The AMI Podcast

God, Jinns & Aliens: Islam & Science with Dr Shoaib Malik | Thinking Islam Ep.19

Are the claims of the Qurʾan scientific, or beyond the reach of science? And if aliens exist, are humans still the best of creation? In this episode of Thinking Islam, we

Shi'a Identity and Belonging in Britain with Dr Emanuelle Degli Esposti | Thinking Islam Ep.18

What happens when a community feels present in Britain but absent from the public story of British Islam? In this episode of Thinking Islam, we explore what it means to b

The Tug of War over Imāmī Creed & ʿIlm al-Rijāl | Dr Syed Ali Hur Kamoonpuri | Research Seminar

ʿIlm al-rijāl is often treated as a technical, almost mechanical science — a matter of chains, dates and verdicts. But the criteria by which a narrator is praised or disc

"The Definition of Ghulāt" by Tabriz Gasimov

In this presentation, Tabriz Gasimov revisits the meaning of ghulāt through hadith literature, tracing it to the concept of "lie" (kadhib) — understood as betraying a tru

"Traces of the Ghulāt in Shīʿī Hadith Literature: A Computational and Thematic Analysis of Ghulāt-Affiliated Traditions in al-Kulaynī's al-Kāfī" by Peyman Ünügür Tekin

In this presentation, Peyman Ünügür Tekin combines classical rijāl criticism with computational analysis to trace narrations transmitted by ghulāt-affiliated narrators in

"The Historical Link between Jesus and Ghuluww: Jesus's Function in Ghulāt Thought and its Impact on Shi'a Hadith" by Hossein Barati & Sobhan Ranjbarzadeh

In this presentation, Hossein Barati and Sobhan Ranjbarzadeh trace how various ghulāt sects appropriated Jesus's ascension and extraordinary attributes to legitimize clai

"Esotericism Embodied: Traces of Ghulāt Thought and Symbolic Expression in Yemeni Islamic Architecture" by Mohamed Enab

In this presentation, Mohamed Enab shifts the study of ghulāt currents from hadith and polemic to material culture, reading Yemeni mosques and inscriptions from the Ṣulay

"Between Bāṭin and Sharīʿa: The Druze as Ghulāt in Formative Shiism" by Wissam H. Halawi

In this presentation, Wissam H. Halawi situates Druze doctrine within the long-running tension between esoteric knowledge and legal normativity in early Shi'ism. Rather t

"Tracing the Legacy of the Mufawwiḍa Ghulāt in Imami Shi'a Theology" by Mohsen Kadivar

In this presentation, Mohsen Kadivar distinguishes rubūbī ghuluww (attributing lordship to the Imams) from tafwīḍī ghuluww (attributing supra-human but non-divine status)

"Ghulāt in the Sunnī Tafsīr Tradition: The Historical Trajectory and Function of the Concept from the Classical to the Contemporary Period" by Ayşe Uzun

In this presentation, Ayşe Uzun traces how the term ghulāt functioned in Sunni tafsīr — originally a broad marker of "excessiveness" applied well beyond Shi'ism, before n

"The Ghulāt and Abbasid Culture Polemics in Kitāb al-Ṣirāṭ" by Mushegh Asatryan

In this presentation, Mushegh Asatryan examines Kitāb al-Ṣirāṭ, a rare ghulāt text that engages directly with the surrounding world rather than staying purely cosmologica

"Juridical Esotericism: Ghuluww, the Palāsī–Ibn Miʿmār Network, and the Mamluk Criminalization of Shīʿī–Sufi Metaphysics" by Seyed Amir Asghari

In this presentation, Seyed Amir Asghari treats ghuluww not as a doctrine but as a historically produced accusation, tracing its use in 14th-century Mamluk Syria through

"The Docetic Doctrine and the Image of the Imām in Early Ghulāt Literature" by Abdullah Ansar & Mohammad Al Mosawi

In this presentation, Abdullah Ansar and Mohammad Al Mosawi trace a docetic Imamology within early Ghulāt literature — the idea that the Imām, as a timeless theophany, ne

"Ghulūw and Esoteric Qur'anic Interpretation in the Early Islamic Centuries: Jābir ibn Yazīd al-Juʿfī as a Case Study" by Mohammad Khalil Tarraf

In this presentation, Mohammad Khalil Tarraf critically examines the esoteric (bāṭinī) interpretive method attributed to Jābir ibn Yazīd al-Juʿfī, questioning its coheren

"The Jewish Convert as Ghulāt Architect: Abd Allah ibn Saba and the Construction of Heterodoxy in Early Shiism" by Iqbal Akhtar

In this presentation, Iqbal Akhtar traces how allegations of Abd Allah ibn Saba's Jewish origins became a recurring polemical device in Sunni and Shi'i heresiography, use

"Verificatory Inconsistency and the Accommodation of Ghulūw-Adjacent Idioms in Imāmī Literature" by Arif Abdul Hussain

In this presentation, Shaykh Arif Abdul Hussain examines how doctrines now central to mainstream Shi'i theology and piety — such as wilāya takwīniyya, the Imams' knowledg

"Navigating the 'Mid-Sized Cushion': Defining Ghuluww Through Qur'ānic Parameters within Contemporary Twelver Scholarship" by Syed Ali Hur Kamoonpuri

In this presentation, Syed Ali Hur Kamoonpuri develops a Qur'ānically grounded definition of ghuluww (religious exaggeration), challenging reductionist readings that limi

"Literary Analysis of Polemical Anecdotes: A Neglected Source for the Study of the Early Ghulāt" by Ammaar Muslim

In this presentation, Ammaar Muslim turns to the biographical work Rijāl al-Kashshī as an underused source for studying the early ghulāt, focusing on the contested profil

"From Remembrance to Insight: Hudur al-Qalb and Basirah in Salat and Dhikr" by Mishaal Javed and Miguel Farias

In this presentation, Mishaal Javed and Miguel Farias present original qualitative research into how practitioners of salat and dhikr experience heart-centred insight and

"Fiṭra and Presential Consciousness: Qur'anic Ways of Knowing Beyond Physicalism" by Syed AmirHossein Asghari

In this presentation, Syed AmirHossein Asghari develops a Sufi account of fiṭra — humanity's innate God-orientation — as a genuine mode of non-conceptual, presential know