Draft:Muhammad U. Faruque

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Muhammad U. Faruque (b. 1989) is the Inayat Malik Associate Professor and a Taft Center Fellow (AY 2023-24) at the University of Cincinnati and a former Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. An internationally recognized scholar whose works have been translated into multiple languages, he earned his PhD (with distinction) from the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Exchange Scholar at Harvard University and as George Ames Postdoctoral Fellow at Fordham University. He was also educated at the University of London and Tehran University. In addition to his formal college education, he has traveled throughout the world to learn and explore, and studied with many scholars from South Asia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, North Africa, and Malaysia.^[1]

Biography

Dr. Faruque was studying economics while the catastrophic financial crisis of 2008 shook the world. Focusing on stock markets at that time, he began to think seriously about the big questions of life, especially whether or not we can understand and predict what happens in the external world (in the economic sphere) without taking into account some conception of human subjectivity and the metaphysical presuppositions of what is real, what is possible, and what is good. He eventually became disenchanted with the quantitative models used in economics and began to question the mechanistic premises of modern science. After writing his dissertation on “Arbitrage Pricing Theory” using PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and completing his degree, he decided to pursue philosophy from a non-Western perspective. This landed him in Iran and its vast world of Islamic philosophy. For the next three years, he immersed himself in the philosophies of Avicenna, Suhrawardi, Ibn ‘Arabi, and Mulla Sadra, while also studying Greek philosophy and modern logic. After studying with leading Iranian philosophers at the Iranian Institute of Philosophy and Tehran University for three years and earning an MA with distinction, he moved to the US to pursue a PhD at UC Berkeley, where he studied philosophy, religion and spirituality, and the history and philosophy of science.

His book Sculpting the Self (University of Michigan Press, 2021) won the prestigious 31st World Book Award from Iran. The book addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of selfhood and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical literatures, including modern philosophy and neuroscience. He is the author of three books and over fifty academic articles, which have appeared (or are forthcoming) in numerous prestigious, peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes such as Philosophy East and West, Philosophical Forum, Journal of Contemplative Studies, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge), Sophia, Journal of Sufi Studies (Brill), Religious Studies (Cambridge), and Ancient Philosophy. He has delivered lectures in many North American, European, Asian, and Middle Eastern universities. He gives public lectures on a wide range of topics such as climate change, spirituality, meditation, AI, Islamic psychology, and Islam and the West. He is also a recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the prestigious Templeton Foundation Global Philosophy of Religion grant and the Title IV Grant, U.S. Dept. of Education.

While his past research has explored modern and premodern conceptions of selfhood and identity and their bearing on ethics, religion, and culture, his current book project entitled The Interconnected Universe: Sufism, Climate Change, and Ecological Living aims to develop a new theory of the human and the more-than-human world based on a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary approach that draws on the environmental humanities, on one hand, and Sufism and Islamic Contemplative Studies, on the other. Alongside developing a theory of what he calls the “interconnected universe,” this study also argues that Sufi contemplative practices support and foster an active engagement toward the planet’s well-being and an ecologically viable way of life and vision through an “anthropocosmic” vision of the self. He is also at work on a book on AI and the existential threats of information technology. He also just published an edited volume entitled From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic (co-edited with M. Rustom and published by Routledge).

In his personal life, he loves gardening (plant life fascinates him), spending time in nature, travelling (he always likes to explore new places!), trying out new cuisines, hiking, cooking, sports (esp. tennis, table tennis, and chess), and watching movies. He also has a passion for classical Indian (raag) and Persian music.^[2]

Scholarship

Muhammad Faruque’s book Sculpting the Self addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of self and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical and mystical thought. Alongside detailed analyses of three major Islamic thinkers (Mullā Ṣadrā, Shāh Walī Allāh, and Muhammad Iqbal), this study also situates their writings on selfhood within the wider constellation of related discussions in late modern and contemporary thought, engaging the seminal theoretical insights on the self by William James, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Michel Foucault. This allows the book to develop its inquiry within a spectrum theory of selfhood, incorporating bio-physiological, socio-cultural, and ethico-spiritual modes of discourse and meaning-construction. Weaving together insights from several disciplines such as religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, critical theory, and neuroscience, and arguing against views that narrowly restrict the self to a set of cognitive functions and abilities, this study proposes a multidimensional account of the self that offers new options for addressing central issues in the contemporary world, including spirituality, human flourishing, and meaning in life.

This is the first book-length treatment of selfhood in Islamic thought that draws on a wealth of primary source texts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Greek, and other languages. Muhammad U. Faruque’s interdisciplinary approach makes a significant contribution to the growing field of cross-cultural dialogue, as it opens up the way for engaging premodern and modern Islamic sources from a contemporary perspective by going beyond the exegesis of historical materials. He initiates a critical conversation between new insights into human nature as developed in neuroscience and modern philosophical literature and millennia-old Islamic perspectives on the self, consciousness, and human flourishing as developed in Islamic philosophical, mystical, and literary traditions.^[3]

Jay Garfield, a prominent American philosopher, said “Sculpting the Self is a masterpiece. It is among the finest explorations of selfhood and subjectivity in contemporary philosophical literature. Muhammad Faruque’s approach is breathtakingly erudite, analytically precise, and extraordinarily synoptic. He draws effectively on a wide range of Western philosophical literature-classical, modern, and contemporary; on classical and recent Indian philosophy; on contemporary cognitive science; and especially, and with great nuance, on a great swath of the Islamic tradition from the medieval period through the work of Muhammad Iqbal. Each of these many threads is spun with great care. But most impressive is the skill with which they are woven into a profoundly illuminating tapestry. Sculpting the Self is not only a superb exploration of selfhood, but a master class in the practice of cross-cultural philosophy.”^[4] Concerning the same book, the journal The Humanistic Psychologist said: "This cross-cultural analysis of human identity or the self provides a brilliant and wide-spanning philosophical understanding of the current epistemological challenges in understanding selfhood. Faruque has amassed an extraordinary amount of source material in several European and Islamic languages by bringing the Islamic tradition into dialogue with the metaphysics of the East and West, including modern disciplines such as cognitive science, consciousness studies, evolutionary theory, and neuroscience—that offer a remarkable study of selfhood... This work will be important for mental health professionals seeking to better understand human identity as it is informed by the diverse cultures and their knowledge systems."^[5]

Selected Works

Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2021, xiii + 311 pp.

A Cultural History of South Asian Literature, Volume 3: The Early Modern Age (1400-1700). The Cultural Histories Series. Co-edited with Shankar Nair. London: Bloomsbury, 2024.

From the Divine to the Human: Contemporary Islamic Thinkers on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic. Co-edited with Mohammed Rustom. London and New York: Routledge, 2023, xii, 232 pp.

The Pen and the Tablet: Works by and about Seyyed Hossein Nasr through His 85th Birthday. Louisville:  Fons Vitae, 2019, 258 pp.

“Immortality through AI?: Transhumanism, Human Nature, and the Quest for Spiritual Machines.” In Transhumanism, Immortality, and Religion. Edited by Timothy Knepper. New York: Springer, forthcoming [2025].

“The Literature of Ideas.” In A Cultural History of South Asian Literature, Volume 3: The Early Modern Age (1400-1700). The Cultural Histories Series. Co-edited with Shankar Nair. London: Bloomsbury, 2025 [co-authored with S. Nair].

“The Self.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward Zalta and Uri Nodelman, forthcoming. http://plato.stanford.edu. (14,000 words).

“Elective Brain Chip Implants for Non-Medical Applications: Developing a Comprehensive International Regulatory Framework by Integrating Islamic Principles with Secular Bioethics,” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, under review [co-authored with others].

“Beyond Technical Fixes: Sufism, Contemplation, and Climate Change as Human Predicament,” Journal of Contemplative Studies, accepted, forthcoming.

“Sufism and the Anthropocosmic Self.” In I of the Heart: Texts and Studies in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Islamic History and Civilization Series. Edited M. Faruque, A. Khalil, and M. Rustom. Leiden: Brill, 2025, completed and forthcoming.

“Ethics of Selfhood and Human Flourishing in Islamic Thought.” In the Oxford Handbook of Islamic Ethics, edited by Mustafa Shah. New York: Oxford University Press, accepted and forthcoming [2024].

“The Concept of Intuition in Sufism.” In The Handbook of Intuitions. Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science series, edited by Asad Ahmed et al. New York: Springer, completed and forthcoming [2024].

“Mullā Ṣadrā and Javādī Āmulī: The Book of Metaphysical Penetrations, The Four Intellectual Journeys, and The Sealed Wine.” In Global Philosophy: A Sourcebook, edited by M. Rustom. Sheffield: Equinox, completed and forthcoming [2024].

“The Concept of Life in Islam.” In The Concept of Life in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, edited by Georges Tamer. Berlin: De Gruyter, in press [2024]. (25,000 words).

“Transcending the Ordinary Self: Mullā Ṣadrā on the Ethics of Human Flourishing.” In The BloomsburyHandbook of Islamic Ethics, edited by Jafar Mahallati. London: Bloomsbury, in press [2024].

“Sufi Metaphysical Literature.” In Brill Handbook of Sufi Studies, edited by Alexander Knysh and Bilal Orfali. Leiden: Brill, in press [2024].

“The Existence of God in Islam.” In The Existence of God? Contemporary Positions and Approaches, edited by Evgeny Loginov, in press [2024].

“Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: A Philosophical Critique,” Philosophical Forum (2024): 1–23. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/phil.12378  

“ʿAyn al-Quḍāt.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2024 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-qudat/ (11,000 words) [Co-authored with M. Rustom].

“The Self (nafs),” St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology. Edited by Brendan N. Wolfe et al., 2024, https://www.saet.ac.uk/Islam/Self.

“Toward a Neuro-ethics in Islamic Philosophy: Trauma, Memory, and Personal Identity,” Sophia (2024): 1–20. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-023-00997-6. (Co-authored with Mona Jahangiri).

“Attention, Consciousness, and Self-Cultivation in Sufi-Philosophical Thought.” Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies 2, 2 (2023): 300–316.

“Life after Life: Mullā Ṣadrā on Death and Immortality.” Religious Studies (2024), 60, 104–116. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412523000422

“Seyyed Hossein Nasr.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press, 2014—. Article published May 24, 2023. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.868. (12,000 words).

“Hume on Trial: Can Evil and Suffering be Justified?” In From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic, edited by M. Faruque and M. Rustom. London and New York: Routledge, 2023.

“An Anthropocentric Approach to Evil.” In From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic, edited by M. Faruque and M. Rustom. London and New York: Routledge, 2023.

“Sufism and Philosophy in the Mughal-Safavid Era: Shāh Walī Allāh and the End of Selfhood.” In Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation: Texts and Studies in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, edited by Mohammed Rustom. Leiden: Brill, 2023, pp. 323–370.

“Charles Taylor and the Invention of Modern Inwardness: A Sufi, Constructive Response,” Religions 13 (2022): 22–44 [Special Issue edited by Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh].

“The Crisis of Modern Subjectivity: Rethinking Muhammad Iqbal and the Islamic Tradition,” Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies 6.2 (2022): 43–81.

“A Nietzschean Mystic? Muhammad Iqbal on the Ethics of Selfhood.” In Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, edited by Bilal Orfali et al. Beirut: The American University of Beirut Press, 2022.

“Eternity Made Temporal: Ashraf ʿAlī Thānavī, a Twentieth-Century Indian Thinker and the Revival of Classical Sufi Thought.” Brill Journal of Sufi Studies 9.2 (2020): 215–246.

“Untying the Knots of Love: The Qur’an, Love Poetry, and Akkad’s The Message.” Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies 5.2 (2020): 112-128.

“Seyyed Hossein Nasr: A Contemporary Islamic Philosopher.” In The Pen and the Tablet: Works by and about Seyyed Hossein Nasr through His 85th Birthday. Louisville:  Fons Vitae, 2019.

“Maʿnā wa manẓūr az metāfīzīk dar andīshah-yi Haydigar wa Mullā Ṣadrā.” Ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāʾī 7.1 (1397/2018): 117–128.

“Does God Create Evil? A Study of Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī’s Exegesis of Sūrat al-falaq.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 28.3 (2017): 271–291.

“Heidegger and Mullā Ṣadrā on the Meaning of Metaphysics.” Philosophy East and West 67.3 (2017): 629–650.

“Mullā Ṣadrā on the Problem of Natural Universals.” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 27.2 (2017): 269–302.

“Rajab ʿAlī Tabrīzī’s Refutation of Ṣadrian Metaphysics.” In Philosophy and the Intellectual Life in Shīʿah Islam, edited by Sajjad Rizvi and S. N. Ahmad. Bloomsbury: The Shīʿah Institute Press, 2017. (Co-authored with Mohammed Rustom).

“Sufism contra Shariah? Shāh Walī Allāh’s Metaphysics of Waḥdat al-Wujūd.” Brill Journal of Sufi Studies 5.1 (2016): 27–57.

“The Internal Senses in Galen, Plotinus and Nemesius: The Beginning of an Idea.” Ancient Philosophy 10.2 (2016): 119–139.

“Mullā Ṣadrā and the Project of Transcendent Philosophy.” Religion Compass 10.1 (2016): 3–14.

“The Current Situation of Sufism in Iran with Particular Reference to Philosophical Sufism.” In Sufism and Social Integration: Some Observations, edited by M. Faghfoory and G. Dastagir et al. Chicago: Kazi, 2015.

“Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-country Analysis of the Muslim Countries.” European Journal of Social Sciences 36.1 (2012): 90–98.

“An Empirical Investigation of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory in a Frontier Stock Market:  Evidence from Bangladesh.” Indian Journal of Economics and Business 4.10 (2011): 443–465.

“The Contribution of Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on the Economic Development of Bangladesh.” The Chittagong University Journal of Business Administration 22 (2009): 191–220. (Co-authored with T. M.H. Arif and M.N. Uddin).

References

^[1] https://researchdirectory.uc.edu/p/faruqumu

^[2] https://muhammadfaruque.com/biography/

^[3] https://press.umich.edu/Books/S/Sculpting-the-Self

^[4] https://press.umich.edu/Books/S/Sculpting-the-Self

^[5] https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-34149-001