis that does so. Third, I argue—drawing on a standard argument in the foundations of statistical mechanics—that no ordinary scientific inference can be used to rule out our living in an Omphalos universe. Instead, we must either presuppose that we do not inhabit one or else be stuck in a skeptical scenario tolerable to no one. (Springer Link)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-026-09992-6
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #Metaphysics #Cosmology #Causation #PhilosophyOfScience
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Taymiyyan Diplomacy, or ‘What Brings One Close to God’: Revisiting Ibn Taymiyya’s Letter to a Christian Lord in Cyprus
By Caterina Bori, University of Bologna, Italy
This article challenges the conventional reading of Ibn Taymiyya’s Al-Risāla al-qubruṣiyya as an apologetic work. This interpretation marginalizes the letter’s purpose and overlooks its structural coherence. By re-examining the text in light of its historical context and rhetorical strategy, the article argues that the letter should be understood as a ‘diplomatic-like’ appeal – a carefully crafted request aimed at persuading its recipient to release a group of Muslim captives held in Cyprus. This situates the letter within Ibn Taymiyya’s broader experience in negotiating with the Mongol authorities, highlighting his ‘diplomatic’ undertakings in moments of acute military and political crisis. Shaped by the letter’s dense, cross-confessional language, polemics and persuasion are part of the same intended message. Ibn Taymiyya grounds his request in the dialectical truth of Islam, which is theologically at odds with Christianity but in line with Jesus’s ethical teachings. He crafts his requests as a sincere piece of advice (naṣīḥa), an act of moral concern according to which kindness to captives is both a religious duty and a path to future benefit. The article also offers new insights into the likely identity of the letter’s recipient.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2026.2626187
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Tags: #IbnTaymiyya #IslamicHistory #PoliticalTheology #Diplomacy #ReligiousStudies
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Guardian of Faith: Ibn Taymiyya’s Theological Discourse on Frontier Garrisoning versus Pious Residence in Mecca
By Hassan S. Khalilieh, University of Haifa, Israel
This article analyses Ibn Taymiyya’s theological discourse on the precedence of frontier garrisoning (murābaṭa) over pious residence in Mecca (mujāwara), situating his argumentation within the tumultuous milieu of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Amid Mongol incursions, Crusader campaigns and pervasive internal discord, Ibn Taymiyya advocates for active frontier defence, arguing that genuine spiritual merit resides not in contemplative retreat within sacred precincts but in actions that safeguard and fortify the Muslim ummah (nation). Drawing upon Qurʾānic injunctions, Prophetic traditions and juristic consensus, he conceives murābaṭa as an essential dimension of jihad, whilst privileging communal welfare above individualistic devotional observances. His treatise challenges conventional notions of sanctity, demonstrating that spatial holiness emanates from virtuous conduct rather than from any intrinsic qualities. Through integrated historical and theological analysis, this article explores Ibn Taymiyya’s enduring intellectual legacy and examines how his reflections on religious obligation, spiritual excellence and collective responsibility continue to resonate within Islamic jurisprudential and theological discourse. (University of Haifa)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2026.2617798
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Tags: #IbnTaymiyya #IslamicTheology #Jihad #IslamicHistory #ReligiousStudies
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Neuroscience and the Non-Elimination of Theology
By Paul C. Knox, Independent Researcher
The scientific activity and outputs of the neurosciences are fascinating and, for the most part, uncontroversial. However, there have been sustained claims that neuroscientific findings represent a powerful challenge to historic, orthodox Christian teaching concerning human ontology. While philosophers had long debated the “mind/brain” problem, the rise of “eliminative materialism” (in the specific form of “neurophilosophy”) in the last quarter of the 20th century evoked various responses to the proposition that a mature neuroscience would forever banish familiar “folk science” entities like beliefs and desires as well as immaterial souls or minds.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020236
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Tags: #Neuroscience #PhilosophyOfMind #Theology #EliminativeMaterialism #PhilosophyOfReligion
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Allegory of the Human Condition: Reading the 12th-Century Islamic Philosophical Tale Hayy Ibn Yaqzān Within the Interpretive Model of Erik Erikson
By Aqib Javaid Parry, Mudasir Ahmad Mir, Shamsudheen Mannekuzhiyan, Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University, India
This paper examines the Andalusian philosophical tale Hayy Ibn Yaqzān, written by the 12th-century philosopher Ibn Tufail, through the lens of Erik Erikson’s theory of the eight stages of human psychosocial development. In his book The Childhood and Society (1950), Erik Erikson offers eight key insights into how humans progress through different stages of development across their lifespan. The paper argues that Ibn Tufail’s allegory of the titular character, Hayy, is fundamentally a philosophical romance that examines various phases of Hayy’s philosophical development while also reflecting his complex psychosocial evolution. The paper highlights that Hayy’s early nurturance by a doe and his life among animals and plants correspond to Erikson’s stages of trust, autonomy, and initiative. His later intellectual and ethical development aligns with the psychosocial stages of generativity and integrity—though there are notable differences from Erikson’s model at some crucial stages. The Eriksonian model is applied heuristically, not exhaustively, as the overarching aim is to shed light on the classical Islamic philosophical tale by applying a modern theoretical framework to demonstrate how it prefigures contemporary discussions of the human condition, identity, and spiritual integrity. It contributes to ongoing interdisciplinary discussions on Islamic philosophy and developmental psychology by showing how Hayy Ibn Yaqzān can be read as a narrative of psychosocial growth.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies11020035
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Tags: #IbnTufail #HayyIbnYaqzan #IslamicPhilosophy #ErikErikson #PhilosophyOfMind
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“The Grove of Imagination”: Re-reading Ibn ‘Arabī’s Barzakh as a Spiritual Ecology
By Andi Herawati, Indiana University
This paper re-examines Ibn ʿArabī’s concept of the barzakh through the lens of spiritual ecology, arguing that it functions not only as an eschatological or metaphysical intermediary but as a dynamic, growth-oriented realm integral to the soul’s development. Moving beyond previous structural and ontological readings, the paper highlights the barzakh as an active, vegetal-like ecosystem where the human being—understood as a “plant-like” entity (nabātī)—matures through embodied, experiential engagement with the natural world. Drawing on Ibn ʿArabī’s descriptions of the “Vast Earth” (ard al-ḥaqīqa) and the “Pledge of the Plants,” the analysis reveals how the barzakh serves as a spiritual geography that integrates mineral, vegetal, and animal dimensions into the path of human perfection. By synthesizing insights from contemporary Islamic scholarship and vegetal philosophy, the paper presents the barzakh as a foundational, indigenous framework for an Islamic ecological spirituality—one that decenters anthropocentrism and affirms the sacred interconnectivity of all beings in the journey toward divine proximity.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35632/ajis.v43i1-2.3974
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Tags: #IslamicStudies #ReligiousStudies #Philosophy #Theology #Ecology #IbnArabi
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Weeping Christians and the First Hijra to Ethiopia
By Gabriel Said Reynolds, University of Notre Dame
This article examines the Islamic tradition of the ‘first hijra’, the reported migration of a group of early Muslims from Mecca to the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, focusing in particular on the well-known account of the Ethiopian king (the Negus) and his court weeping upon hearing the Qur’an recited. Scholars and religious leaders frequently treat this narrative as a historical episode that exemplifies early Muslim–Christian harmony, or authorizes Muslim settlement in non-Muslim lands. Its historicity is almost never questioned. In this article, however, I argue that the evidence for its historicity is weak. The extraordinary dangers of such a journey, the absence of corroboration in Ethiopian sources, the silence of the Qur’an regarding any Ethiopian migration and the vague, schematic nature of the Islamic reports themselves all argue against its historicity. This article proposes an alternative explanation for the origin of the story: that the first hijra narrative functions as an exegetical and apologetic construction, designed to instantiate qur’anic passages describing Christians who recognize the truth of the Qur’an with tears (Q 5.82–3), and to model an ideal Christian response to Islamic claims. The story thus reflects early Muslim sectarian competition with Christianity rather than historical memory.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2026.2643074
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Tags: #IslamicStudies #ReligiousStudies #IslamicHistory #QuranStudies #MuslimChristianRelations #Hijra
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Human Uniqueness in an Ecotheological Context: Jürgen Moltmann and Seyyed Hossein Nasr in Conversation
By Sevcan Öztürk, Social Sciences University of Ankara
This study explores human uniqueness through a comparative analysis of Jürgen Moltmann’s Christian and Seyyed Hossein Nasr’s Islamic perspectives in an ecotheological framework. With particular focus on the relationships between God, the human being, and nature, and with attention to the relational themes in their thought, this study investigates how these theologians conceptualize human uniqueness while addressing ecological challenges. The study critically examines whether Abrahamic religious traditions can discuss human uniqueness without falling into extreme anthropocentrism, offering insights into reimagining the role of the human being in the natural world from Moltmann’s and Nasr’s distinctive approaches.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637216
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Tags: #IslamicStudies #PhilosophyOfReligion #IslamicTheology #Ecotheology #ReligiousStudies #Nasr #Moltmann
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Language and Human Uniqueness: An Exploration of Abū Muḥammad Ibn Mattawayh’s Discussions of Speech and Language
By Laura Hassan, independent scholar
Scholars of the Mu‘tazilī school of Islamic rational theology (‘ilm al-kalām) entertained extensive discussions of the ontology of human speech and language. This paper presents a case for the interest of these discussions for contemporary scholars involved in constructing theological anthropologies. Despite their remote historical and intellectual context, the ideas of the Mu‘tazila—in particular concerning the ontological continuity between human speech acts and other types of sound, the uniqueness of speech as a co-creation of God and man, and the profound blessing constituted in our capacity for speech—all have important resonances with the concerns of modern theologians.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637215
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Tags: #IslamicTheology #Mutazila #Language #TheologicalAnthropology #PhilosophyOfLanguage #Kalam
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Narrating the Jewish Presence in Islamic Jerusalem: A Muslim–Christian–Jewish Debate
By Moshe Yagur, Bar Ilan University
Early Islamic sources present contradictory opinions regarding a prohibition on Jewish residence in Jerusalem after the Muslim conquest. Some sources report such a prohibition, while others do not. Modern scholars have taken varying stances on this issue. In the scholarly debate, a Cairo Geniza fragment, describing Jews escorting the Caliph ʿUmar and helping to identify the rock where the Dome of the Rock was built, has been presented as confirmation of a Jewish presence in early Islamic Jerusalem. In the present article, I clarify that this fragment is better understood in the context of the tenth or eleventh century, rather than the seventh. I present the evidence for a fierce Muslim-Christian-Jewish debate over a Jewish presence in Islamic Jerusalem, and its theological implications. This debate reached its peak around the tenth century, from which time most of the sources originate. This coincides with documented Jewish activity in the city.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2026.2642526
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Tags: #IslamicHistory #Jerusalem #JewishHistory #InterfaithRelations #ReligiousStudies
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Pondering Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri’s Project of an ‘Arab Reason’: A Critical Assessment
By Luis Xavier López-Farjeat, Universidad Panamericana
Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri (d. 2010) is one of the most important and stimulating contemporary Arabic philosophers. He is well-known for his project Critique of Arab Reason, which aims to analyze the epistemological foundations of Arab–Islamic thought and to diagnose the causes of its intellectual stagnation. This article offers a critical assessment of Al-Jabri’s project, examining both its methodological assumptions and its philosophical implications. It explores how Al-Jabri reconstructs the history of Arab reason through categories such as bayān, ʿirfān, and burhān, and evaluates the extent to which his framework succeeds in providing a coherent and transformative account of intellectual renewal within the Arab–Islamic tradition.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17030381
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Tags: #IslamicPhilosophy #AlJabri #ArabReason #IntellectualHistory #ReligiousStudies
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The Rukhsa of Psychedelics in Shariah: Neural Correlates of Religious Experience and the Issue of License
By Haroon Asghar, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
A previous paper by the same author demonstrates that psychedelic medicines differ from intoxicants (khamr) as they do not induce moral impairment or “veil” rational faculties. While unsupervised should remain impermissible due to psychological risks, their therapeutic application may be justified under Islamic law through rukhsa (legal concession). Since psychedelics can mimic neural and phenomenological states which are produced in prayer or meditation, the paper suggests permitting their clinical use when such spiritual practices would otherwise serve as treatment, provided threshold of disease severity or functional impairment is met.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14746700.2026.2637223
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Tags: #IslamicLaw #Psychedelics #Neuroscience #ReligiousExperience #Shariah
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The Engineered Messiah: Islamic Theology as Source Code in the Post-Cybernetic Universe of Dune
By Nimetullah Aldemir; Emrullah Ataseven, Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen University
Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) establishes a universe defined by the “Butlerian Jihad”, a historical crusade that banned artificial intelligence and created a vacuum filled by religious engineering. This paper argues that in this post-cybernetic setting, religion functions as a sociological operating system designed for political control rather than a metaphysical connection to the divine. The study analyzes the Missionaria Protectiva to demonstrate how the Bene Gesserit order creates belief systems by co-opting and re-engineering Islamic theology. It suggests that the order’s manual of superstitions serves as a library of cultural scripts that primes the indigenous population to accept a manufactured Messiah, specifically the Mahdi. Consequently, the protagonist Paul Atreides is reinterpreted not as a traditional “White Savior” or authentic religious prophet but as a “hacker” who utilizes these pre-planted Islamic codes to access and manipulate the social infrastructure of Arrakis. His prescience functions as a form of biological predictive analytics that traps him in a deterministic loop of his own calculation. Ultimately, this reading suggests that Dune offers a critique of “techno-theology” by showing how the instrumentalization of the Mahdi figure transforms the concept of Jihad from a spiritual struggle into an unstoppable, automated algorithm of violence.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17030372
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Tags: #Dune #IslamicTheology #TechnoTheology #Messianism #ScienceFiction
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Islam and Its Conditions: An Anthropological Concept of Transcendent Force
By Mohamad Marwan Jarada, University of California
This article critically examines a constituent tension within the anthropological inquiry of the Islamic tradition. It focuses on the contentious relationship between Islam and liberalism and on its elaboration in some literature in the subdiscipline of the anthropology of Islam. Along these lines, the article articulates this tension through a discourse regarding the internal practices necessary for an Islamic form of life and the extrinsic conditions of liberalism that are often deemed inimical to the development of this form of life. I argue that there is an important ambiguity in the very texts that have articulated an inimical encounter between Islam and liberalism. Rather than suggest that this ambiguity debilitates their account of Islamic life, I suggest the need to exploit this ambiguity so as to develop the conjunction between the internal conditions of Islamic normativity and the extrinsic conditions that situates the Divine within the struggles of the world.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfag001
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Tags: #AnthropologyOfIslam #IslamAndLiberalism #ReligiousStudies #PoliticalTheology #IslamicThought
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God and Value
By Julien Beillard, Toronto Metropolitan University
Over the last decade, Guy Kahane and others have argued for Narrow Personal Anti-Theism (NPA): Some world where God does not exist is significantly better for some people, in some respects, than any world where God exists. Their arguments depend on the assumption that the values of states such as privacy are invariant across worlds. Against this assumption, I claim that the ontological status of God partly determines the values of these states: There are worlds where we have a valuable kind of privacy, because God does not exist, and worlds where our privacy is not (equally) valuable, because God exists. I propose a kind of anti-theism appealing to values of values—the value of privacy being valuable, for example. Paradoxically, this kind of anti-theism may be coherent only if God exists: The omniscience of God may be necessary for anti-theism to be a value judgment.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.37977/faithphil.2025.41.4.7
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #MetaEthics #Theism #Atheism #ValueTheory
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Women’s Testimony in Criminal Law (Ḥudūd and Qiṣāṣ): Classical Islamic Frameworks, Contemporary Applications, and Normative Tensions
By Dr. Zainab Amin, Department of Islamiyat, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University
This article critically examines classical Islamic legal frameworks governing the admissibility of women’s testimony in ḥudūd (fixed punishments) and qiṣāṣ (retributive justice) cases, tracing their doctrinal evolution and contemporary reinterpretations. Grounded in Qurʾānic injunctions and Prophetic ḥadīth, classical jurists generally restricted women’s testimonial roles in criminal proceedings, often invoking epistemological and sociocultural rationales. Modern legal systems in Muslim-majority countries—including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco—continue to navigate the tension between inherited juridical norms and contemporary imperatives of gender equity and evidentiary reliability. This study highlights that many classical restrictions were contextually contingent rather than divinely mandated. Drawing on legal-theoretical discourses, Prophetic precedent, and the framework of maqāṣid al-sharīʿah (higher objectives of Islamic law), it argues for a recalibrated evidentiary paradigm where credibility, rather than gender, determines admissibility. Case studies from hybrid legal systems illustrate both the rigidity of traditional positions and the potential for reform through maqāṣid-oriented jurisprudence. The article concludes that the flexibility inherent in Islamic legal theory not only allows but necessitates the revision of evidentiary standards to meet contemporary demands for gender justice and procedural fairness. This analysis contributes to broader discussions on Islamic legal renewal (tajdīd), emphasizing the dynamic interplay between tradition.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/muwo.70021
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Tags: #IslamicLaw #GenderJustice #Shariah #LegalTheory #Maqasid #IslamicStudies
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The Precreation Moment Is Easy to Find: A Reply to Ben Page and Some Reflections on Rival Theories of Creation
By R. T. Mullins, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
In previous publications I have argued that divine timelessness is not compatible with the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. The doctrine of creation ex nihilo says that prior to creation God existed all alone, and then God exists with a universe. This precreation moment in the life of God generates all sorts of difficulties for divine timelessness. In a series of papers, Ben Page claims that the doctrine of creation ex nihilo does not have to mean that God once existed all alone, and hence a proponent of divine timelessness can ignore the precreation moment. In “O Precreation Moment, Where Art Thou?” Page argues that it is difficult to find the affirmation of the precreation moment. In this reply, I explain that it is quite easy to find the explicit affirmation of the precreation moment among proponents of creation ex nihilo. I also argue that Page’s reinterpretation of creation out of nothing makes the doctrine indistinguishable from its well-established historical rivals.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-026-09988-2
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Tags: #PhilosophyOfReligion #CreationExNihilo #DivineTimelessness #Metaphysics #Theology
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Doing Theology Creatively in a Scientific Age: Tradition, Reflexivity, and Second-Order Cybernetics
By Claudio Tagliapietra, Pontifical Gregorian University, Vatican City; KU Leuven, Belgium
This article offers a meta-theological inquiry on the roles of creativity and tradition in innovating theological knowledge. After distinguishing between problem-driven and solution-driven creativity, it argues that theology, as a discipline rooted in a living tradition, must negotiate the tension between fidelity to inherited doctrines and openness to novelty. The article proposes second-order cybernetics as a heuristic vocabulary for understanding theological inquiry as an observer-included and reflexive process. By framing theology in terms of feedback, communal discernment, and historically extended reception, the study shows how new theological insights can emerge without undermining doctrinal continuity. Ultimately, it suggests that the scientific age calls for a more reflexive and self-aware theological methodology, one that remains faithful to tradition while engaging constructively with contemporary epistemic cultures. (MDPI)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020242
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Tags: #Theology #PhilosophyOfReligion #ScienceAndReligion #Cybernetics #Epistemology
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Islamic Pacifism: Contexts, Principles, and Dilemmas
By Abdessamad Belhaj, Institute of Religion and Society, University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary
Despite increased interest in Islamic pacifism, there are still significant gaps in academic research on this topic, especially regarding the contexts of its emergence, its shared principles and ethical dilemmas. The goal of this article is to chart the rise and evolution of Islamic pacifism throughout various Muslim contexts since the middle of the 20th century. I will also discuss some of the main ethical principles of Islamic pacifism as they relate to modern Muslim ethics and politics, particularly the peaceful settlement of disputes and the recent work on covenants in Islam and peacebuilding. Additionally, I will address some of the dilemmas that Islamic pacifists confront in relation to absolute pacifism, the efficacy of nonviolence, conflict and just peace. This article makes the case that pacifism could be a viable alternative to Islamist politics in the current Middle East conflicts. However, Islamic pacifists also face major skepticism amidst unjust policies. (MDPI)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17030327
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Tags: #IslamicPacifism #IslamicEthics #PeaceStudies #NonViolence #PoliticalIslam
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Can pantheism’s God be perfect?
By Thomas Oberle, St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta, Canada
Perfect Being Theism is the idea that God is the greatest metaphysically possible being. Most theists argue that God’s greatness entails that God must be ontologically distinct from the cosmos. Otherwise, God would be dependent in some respect, and so imperfect. This constitutes a formidable challenge to pantheism, the view that God is identical with the cosmos. If pantheism is inconsistent with Perfect Being Theism, then pantheists’ concept of God is deficient. I respond by arguing that Perfect Being Theism doesn’t entail God’s distinctness from the cosmos. I then argue that Perfect Being Theism is not a neutral methodological constraint on our theorizing about the divine nature. As a result, pantheists are entitled to develop an alternative conception of God’s perfection that is congenial to their view of the divine. (watermark02.silverchair.com)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqag010
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Tags: #Pantheism #PhilosophyOfReligion #Metaphysics #PerfectBeingTheism #AnalyticPhilosophy
