Like their Jewish and Christian counterparts, Muslim theologians and philosophers have long grappled with a profound question: How can a God who is perfectly good, compassionate, merciful, powerful, and wise allow the existence of widespread suffering and evil in the world?
In this CIK Talk, Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury—drawing on his acclaimed monograph (Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil, AUC Press, 2021)—explores this timeless dilemma through the lens of the Sunni theological tradition. The CIK Talk examines diverse manifestations of evil, including animal predation, natural disasters, moral wrongdoing, personal affliction, and systemic oppression, each considered alongside theological responses or justifications (theodicies).
Dr. Chowdhury unpacks how classical Muslim scholars conceptualized evil and how, across centuries, they developed nuanced frameworks to reconcile divine omnipotence and benevolence with the undeniable presence of suffering—while also highlighting the anti-theodicy perspective that emphasizes God’s ultimate sovereignty and the limits of human reason.
In this CIK Talk, Dr. Safaruk Chowdhury—drawing on his acclaimed monograph (Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil, AUC Press, 2021)—explores this timeless dilemma through the lens of the Sunni theological tradition. The CIK Talk examines diverse manifestations of evil, including animal predation, natural disasters, moral wrongdoing, personal affliction, and systemic oppression, each considered alongside theological responses or justifications (theodicies).
Dr. Chowdhury unpacks how classical Muslim scholars conceptualized evil and how, across centuries, they developed nuanced frameworks to reconcile divine omnipotence and benevolence with the undeniable presence of suffering—while also highlighting the anti-theodicy perspective that emphasizes God’s ultimate sovereignty and the limits of human reason.
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Dr. Safaruk ChowdhuryDr. Safaruk Chowdhury is the Academic Director of the Centre for Islamic Knowledge. He read Philosophy at King’s College London, where he also earned the Associate of King’s College (AKC) award. He then travelled to Cairo to study the traditional Islamic Studies curricula at Al-Azhar University. Returning to the UK, he completed his MA with distinction at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. His doctoral research, undertaken at SOAS, examined the eminent Sufi hagiographer and theoretician Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (d. 412/1021) and was later published as A Sufi Apologist of Nishapur: The Life and Thought of Abu ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2019).
Dr. Chowdhury has authored numerous academic articles in Islamic philosophy and theology, particularly in the areas of ethics, metaphysics, logic, and epistemology. His most recent monograph, Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil (New York and Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2021), represents the first sustained treatment of the subject in Islamic Studies through the lens of analytic theology. He served as the lead researcher for the Beyond Foundationalism: New Horizons in Muslim Analytic Theology project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation in collaboration with the Cambridge Muslim College and the Aziz Foundation, which advanced new trajectories in Islamic epistemology. He has previously served as a lecturer at both SOAS and Birkbeck, University of London. In addition to managing the Islamic Analytic Theology website and maintaining an active research profile on Academia.edu, Dr. Chowdhury holds multiple academic and editorial positions. He is the Executive Editor of the Journal of Islamic Philosophy and the Ihya’ Journal of Islamic Thought, a Research Scholar at the Ibn Rushd Centre for Excellence and Research, a Lecturer at the Cambridge Muslim College, a Senior Instructor at the Whitethread Institute, and Chair of the Islamic Literary Society. |
