American University of Beirut
Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies
A conference marking 100 years since the birth of the late Sheihat
kh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Mysticism and Ethics in Islam
التصوف والأخلاق في الإسلام
Organized by Bilal Orfali, Radwan Sayyid, and Mohammed Rustom
May 2-3, 2019
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business
May 2, 2019
9:00-9:30 Opening Remarks: Dean of Arts and Sciences and Conference Organizers (Bilal Orfali, Radwan Sayyid, and Mohammed Rustom)
9:30-11:30 Panel 1: Defining Boundaries I
Chair: Ramzi Baalbaki, American University of Beirut
Suad al-Hakim, Lebanese University: “الأخلاق في التصوف: بين تزكية النفس وتزكية السلوك”
Chafika Ouail: Post-Doc, Orient Institute Beirut: “النسق المعرفي لإعادة إنتاج المفاهيم الأخلاقية عند الصوفية”
Issam Eido, Vanderbitt University: “تلوّنات المتصوّفة والمفهوم الأخلاقي في الأدب الصوفي”
Khaled Abdo, tawaseen: “من نقد التصوّف إلى إصلاح الأخلاق :الكشف عن أعمال الديلمي”
11:30-12:00 Coffee Break
12:00-13:30 Panel 2: Defining Boundaries II
Chair: Atif Khalil, University of Lethbridge
Michael Arnold, American University of Beirut: “Sufism as an Ethical Panacea? Situating Taṣawwuf in Islamic Ethics”
Sophia Vasalou, Birmingham University: “Does al-Ghazālī have a Theory of Virtue?”
Jeremy Farrell, Emory University: “A “Value Theory” of Obligations: Early Sufi approaches to zuhd”
13:30-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-16:30 Panel 3: From Grief to Love
Chair: Sebastian Günther, University of Göttingen
Riccardo Paredi, American University of Beirut: “To Grieve or Not to Grieve? The Concept of ḥuzn in Early Sufism”
Atif Khalil, University of Lethbridge: “On Patience in Early Sufi Ethics”
Kazuyo Murata, King’s College London: “Sufism and the Pursuit of Happiness”
Mohammed Rustom, Carleton University: “Theo-Fānī: ʿAyn al-Quḍāt and the Fire of Love”
16:30-17:00 Coffee Break
17:00-18:00 Keynote Address: Jamal Elias, University of Pennsylvania: “Revisiting Rūmī’s Mathnawī as the ‘Persian Qur’an’ through the Lens of Anqarawī”
May 3, 2019
9:00-11:30 Panel 4: Late Pre-Modern Sufism
Chair: Bilal Orfali, American University of Beirut
Matthew Ingalls, American University in Dubai: “al-Shaʿrānī’s Laṭāʾif al-minan and the Virtue of Sincere Immodesty”
Rizwan Zamir, Davidson College, N.C: “‘Dogs are Better than You!’ Mockery in Punjabi Sufi Poetry”
Alexandre Papas, French National Center for Scientific research: “Sufism and Ethics in Central Asia: Ṣūfī Allāhyār’s Thabāt al-ʿājizīn and its Legacy”
Marcia Hermansen, University of Chicago: “Shāh Walī Allāh and the Virtues”
Muetaz A. Al-Khatib, American University of Beirut/Hamad Bin Khalifa University: “المعارف والأحوال: العزّ بن عبد السلام والتأسيس لأخلاق الظاهر والباطن”
11:30-12:00 Coffee Break
12:00-13:30 Panel 5: Literary Engagements
Chair: Enass Khansa, American University of Beirut
Lina Jammal, American University of Beirut: “أحلام المتصوّفة”
Richard McGregor, Vanderbilt University: “Beauty, Vision, and the Discipline of Bodies in Sufi Aesthetics”
Vahid Behmardi, Lebanese American University: “Social Ethics in Rūmī’s Mathnawī”
13:30-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-16:00 Panel 6: Sufism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries I
Chair: Lyall Armstrong, American University of Beirut
Paul Heck, Georgetown University: “Mystical Traditions of Prophetic Ethics in Moroccan Sufism: The Case of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh”
Ahmed El-Shamsy, University of Chicago: “Modernist Appropriations of Sufi Ethics”
Leila Almazova, International Relations Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University: “Sufism and Modern Muslim Ethics in 20th Century Russian Islamic Thought”
16:00–16:30 Coffee Break
16:30-18:00 Panel 7: Sufism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries II
Chair: Bashshar Haydar, American University of Beirut
Mohammed Helmi: “سؤال التصوف في الأفق الـمُعاصر: التاريخ والـمصائر”
Oludamini Ogunnaike, College of William and Mary: “The Existential, Epistemological Ethics of Tarbiyah: Ibrahim Niasse’s Maqāmāt al-dīn al-thalāth”
Abdelouahab Belgherras, Centre de recherche en anthropologie sociale et culturelle: “الأخلاق الصوفية في الخطاب المعاصر: الإنسان “الكامل” والمواطنة العالمية”
