Safaruk Zaman Chowdhury Research Fellow

    Email: sc@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk

    Academia Page: https://safchowdhury.academia.edu/ ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2196-2968

    EDUCATION

    Ph.D. in Islamic Studies. Area of study: Sufism, SOAS, London, UK.

    M.A. Islamic (distinction). SOAS, London, UK.

    B.A. Philosophy. Kings College London, London, UK.

    A.K.C. Associate of Kings College. Christian Theology. Kings College London, London, UK. Diploma, Arabic. Ministry of Education, Cairo, Egypt. Accrediting body: Wizārat al-Taʿlīm

    EMPLOYMENT

    2007-2011: Lecturer, Islamic Studies and World Religions, SOAS, London, UK

    2007-2011: Lecturer, Philosophy, Theology and Islamic Studies, Birkbeck College, London, UK 2009-2019: Head of Humanities, The King Fahad Academy, London, UK

    2019-2022: Cover supervisor, Thomas Deacon Academy, Peterborough, UK 2020-2023: Visiting Fellow, Cambridge Muslim College, Cambridge, UK

    2022-Current: Humanities Teacher, Thomas Deacon Academy, Peterborough, UK

    ACADEMIC OUTPUT

    Monographs

    2021. Safaruk Chowdhury, Islamic Theology and The Problem of Evil. American University Cairo Press, New York and Cairo.

    ――― 2019. A Ṣūfi Apologist of Nishāpūr: The Life and Thought of Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī. Equinox Publishing. Sheffield.

    Independent

    ――― 2021. A Treatise on Disputation and Argument: Risālat al-Ādāb Fī ʿIlm al-Baḥth wa’l-Munāẓara. Dar al-Nicosia. London.

    ――― 2013. Introducing Arabic Rhetoric. A New Revised & Expanded Version. Dar al-Nicosia. London.

    Journal Articles

    2020. Safaruk Chowdhury, ‘God, Gluts and Gaps: Examining an Islamic Traditionalist Case for a Contradictory Theology’. History and Philosophy of Logic. https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2020.1797449

    ――― 2022. ‘Explaining Evil in the Bio-Sphere: Assessing Some Evolutionary Theodicies for Muslim

    Theists’. Zygon https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12775

    ――― 2022. ‘The Risāla fī ādāb al-baḥth wa-l-munāẓara of Ismāʿīl Gelenbevī (d. 1206/1791) and Applications to Contemporary Argumentation Theories’. In Osmanlı’da İlm-i Mantık ve Münazara. Istanbul: İSAR, 551-570.

    ――― 2022. ‘“Invoke Your Lord in Humility and in Secret (Q. 7:55)”: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī on the Efficacy of Petitionary Prayers’. Journal of Islamic Philosophy 13:3-49.

    ――― 2023. ‘“God, Logic and Lies: Intra-Ḥanafī Polemics on Divine Omnipotence in Colonial India”.

    Kader 20: 960-983.

    ――― 2024. ‘Prayer Language and the Problem of Petitionary Prayer in Islamic Theology’. In Islamic Philosophy of Religion: Analytic Perspectives. Routledge (forthcoming).

    ――― 2024. ‘Suffering, Islamic Consolation Literature and the Process of Meaning Making’. Journal of Islamic Ethics (forthcoming)

    Papers and Presentations

    Safaruk Chowdhury, ‘Exploring Meaning-Making in the Midst of Suffering’. Saturday 4th February 2023, British Board of Scholars and Imams, 11th Symposium, London.

    ―――, ‘Quantum Mechanics, Incompleteness of Physical Reality and An Islamic Occasionalist Idealism’.

    Saturday 3rd December 2022, ASIPT Conference, Harvard University, Boston.

    ―――, ‘Ibn Taymiyya’s Fiṭralism and Alvin Plantinga’s Religious Epistemology: A Study in Comparative Theories of Belief’. Monday 6th June 2022, BRAIS, Edinburgh.

    ―――, ‘Late Ottoman Art of Disputation: The Risāla fī Ādāb al-Baḥth wa-l-Munāẓara of Ismāʿīl Gelenbevī (d.1206/1791)’. Friday 17th December 2021, İSAR, Istanbul, Turkey.

    ―――, ‘Abū ’l-Muʿīn al-Nasafī’s Critique of Various Definitions of Knowledge in Tabṣirat al-Adilla: A

    Philosophical Analysis’. Saturday 4th December 2021, ASIPT Conference, Harvard University, Boston.

    ―――, ‘Death and Destruction in the Earth’s Zone of Life: Examining Some Islamic Evolutionary Theodicies’. Wednesday 5th July 2021, LUSSI, Leiden.

    ―――, ‘A Very Heated Affair: Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī’s Justification for Hell’s Unending Chastisement’. Wednesday 23rd June 2021, BRAIS, London.

    ―――, ‘Bayʿa to the Machines: How is a Ṣūfī to be within a post-Human Ṭarīqa?’ Saturday 1st May 2021, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul.

    ―――, ‘Prior Cognitive Information and An Islamic Argument from Reason’. Wednesday 1st March 2021, Rationality, Theism and Atheism Conference, Tehran.

    ―――, ‘Ibn Taymiyya’s Case for Fiṭralism and the Kalām Evidentialist Rejoinder’. Saturday 6th December 2020, ASIPT Conference, Harvard University, Boston.

    ―――, ‘Destructibles and Indestructibles: Examining Some Problems Related to Resurrection and Bodily Continuity in Medieval Islamic Theology’. Monday 15th April 2019, BRAIS, Nottingham.

    ―――, ‘God was and No Thing was with Him’: Exploring Muslim Views on God and Abstract Objects’. Tuesday 22nd February 2019, Helsinki Analytic Theology Workshop, University of Helsinki, Finland.

    ―――, ‘Evil in the Biosphere: Towards an Islamic Evolutionary Theodicy’. Wednesday 11th April 2018, BRAIS, Exeter.

    ―――, ‘The Lord of the Excluded Middle: The Qur’ān, Logic and Arguments’. Wednesday 12th April 2017, BRAIS, Chester.

    ―――, ‘Into the Eschaton: Possible Animal Theodicies in Māturīdite Thought’. Sunday 29th October 2017, Kalam Research & Media Conference, Amman, Jordan.

    RESEARH PROJECTS

    1. Lead Researcher in ‘Beyond Foundationalism: New Horizons in Islamic Analytic Theology’ (John Templeton Grant: Award ID: 61383)
    2. Team Coordinator in ‘Revelation and Communication: A Muslim Theological Perspective’ with

    International Foundation for Muslim Theology (John Templeton Grant: Award ID: 61439)

    • Paraconsistent logic.
    • Virtue epistemology.
    • Resurrection and bodily identity in Islamic thought.
    • Moral realism and divine command ethics.
    • God and abstract objects.
    • Disability, metaphysics and justice.
    • Islamic argumentation theory. 10.Education Theory

    RESEARCH INTEREST

    • Sufism.
      • Logic
      • Modernism and Islamic thought.
      • Islamic philosophical theology.
      • Arabic linguistics and rhetoric.
      • Qur’ān studies.
      • Islamic law and legal theory.
      • Ḥadīth studies.
      • Islamic Education.
    • Critical Thinking.

    TEACHING INTEREST

    • Sufism.
      • Philosophy.
      • Theology.
      • Logic
      • Ethics
      • Islamic Law
      • Education

    MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND OTHERS

    1. British Association of Islamic Studies (BRAIS)
    2. Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics (SSME)
    3. The British Society for the Philosophy of Religion (BSPR)
    4. The Journal of Analytic Theology (JAT)
    5. American Academy of Religion (AAR)
    6. International Qur’an Studies Association (IQSA)
    7. European Academy of Religion (EuAR)

    REFEREES

    Dr. Mustafa Shah SOAS

    Ms99@soas.ac.uk (academic)

    Dr. Ramon Harvey Cambridge Muslim College

    rh@cambridgemuslimcollege.ac.uk (academic)