Academic Biography

I defended my Ph.D. thesis in September 2012 on a central logical problem in the thought of Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1635): the distinction between two types of predication—primary and common. Shortly thereafter, I joined the University of Birjand, where I teach courses in Islamic philosophy, logic, theology and mysticism. My research began by focusing on Islamic logic, with particular emphasis on the concept of predication (ḥaml). In recent years, I have developed two parallel research trajectories: the historical resistance to logic within the Islamic tradition, and the phenomenon of kitābshūyī (“book-washing”) among Sufi thinkers. These lines of inquiry have led to current projects on Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 1273), the celebrated Iranian poet, as well as the Maktab-i Tafkīk (School of Separation), a movement that seeks to divorce Islam from both philosophy and mysticism. While logic remains my primary specialization, my interests range broadly across Sufism, Kalām, and Islamic philosophy. I am especially driven by the question of how Islam can be interpreted in a way that reconciles altruism—which I see as grounded in Islamic mysticism—with rationality, which I believe is supported by Islamic logic and philosophy.

                                                               There is a desert far beyond belief and unbelief;

                                                   Toward that horizon, our longing always turns;

                                                   When the knower reaches it, he bows his head;

                                                                for in that pure expanse, no creed survives.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              (Rūmī)