Dr. Saad Ismail and Professor Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad engage in a stimulating and wide-ranging conversation on the following questions: How do we define philosophy/wisdom? How do traditional ideas of philosophy differ from modern ones? How would one define Islamic philosophy? What intellectual currents paved the way to traditional cosmology becoming a ‘discarded image’ in the modern world? What has been the comparative fate of philosophy in the Sunni and the Shi’a world? How has the influence of Ghazali and Ash’ari nominalism contributed to the subsequent impoverishment of the Sunni philosophical landscape? The second half of their discussion delves into: A critical discussion of the doctrine of the transcendent unity of religions or ‘Perennial Philosophy’ or ‘Traditionalism’. A comparative look at the works of Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon in the same tradition. Exploring the element of racism/supremacy in the writings of traditionalist scholars. The discussion also touches upon Urdu and Sufi poetry, Islam in the subcontinent, and the Occult Sciences. Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad is an independent scholar. He has a Ph.D. and MA in Islamic Studies both from Princeton University, an MA in Arabic from Indiana University (Bloomington), and a BSc in Mathematics from Purdue University. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations (ARIC) at the American University in Cairo from 2007–2015. He has also taught at the American University in Sharjah, the University of Texas at Austin as well as at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kuala Lumpur. He has presented scholarly papers on the Islamic occult sciences especially the works of al-Buni (d. 622 H/1225 CE) and al-Suhrawardi al-Maqtul (587 H/1191 CE) at Oxford University, Cambridge University, the Warburg Institute, and the American University in Beirut. Most recently he published a critical edition (Cairo: Dar Miṣr, 1435 H/2015 CE) of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s (d. 638 H/1240 CE) Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam (The Bezels of Wisdom) based on the unique Konya manuscript dictated by the author to his disciple Ṣadr al-Dīn Qunawī (d. 672 H/1274 CE) as well as an edition with introductions in Arabic, English, and Urdu of Miʿrāj al-ʿuqūl sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-Mashlūl (The Ascension of the Intellects. Commentary on the Supplication of the Lame) by Murtaḍā Nawnahrawī (d. 1336 H/1917 CE) published in London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 1436 H/2016 CE ). |
Are demons real? Can modern science account for demonic possessions? What does a world-renowned psychiatric authority say on these questions? Dr. Richard Gallagher and Hasan Azad, Ph.D., discuss Gallagher’s latest book, Demonic Foes (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0…) that looks at these very questions. … The world’s leading psychiatric authority on demonic possession delves into the hidden world of exorcisms and his own transformation from cynic to believer over the course of his twenty-five-year career. Successful New York psychiatrist Richard Gallagher was skeptical yet intrigued when a hard-nosed, no-nonsense Catholic priest asked him to examine a woman for a possible exorcism. Meeting her, Gallagher was astonished. The woman’s behavior defied logic. In an instant, she could pinpoint a person’s secret weaknesses. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including Gallagher’s own mother, who passed away after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer. She spoke fluently in multiple languages, including Latin—but only when she was in a trance. This was not psychosis, Gallagher concluded. It was, in his scientific estimation, what could only be described as paranormal ability. The woman wasn’t mentally disturbed—she was possessed. This remarkable case was the first of many that Gallagher would encounter. Sought after today by leaders of all faiths—ministers, priests, rabbis, and imams, Gallagher has spent a quarter-century studying demonic activity and exorcisms throughout history and has witnessed more cases than any other psychiatrist in the world today. In this eerie and enthralling book, Gallagher chronicles his most famous cases for the first time, including: A professional who claimed her spiritualist mother had “assigned” her a spirit who “turned on her.” A petite woman—”90 pounds soaking wet”—who threw a 200-pound Lutheran deacon across the room to the horror of onlookers in a church hall; |
‘To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world.’ – Oscar Wilde More than ever before, we live in a culture that excoriates inactivity and demonizes idleness. Work, connectivity, and a constant flow of information are the cultural norms, and a permanent busyness pervades even our quietest moments. Little wonder so many of us are burning out. Dr. Saad Ismail & Professor Josh Cohen engage in an illuminating conversation on our ambivalent relationship to work. Among other things, they discuss: why do the forces of inertia and gravity catch up on us? What are the psychological dynamics of the burnout, the slacker, the slob, the daydreamer? What are the sociological and historical reasons for our modern attitudes to work? And how we may come to be in a healthy relationship with our work? Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst in private practice and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at the Goldsmiths University of London. He is the author of Spectacular Allegories (1998), Interrupting Auschwitz (2003), How to Read Freud (2005), The Private Life (2013), and Not Working: Why We Have to Stop (2019), as well as numerous reviews and articles on modern literature, philosophy, and psychoanalysis, appearing regularly in the TLS, Guardian and New Statesman. A book on the therapeutic power of literature will be published by Ebury in 2021, called ‘How To Live, What to Do: Life Lessons from Literature’. |
How are digital technologies re-shaping and re-directing what it means to be human? Are we truly free in a digitally mediated world, or is it just part of the modern lexicon to assume that we are? How can spirituality play a role as far as giving us greater agency in this world? Hasan Azad, Ph.D., and Saad Ismail, MBBS, discuss. |
Arthur Michael Kleinman is an American psychiatrist, psychiatric anthropologist, and professor of medical anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry at Harvard University. He is well known for his work on mental illness in Chinese culture. Kleinman is a professor of medical anthropology in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the Esther and Sidney Rabb professor of anthropology in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and was the Victor and William Fung director of Harvard University’s Asia Center 2008 – 2016. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Arthur Kleinman has published seven single-authored books including Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture; Social Origins of Distress and Disease: Depression, Neurasthenia and Pain in Modern China; Rethinking Psychiatry; The Illness Narratives; Writing at the Margin; What Really Matters; and The Soul of Care. His four co-authored books include Reimagining Global Health; A Passion for Society: How We Think about Human Suffering; and Deep China: The Moral Life of the Person. He has also co-edited books on culture and depression; SARS in China; world mental health; suicide; placebos; AIDS in China; and the relationship of anthropology to philosophy (The Ground Between Anthropologists Engage Philosophy). |
What are the key aspects of Islamic Psychology? What are some of the major psychological questions that the global Muslim community is struggling with? How can a heart-based approach to living and being – rooted in the Islamic tradition, and drawing theoretical and practical tools from western psychological paradigms – raise our collective consciousness? Dr. Marwa Assar and Hasan Azad, Ph.D., Columbia University, discuss. Dr. Marwa is the founder of The H.O.M.E Institute. She is a psychologist, educator, & writer dedicated to providing spiritual, mental, & emotional transformation & empowerment through psycho-spiritual education & services that are rooted in Islamic teachings and approached through an Islamic Psychological Lens! For many years, even before she pursued her education in psychology, Dr. Marwa was always passionate about navigating and exploring psychological and self-help topics within an Islamic & spiritual context. In addition to her Islamic studies as well as her extensive explorations and studies within the self-help world, she has also studied psychology extensively for 10 years. In addition to completing both her bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology, she has also completed her doctorate of psychology (PsyD) degree at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Her doctoral research focus was on Islam & Psychology as she completed a research study titled, “An Islamic Psychological Approach to Psychotherapy.” Her main aim in this study was to shed light on the powerful knowledge and tools that Islam has to offer to the world of psychology. |
In a two-part discussion, Dr. Saad Ismail is joined by Dr. James Le Fanu, physician and acclaimed author of the award winning history “The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine”, to discuss the state of medicine today, over-diagnosis, over-treatment, and the increasing pharmaceutical encroachment upon our lives. In the second part, the discussion focuses on how science is rediscovering the mystery of ourselves, and how the human being cannot be accounted for in the purely materialistic terms of Neo-Darwinism and Neuroscience. James Le Fanu is a doctor, columnist, and historian of science and medicine. He studied the humanities at Ampleforth College before switching to medicine, graduating from Cambridge University and the Royal London Hospital in 1974. He subsequently worked in the Renal Transplant Unit at the Royal Free and Cardiology Department at St Mary’s Hospital. For the past twenty years, he has combined medical practice with writing a twice-weekly column for the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph as well as contributing reviews and articles to The Times, Spectator, Prospect, The Oldie, The British Medical Journal, and Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. His much acclaimed ‘The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine’ won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2014. |
Why You Are Not Your Brain. Philosopher & Physician Raymond Tallis in conversation with Saad Ismail on the intellectual diseases of ‘Neuromania’ and ‘Darwinitis’, on the insufficiency of naturalism in explaining consciousness, on humanism & anti-humanists, on God & transcendence, on the soul & afterlife, and on straddling multiple intellectual identities. Professor Raymond Tallis is a philosopher, poet, novelist, and cultural critic and was until recently a physician and a clinical scientist. Raymond Tallis trained in medicine at Oxford University and at St Thomas’ Hospital London before becoming Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research in clinical neuroscience and he has played a key role in developing guidelines for the care of stroke patients in the UK. From 2011–14 he was Chair of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying. He retired from medicine in 2006 to become a full-time writer. His books have ranged across many subjects – from philosophical anthropology to literary and cultural criticism – but all are characterized by a fascination for the infinite complexity of human lives and the human condition. The Economist’s Intelligent Life magazine lists him as one of the world’s leading polymaths. |
Medical Nihilism: The view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. Philosopher of Medicine Jacob Stengenga and Saad Ismail (MBBS) discuss the varieties of skepticisms towards modern medicine, the place of alternative and indigenous medical traditions in postcolonial times, the bias in medical research, the controversial nature of many psychiatric therapies, how aggressive pharmaceutical interventions might be doing more harm than good, and what a gentler medicine might look like. Jacob Stegenga is a Reader in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. He has published widely on fundamental topics in reasoning and rationality and philosophical problems in medicine and biology. He previously taught in the United States and Canada, and he received his Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego. He is the author of ‘Medical Nihilism’ and ‘Care and Cure: An Introduction to Philosophy of Medicine, and he is currently writing a book on the sciences of sexual desire. |
Lewis Gordon (born May 12, 1962) is an American philosopher at the University of Connecticut who works in the areas of Africana philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, social and political theory, postcolonial thought, theories of race and racism, philosophies of liberation, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of religion. He has written particularly extensively on Africana and black existentialism, postcolonial phenomenology, race and racism, and on the works and thought of W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon. His most recent book is titled: What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction To His Life And Thought. |