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Dr. Safaruk ChowdhuryDr. Safaruk Chowdhury studied Philosophy at Kings College London, completing it with the accompanying Associate of Kings College (AKC) award. He then travelled to Cairo to study the traditional Islamic Studies curricula at al-Azhar University. He returned to the UK to complete his MA at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London with distinction. His doctoral dissertation was on the eminent Sufi hagiographer and theoretician Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 412/1021), published as A Sufi Apologist of Nishapur: The Life and Thought of Abu 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (Sheffield: Equinox Publishing, 2019). He has published numerous academic articles in the fields of Islamic philosophy and theology focusing on ethics, metaphysics, logic and epistemology. His most recent book is Islamic Theology and the Problem of Evil (New York and Cairo: AUC Press, 2021), which is the first work in Islamic Studies to treat the topic within the analytic theology approach. Chowdhury was the lead researcher on the project Beyond Foundationalism: New Horizons in Muslim Analytic Theology, funded under a John Templeton Foundation grant award in association with Cambridge Muslim College and Aziz Foundation, exploring new vistas in Islamic epistemology. Chowdhury is a past lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and Birkbeck, University of London. He runs the Islamic Analytic Theology website, and his academic work can be found on his Academia.edu page. He is currently the executive editor of the Journal of Islamic Philosophy and the Ihya’ Journal of Islamic Thought, a research scholar at the 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.
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Monographs
2025. Safaruk Chowdhury and Ramon Harvey, eds. Islamic Analytic Epistemology: Critical Debates. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
――― 2021. Islamic Theology and The Problem of Evil. American University Cairo Press, New York and Cairo.
――― 2021. A Treatise on Disputation and Argument: Risālat al-Ādāb Fī ʿIlm al-Baḥth wa’l-Munāẓara. Dar al-Nicosia. London.
――― 2019. A Ṣūfi Apologist of Nishāpūr: The Life and Thought of Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī. Equinox Publishing. Sheffield.
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.
――― and Farah Ahmed. 2024. ‘Rethinking Contemporary School in Muslim Contexts: An Islamic Contextual Framework for Reconstructing K-12 Education. Educational Philosophy and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2024.2411325
――― 2024. ‘Suffering, Islamic Consolation Literature and the Process of Meaning Making’. Journal of Islamic Ethics (forthcoming 2025).
――― 2024. ‘Islamic Theodicies’. In Palgrave Handbook on the Problem of Animal Suffering in the Philosophy of Religion (forthcoming 2025).
――― 2024. ‘Omniscience, Causality and Fatalism: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) on the Problem of Petitionary Prayer’ (forthcoming 2025, University of Louvain Press, 2025).
――― 2024. ‘Tasliyat al-Muṣāb’ (Forthcoming 2025, Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ethics, ed. Mohammed Ghaly et al).
――― 2024. ‘al-Taḥsīn wa-l-Taqbīḥ’ (Forthcoming 2025, Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ethics, ed. Mohammed Ghaly et al).
Papers and Presentations
Safaruk Chowdhury, ‘“Between God’s Gavel and His Gaze”: How Islamic is Sherman Jackson’s Idea of the ‘Islamic Secular?’’ Tuesday 21st May 2024. BRAIS, Leeds University.
―――, ‘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.
Independent Publishing (Dar al-Nicosia)
――― 2020. al-Nabhānī, Yūsuf. Forty Narrations on Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong.
――― 2016. Al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. The Jerusalem Epistle (A Tract on the Fundamentals of Islamic Doctrine).
――― 2015. al-Nabhānī, Yūsuf. Forty Narrations on the Obligation to the Obey the Ruler.
――― 2015. al-Buṣīrī, Sharaf al-Dīn. Qaṣīdat al-Burda: The Ode of the Prophetic Mantle.
Turath
――― (tr.) Shāh Waliullāh al-Dihlawī, Al-Arba’īn. London: Turath Publishing.
――― (tr.) ‘Alī al-Qārī, Al-Arba’īn on the Excellence of the Qur’ān. London: Turath Publishing.
――― (tr.) al-Kattānī, Al-Arba’īn: On the Duty of Loving the Noble Family of the Prophet Muḥammad. London: Turath Publishing, 2010.
――― (co-tr.) al-Nawawī, The Book of Remembrances (Kitāb al-Adhkār). London: Turath Publishing, 2014.
The Introducing Series
――― 2015. Introducing Ḥadīth Studies: Interpretive Principles of the Ḥanafī School.
――― 2013. Introducing Early Kalam Controversies.
――― 2013. Introducing Arabic Rhetoric.
――― 2013. Introducing The Fiqh of Purification.
――― 2013. Introducing The Fiqh of Prayer.
――― 2013. Introducing The Fiqh of Fasting.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Marriage and Divorce.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Marital Intimacy.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Clothing and Dress.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Employment.
――― 2013. Introducing Islamic Financial Transactions.
――― 2009. Introducing the Fiqh of Zakat.
Research 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)
3. Paraconsistent logic.
4. Virtue epistemology.
5. Resurrection and bodily identity in Islamic thought.
6. Moral realism and divine command ethics.
7. God and abstract objects.
8. Disability, metaphysics and justice.
9. Islamic argumentation theory.
10. Education Theory
11. Islamic Analytic Theology (creator of the website www.Islamicanalytictheology.org)
Research Interests:
2025. Safaruk Chowdhury and Ramon Harvey, eds. Islamic Analytic Epistemology: Critical Debates. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
――― 2021. Islamic Theology and The Problem of Evil. American University Cairo Press, New York and Cairo.
――― 2021. A Treatise on Disputation and Argument: Risālat al-Ādāb Fī ʿIlm al-Baḥth wa’l-Munāẓara. Dar al-Nicosia. London.
――― 2019. A Ṣūfi Apologist of Nishāpūr: The Life and Thought of Abū ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī. Equinox Publishing. Sheffield.
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.
――― and Farah Ahmed. 2024. ‘Rethinking Contemporary School in Muslim Contexts: An Islamic Contextual Framework for Reconstructing K-12 Education. Educational Philosophy and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2024.2411325
――― 2024. ‘Suffering, Islamic Consolation Literature and the Process of Meaning Making’. Journal of Islamic Ethics (forthcoming 2025).
――― 2024. ‘Islamic Theodicies’. In Palgrave Handbook on the Problem of Animal Suffering in the Philosophy of Religion (forthcoming 2025).
――― 2024. ‘Omniscience, Causality and Fatalism: Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) on the Problem of Petitionary Prayer’ (forthcoming 2025, University of Louvain Press, 2025).
――― 2024. ‘Tasliyat al-Muṣāb’ (Forthcoming 2025, Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ethics, ed. Mohammed Ghaly et al).
――― 2024. ‘al-Taḥsīn wa-l-Taqbīḥ’ (Forthcoming 2025, Routledge Handbook of Islamic Ethics, ed. Mohammed Ghaly et al).
Papers and Presentations
Safaruk Chowdhury, ‘“Between God’s Gavel and His Gaze”: How Islamic is Sherman Jackson’s Idea of the ‘Islamic Secular?’’ Tuesday 21st May 2024. BRAIS, Leeds University.
―――, ‘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.
Independent Publishing (Dar al-Nicosia)
――― 2020. al-Nabhānī, Yūsuf. Forty Narrations on Commanding Right and Forbidding Wrong.
――― 2016. Al-Ghazālī, Abū Ḥāmid. The Jerusalem Epistle (A Tract on the Fundamentals of Islamic Doctrine).
――― 2015. al-Nabhānī, Yūsuf. Forty Narrations on the Obligation to the Obey the Ruler.
――― 2015. al-Buṣīrī, Sharaf al-Dīn. Qaṣīdat al-Burda: The Ode of the Prophetic Mantle.
Turath
――― (tr.) Shāh Waliullāh al-Dihlawī, Al-Arba’īn. London: Turath Publishing.
――― (tr.) ‘Alī al-Qārī, Al-Arba’īn on the Excellence of the Qur’ān. London: Turath Publishing.
――― (tr.) al-Kattānī, Al-Arba’īn: On the Duty of Loving the Noble Family of the Prophet Muḥammad. London: Turath Publishing, 2010.
――― (co-tr.) al-Nawawī, The Book of Remembrances (Kitāb al-Adhkār). London: Turath Publishing, 2014.
The Introducing Series
――― 2015. Introducing Ḥadīth Studies: Interpretive Principles of the Ḥanafī School.
――― 2013. Introducing Early Kalam Controversies.
――― 2013. Introducing Arabic Rhetoric.
――― 2013. Introducing The Fiqh of Purification.
――― 2013. Introducing The Fiqh of Prayer.
――― 2013. Introducing The Fiqh of Fasting.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Marriage and Divorce.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Marital Intimacy.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Clothing and Dress.
――― 2013. Introducing the Fiqh of Employment.
――― 2013. Introducing Islamic Financial Transactions.
――― 2009. Introducing the Fiqh of Zakat.
Research 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)
3. Paraconsistent logic.
4. Virtue epistemology.
5. Resurrection and bodily identity in Islamic thought.
6. Moral realism and divine command ethics.
7. God and abstract objects.
8. Disability, metaphysics and justice.
9. Islamic argumentation theory.
10. Education Theory
11. Islamic Analytic Theology (creator of the website www.Islamicanalytictheology.org)
Research Interests:
- 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.
