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Mohammad Hassan Khalil, also known as Mohammad Khalil, was raised in East Lansing, Michigan, and is currently professor of religious studies, adjunct professor of law, and director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University.
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Mohammad Hassan Khalil, also known as Mohammad Khalil, was raised in East Lansing, Michigan, and is currently professor of religious studies, adjunct professor of law, and director of the Muslim Studies Program at Michigan State University.
Khalil received his B.A. (with High Distinction), M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and was previously an assistant professor of religion and visiting professor of law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [1]
Khalil is the author of Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), which shows how four of Islam's most prominent scholars—al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn al-'Arabi (d. 1240), Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 1328), and Muhammad Rashid Rida (d. 1935)--imagined (each in his own way) a paradise replete with various categories of non-Muslims. [2] [3] [4] In addition, Khalil argues that neither exclusivism—the belief that only Muslims could ever be saved—nor pluralism—the belief that multiple religions are equally salvific—was as popular in Islamic theology as numerous scholars of religion have assumed. [5] This is a point that Khalil highlights in his article "Salvation and the 'Other' in Islamic thought: The Contemporary Pluralism Debate (in English) (Religion Compass 2011). [6]
In April 2010, Khalil organized the first known international symposium on salvation in Islamic thought called "Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others." The symposium featured a diversity of eminent scholars of Islam and was held at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign). [7] Most of the papers presented at the symposium appear in a volume edited by Khalil called Between Heaven and Hell: Islam, Salvation and the Fate of Others (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)--the first ever multi-authored volume on salvation in Islam in English. [8]
In his 2018 book Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism, Khalil scrutinizes the popular New Atheist claim that Islam is fundamentally violent; he does this "by comparing the conflicting interpretations of jihad offered by mainstream Muslim scholars, Muslim radicals, and New Atheists." [9]
From 2012 to 2018, Khalil served on the board of directors of the Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics. [10]
Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012)
Between Heaven and Hell: Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)
Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Muslims and US Politics Today: A Defining Moment (Harvard University Press and ILEX, 2019)
Islamism is a religio-political ideology. The advocates of Islamism, also known as "al-Islamiyyun", are dedicated to realizing their ideological interpretation of Islam within the context of the state or society. The majority of them are affiliated with Islamic institutions or social mobilization movements, often designated as "al-harakat al-Islamiyyah."
Islamic eschatology is a field of study in Islam concerning future events that would happen in the end times. It is primarily based on sources from the Quran and Sunnah. Aspects from this field of study include the signs of the final age, the destruction of the universe and Judgement Day.
Jihad is an Arabic word which literally means "striving" or "struggling", especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform with God's guidance, such as struggle against one's evil inclinations, proselytizing, or efforts toward the moral betterment of the Muslim community (Ummah), though it is most frequently associated with war. In classical Islamic law (sharia), the term refers to armed struggle against unbelievers, while modernist Islamic scholars generally equate military jihad with defensive warfare. In Sufi circles, spiritual and moral jihad has been traditionally emphasized under the name of greater jihad. The term has gained additional attention in recent decades through its use by various insurgent Islamic extremist, militant Islamist, and terrorist individuals and organizations whose ideology is based on the Islamic notion of jihad.
Religious pluralism is an attitude or policy regarding the diversity of religious belief systems co-existing in society. It can indicate one or more of the following:
In classical Islamic law, the major divisions are dar al-Islam, denoting regions where Islamic law prevails, dar al-sulh denoting non-Islamic lands which have concluded an armistice with a Muslim government, and dar al-harb, denoting adjoining non-Islamic lands whose rulers are called upon to accept Islam.
Amina Wadud is an American Muslim theologian. Wadud serves as Visiting Professor at Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies and was also a visiting scholar at Starr King School for the Ministry. Wadud has written extensively on the role of women in Islam.
Apostasy in Islam is commonly defined as the abandonment of Islam by a Muslim, in thought, word, or through deed. It includes not only explicit renunciations of the Islamic faith by converting to another religion or abandoning religion, but also blasphemy or heresy by those who consider themselves Muslims, through any action or utterance which implies unbelief, including those who deny a "fundamental tenet or creed" of Islam, . An apostate from Islam is known as a murtadd (مرتدّ).
Islamic military jurisprudence refers to what has been accepted in Sharia and Fiqh by Ulama as the correct Islamic manner, expected to be obeyed by Muslims, in times of war. Some scholars and Muslim religious figures describe armed struggle based on Islamic principles as the Lesser jihad.
Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Ishaq al-Rawandi, commonly known as Ibn al-Rawandi, was an early Persian scholar and theologian. In his early days, he was a Mu'tazilite scholar, but then rejected the Mu'tazilite doctrine. Afterwards, he became a Shia scholar; there is some debate about whether he stayed a Shia until his death or became a skeptic, though most sources confirm his eventual rejection of all religion and becoming an atheist. Although none of his works have survived, his opinions had been preserved through his critics and the surviving books that answered him. His book with the most preserved fragments is the Kitab al-Zumurrud.
Criticism of Islam is questioning or challenging the beliefs, practices, and doctrines of Islam. Criticism of Islam can take many forms, including academic critiques, political criticism, and personal opinions.
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In Islamic theology, the term Ahl al-Fatrah, which literally means "people of the time period", refers to the people who lived during a gap in revelation between the times of the prophets Isa and Muhammad, approximately between 30 CE and 610 CE.
Discrimination against atheists, sometimes called atheophobia, atheistophobia, or anti-atheism, both at present and historically, includes persecution of and discrimination against people who are identified as atheists. Discrimination against atheists may be manifested by negative attitudes, prejudice, hostility, hatred, fear, or intolerance towards atheists and atheism or even the complete denial of atheists existence. It is often expressed in distrust regardless of its manifestation. The main mechanism behind anti-atheist prejudice is the projection of believers' repressed desires. Perceived atheist prevalence seems to be correlated with reduction in prejudice.
Asma Afsaruddin is an American scholar of Islamic studies and Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at Indiana University in Bloomington.
An infidel is a person who is accused of disbelief in the central tenets of one's own religion, such as members of another religion, or irreligious people.
The term New Atheism was coined by the American journalist Gary Wolf in 2006 to describe the positions of some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 21st century. New Atheism advocates the view that superstition, religion, and irrationalism should simply not be tolerated. Instead, they should be criticised, countered, examined, and challenged by rational argument, especially when they exert strong influence on the broader society, such as in government, education, and politics. New Atheism is widely attributed Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett known as the are the "four horsemen" of New Atheism.
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Irreligion in the Middle East is the lack of religion in the Middle East. Though atheists in the Middle East are rarely public about their lack of belief, as they are persecuted in many countries, including Saudi Arabia where they are classified as terrorists, there are some atheist organizations in the Middle East. Islam dominates public and private life in most Middle East countries. Nonetheless, there reside small numbers of irreligious individuals within those countries who often face serious formal and, in some cases, informal legal and social consequences.
Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini was a renowned Sunni scholar, jurisconsult, legal theoretician, hadith expert, Qur'anic exegete, theologian and a specialist in the Arabic language. Al-Isfara'ini's scholarship was focused on the sciences of Aqidah, Hadith and Fiqh. He was the foremost leading authority in the Shafi'i school of his time. He was along with Ibn Furak the chief propagator of Sunni Ash'ari theology in Nishapur at the turn of the 5th Islamic century.
Ex-Muslims are people who were raised as Muslims or converted to Islam and later left the religion of Islam. Challenges come from the conditions and history of Islam, Islamic culture and jurisprudence, and sometimes local Muslim culture. This has led to increasingly organized literary and social activism by ex-Muslims, and the development of mutual support networks and organizations to meet the challenges of abandoning the beliefs and practices of Islam and to raise awareness of human rights abuses suffered by ex-Muslims.