"Time, Eternity, and the 'Tyranny of History' in Islamic Philosophy"

Dean's Lecture & Concert Series

Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad, The Prophet Muhammad University Professor of Shi’a Islam Studies, Florida International University

Wednesday, September 28, 3:15 p.m., Great Hall

An examination of the probelem of time and eternity in the context of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) and the problems and paradoxes raised by this in Islamic philosophy. This is a long standing debate not only in Islam but in other religious traditions which cultivated philosophy as well, esepcially the Christian and the Jewish traditions. The classic example of this debate in Islam is the famous excahnge between Ibn Rushd (d. 595 H/1198 CE) and al-Ghazālī (d. 505 H/1111 CE). The latter is well-known to Western students of philosophy, but develepments since that time reamain virtually unknown to the Western world. We will take the exchange between Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī as our point of departure and examine the roots of the question before Islam as well as examine its development after Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī in the profoundly original doctrine of “non-temporal origination” formulated by Mīr Dāmād. The question also continues among Muslim scholars in modern times and a few examples will be offered.

Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad is currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter. He also currently serves on the faculty of Mufid Academic Seminary, Fairfax, Virginia.

He received his MA and PhD in Islamic Studies from Princeton University. He also holds an MA in Arabic from Indiana University and a BSc in Pure Mathematics from Purdue University. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization in Kuala Lumpur, the American University of Sharjah, and the American University in Cairo.

Dr Ahmad has about twenty years of teaching experience having served on the faculties of a number of universities and research institutes both in the US and abroad. From 2015–2017 he was a Fellow and later Reader in Shīʿah Studies at The Shīʿah Institute, London. From 2008–2015, he taught in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo. Prior to this he 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 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Dr Ahmad has presented scholarly papers on a very wide range of subjects at some of the most renowned institutions of learning in the both east and west, namely Oxford University, Cambridge University, and the Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Study, University of London), the American University of Beirut, Institut Francais d’Egypt, and the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, Malaysia.

His most recent published or soon to be published books are listed below.

1. The Way of Nobility: Knowledge of the Imam, (forthcoming, Birmingham, UK: AMI Press, 2022). This is the first complete English translation of Minhāj al-karāma fī maʿrifat al-imāma, a seminal work of Islamic theology by al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī (d. 726H/1325). This is a dual language edition which includes a critical edition of the original Arabic text and introduction in English.

2. Philosophy and the Intellectual Life in Shīʿah Islam, edited with Sajjad H. Rizvi (London: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2017).

3. Universal Science: An Introduction to Islamic Metaphysics, Modern Shīʿah Library Series vol. 2, by Mahdī Ḥāʾirī Yazdī (d. 1420/1999), Trans. John Cooper, edited and introduced by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2017).

4. Miʿrāj al-ʿUqūl Sharḥ Duʿāʾ al-Mashlūl (The Ascension of the Intellects Commentary on the the Supplication of the Lame) by Sayyid Murtaḍā Nawnahrawī Ghāzīpūrī (d. 1336/1917), edited and introduced in Arabic English, and Urdu by Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad (London: The Shīʿah Institute, 2016).

5. Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam by Muḥyī al-Dīn b. al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240): A Critical Edition with Introduction and Notes (Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 2015) based on the unique Konya MS 1933 (dated 630 H) dictated by the author to his disciple Ṣadr al-Dīn Qunawī (d. 672/1274), Cairo: Maktabat Miṣr, 2015).

6. Fatwās of Condemnation: Islam and the Limits of Dissent. (Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2006).

An examination of the probelem of time and eternity in the context of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) and the problems and paradoxes raised by this in Islamic philosophy. This is a long standing debate not only in Islam but in other religious traditions which cultivated philosophy as well, esepcially the Christian and the Jewish traditions. The classic example of this debate in Islam is the famous excahnge between Ibn Rushd (d. 595 H/1198 CE) and al-Ghazālī (d. 505 H/1111 CE). The latter is well-known to Western students of philosophy, but develepments since that time reamain virtually unknown to the Western world. We will take the exchange between Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī as our point of departure and examine the roots of the question before Islam as well as examine its development after Ibn Rushd and al-Ghazālī in the profoundly original doctrine of “non-temporal origination” formulated by Mīr Dāmād. The question also continues among Muslim scholars in modern times and a few examples will be offered.