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The Islamic sciences were once rooted in an underlying epistemic unity, that existed among all fields of the knowledge in the Islamic world. Zara talks to Professor Joseph Lumbard about his paper Islam and the Challenge of Epistemic Sovereignty. They discuss: the eradication of the Islamic epistemic framework, the adoption of modern secular-epistemic models, and the complicity of some Muslim academics in this. Professor Lumbard also explains the need to reinstate the position of tasawuf (purification of the soul) in Islamic intellectual discourse.
WHAT WE TALK ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE
- Centrality of knowledge in the Muslim world
- Cohesion of the sciences
- Sources of knowledge
- The development of ’robust epistemologies’
- ’Structural genocide’ and the eradication of institutes of learning through colonialism
- The continual influence of coloniality
- What was the Islamic framework replaced with?
- Adoption of modern secular paradigms by Muslim academics
- Limits of postcolonial theory
- What are the solutions? How should Muslims in academia respond?
FURTHER READING
- Islam and the Challenge of Epistemic Sovereignty by Professor Joseph Lumbard
Dr. Joseph Lumbard is Associate Professor of Quranic Studies at CIS. He has previously taught at the American University of Sharjah, Brandeis University, and the American University in Cairo. He also served as Advisor for Interfaith Affairs to the Jordanian Royal Court. He received his PhD in Islamic Studies from Yale University and has studied with scholars in Morocco, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, and Iran. His scholarship contributes to the fields of Islamic philosophical theology, Sufism, and Quranic studies. He served as author, translator, and general editor for The Study Quran (HarperOne 2015), which has been heralded as one of the most important contributions to Islamic studies in the English language. His current research incorporates aspects of Quranic studies, philosophy and theology to focus upon the development of epistemologies in Islam.
