Muhammad U. Faruque

Muhammad U. Faruque is the Inayat Malik Associate Professor and a Taft Center Fellow at the University of Cincinnati and a former Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. He earned his PhD (with distinction) from the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Exchange Scholar at Harvard University and as George Ames Postdoctoral Fellow at Fordham University. He was also educated at the University of London and Tehran University. In addition to his formal college education, he has traveled throughout the world to learn and explore, and studied with many scholars in South Asia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, North Africa, and Malaysia.

His book Sculpting the Self (University of Michigan Press, 2021) won the prestigious 31st World Book of the Year Award from Iran. The book addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of selfhood and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical literatures, including modern philosophy and neuroscience. He is the author of three books and over fifty academic articles, which have appeared (or are forthcoming) in numerous prestigious, peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes such as Philosophy East and West, Philosophical Forum, Journal of Contemplative Studies, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy (Cambridge), Sophia, Journal of Sufi Studies (Brill), Religious Studies (Cambridge), and Ancient Philosophy. He has delivered lectures in many North American, European, Asian, and Middle Eastern universities. He gives public lectures on a wide range of topics such as climate change, spirituality, meditation, AI, Islamic psychology, and Islam and the West. He is also a recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the prestigious Templeton Foundation Global Philosophy of Religion grant and the Title IV Grant, U.S. Dept. of Education.

While his past research has explored modern and premodern conceptions of selfhood and identity and their bearing on ethics, religion, and culture, his current book project entitled The Interconnected Universe: Sufism, Climate Change, and Ecological Living aims to develop a new theory of the human and the more-than-human world based on a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary approach that draws on the environmental humanities, on one hand, and Sufism and Islamic Contemplative Studies, on the other. Alongside developing a theory of what he calls the “interconnected universe,” this study also argues that Sufi contemplative practices support and foster an active engagement toward the planet’s well-being and an ecologically viable way of life and vision through an “anthropocosmic” vision of the self. He is also at work on a book on AI and the existential threats of information technology. He also just published an edited volume entitled From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic (co-edited with M. Rustom and published by Routledge). In addition, he has a forthcoming edited volume A Cultural History of South Asian Literature, Volume 3: The Early Modern Age (1400-1700) (co-edited with S. Nair).

In his personal life, he loves gardening (plant life fascinates him), spending time in nature, travelling (he always likes to explore new places!), trying out new cuisines, hiking, cooking, sports (esp. tennis, table tennis, and chess), and watching movies. He also has a passion for classical Indian (raag) and Persian music.

He is affiliated with the departments of Philosophy, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Environmental Studies, and the Religious Studies Certificate program.

Website: https://muhammadfaruque.com/

PhD: University of California, Berkeley 2018 (Islamic and Global Philosophy )

MA: University of Tehran 2014 (Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism)

BSc: University of London 2011 (Economics)

Environmental Humanities
Contemplative Ecology
Religion and Climate Change
Subjectivity Research 
Consciousness Studies
Cross-cultural Philosophy
History and Philosophy of Science
Religion and Science
Perso-Arabic Mystical Literature
Islamic Philosophy and Ethics
Graeco-Arabica
Sufism
Islamic Psychology


Research Languages:

Arabic (fluent in Classical and Modern Arabic)
Persian (fluent in Classical and Modern Persian)
Urdu (advanced reading knowledge)
Bengali (fluent reading knowledge and speaking)
German (advanced reading knowledge; limited speaking)
French (advanced reading knowledge)
Sanskrit (elementary reading knowledge)
Greek (elementary reading knowledge)

 

2018 -2020 George Ames Postdoctoral Fellow, Fordham University, USA.

2017 -2018 Exchange Scholar, Harvard University, USA.

2015 -2017 Graduate Instructor, University of California, Berkeley , USA.

2017 -2017 Visiting Scholar, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.

2011 -2014 Research Associate, The Iranian Institute of Philosophy, Iran.

2023 -2024 Taft Center Fellow, University of Cincinnati, USA.

2024 - Visiting Scholar, Harvard University, USA.

Grant: #7.16.18.123 Investigators:PI: Muhammad U. Faruque 08-01-2021 -12-31-2022 Templeton Foundation From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic 28,000 USD Active Type:Grant Level:International

Grant: #Global Philosophy of Religion Project Investigators:Faruque, Muhammad 08-01-2021 -07-31-2022 University of Birmingham From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering,and the Global Pandemic (backdoor proposal) Role:PI 0.00 Hold

Peer Reviewed Publications

Faruque, Muhammad. (2024. ) “Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: A Philosophical Critique,” Philosophical Forum, 1–23. More Information

Faruque, Muhammad. (2022. ) “Charles Taylor and the Invention of Modern Inwardness: A Sufi, Constructive Response,” Religions 13.8 (2022): 1–23 [Special Issue edited by Saeed Zarrabi-Zadeh] .

Faruque, Muhammad. (2020. ) “Eternity Made Temporal: Ashraf ʿAlī Thānavī, a Twentieth-Century Indian Thinker and the Revival of Classical Sufi Thought.” .Brill Journal of Sufi Studies , , 9 (2 ) ,215–246.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2020. ) “Untying the Knots of Love: The Qur’an, Love Poetry, and Akkad’s The Message.” .Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies , , 5 (2 ) ,112-128.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2018. ) “Maʿnā wa manẓūr az metāfīzīk dar andīshah-yi Haydigar wa Mullā Ṣadrā.” .Ḥikmat-i Ṣadrāʾī , , 7 (1 ) ,117–128.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2017. ) “Does God Create Evil? A Study of Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī’s Exegesis of Sūrat al-falaq.” .Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations , , 28 (3 ) ,271–291.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2017. ) “Heidegger and Mullā Ṣadrā on the Meaning of Metaphysics.” .Philosophy East and West , , 67 (3 ) ,629–650.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2017. ) “Mullā Ṣadrā on the Problem of Natural Universals.” .Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, , 27 (2 ) ,269–302.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2016. ) “Sufism contra Shariah? Shāh Walī Allāh’s Metaphysics of Waḥdat al-Wujūd.” .Brill Journal of Sufi Studies , , 5 (1 ) ,27–57.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2016. ) “The Internal Senses in Galen, Plotinus and Nemesius: The Beginning of an Idea.” .Ancient Philosophy , , 10 (2 ) ,119–139.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2016. ) “Mullā Ṣadrā and the Project of Transcendent Philosophy” .Religion Compass , , 10 (1 ) ,3-14.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2012. ) “Gender Inequality and Economic Growth: A Cross-country Analysis of the Muslim Countries.” .European Journal of Social Sciences , , 36 (1 ) ,90–98.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2011. ) “An Empirical Investigation of the Arbitrage Pricing Theory in a Frontier Stock Market: Evidence from Bangladesh.” .Indian Journal of Economics and Business , , 4 (10 ) ,443–465.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2009. ) “The Contribution of Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) on the Economic Development of Bangladesh.” .The Chittagong University Journal of Business Administration , , 22 ,191–220.

Faruque, Muhammad. (2023. ) “Life after Life: Mullā Ṣadrā on Death and Immortality” .Religious Studies (Cambridge),, , 1-13

Faruque, Muhammad. (2022. ) “The Crisis of Modern Subjectivity: Rethinking Muhammad Iqbal and the Islamic Tradition.” Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, 6.2 (2022): 43–81 .

Faruque, Muhammad (2023. ) “Seyyed Hossein Nasr.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press, 2014—. Article published May 24, 2023.(12,000 words). More Information

Faruque, Muhammad. (2023. ) “Attention, Consciousness, and Self-Cultivation in Sufi-Philosophical Thought.” Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies 2, 2 (2023): 300–316 .

Faruque, Muhammad. (2024. ) “Toward a Neuro-ethics in Islamic Philosophy: Trauma, Memory, and Personal Identity,” Sophia (2024): 1–20. (Co-authored with Mona Jahangiri). More Information

Faruque, Muhammad. (2025. ) “Beyond Technological Fixes: Sufism, Contemplation, and Climate Change as Human Predicament,” Journal of Contemplative Studies, accepted, forthcoming .

Faruque, Muhammad. (2025. ) “The Self.” In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward Zalta and Uri Nodelman, forthcoming. http://plato.stanford.edu. (14,000 words) .

Faruque, Muhammad. (2026. ) “Immortality through AI?: Transhumanism, Human Nature, and the Quest for Spiritual Machines.” In Transhumanism, Immortality, and Religion. Edited by Timothy Knepper. New York: Springer, forthcoming .

Invited Publications

Faruque, Muhammad. “Mullā Ṣadrā: The Four Intellectual Journeys (al-Asfār al-ʿaqliyya al-arbaʿa).” .In Global Philosophy: A Sourcebook, edited by M. Rustom. Sheffield: Equinox, completed and forthcoming [2024].,

Faruque, Muhammad. “What is Life in the Islamic Tradition?” .In The Concept of Life in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, edited by Georges Tamer. Berlin: De Gruyter, completed and forthcoming [2025].,

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufi Metaphysical Literature.” .In Brill Handbook of Sufi Studies, edited by Alexander Knysh and Bilal Orfali. Leiden: Brill, completed and forthcoming [2025].,

Faruque, Muhammad. “Transcending the Ordinary Self: Mullā Ṣadrā on the Ethics of Human Flourishing.” .In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Islamic Ethics, edited by Jafar Mahallati. London: Bloomsbury, completed and forthcoming [2025].,

Faruque, Muhammad. “A Nietzschean Mystic? Muhammad Iqbal on the Ethics of Selfhood.” ..” In Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, edited by Bilal Orfali et al. Beirut: The American University of Beirut Press, 2022.,

Faruque, Muhammad “The Existence of God in Islam.” .In The Existence of God? Contemporary Positions and Approaches, edited by Evgeny Loginov, completed and forthcoming [2023].,

Faruque, Muhammad “The Concept of Intuition in Sufism.” .In The Handbook of Intuitions. Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science series, edited by Asad Ahmed et al. New York: Springer, completed and forthcoming [2024].,

Faruque, Muhammad “Ethics of Selfhood and Human Flourishing in Islamic Thought.” .In Oxford Handbook of Islamic Ethics, edited by Mustafa Shah. New York: Oxford University Press, completed and forthcoming [2024].,

Faruque, Muhammad “Seyyed Hossein Nasr,”.In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press, 2014—. Article published May 24, 2023.(12,000 words)., More Information

Faruque, Muhammad “The Self.” .St. Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, edited by Alexander Wain. Completed and forthcoming at https://www.saet.ac.uk/. (10,000 words).,

Faruque, Muhammad and Mohammed Rustom “ʿAyn al-Quḍāt.” .In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by Edward Zalta. http://plato.stanford.edu.,

Other Publications

Faruque, Muhammad. (2019. ) “Dil, Varlik ve Öznellik: Gerçekliğin Inşasi.” [Language, Being and Subjectivity: The Construction of Reality] Sabah Ülkesi (Cologne), 61 (Oct 2019): 29–33 .

Faruque, Muhammad. (2020. ) “Islam, Nature and Climate Change.” Origins CNS 50.1 (April 2020): 13–15 .

Faruque, Muhammad. (2020. ) “Doğayla Birlikte Yaşamak? İslam, İklim Değişikliği Ve Eko-Felsefe.” [Coexistence with Nature?: Islam, Climate Change, and Eco-philosophy] Sabah Ülkesi (Cologne), 64 (Jul 2020): 66–71 .

Faruque, Muhammad (2023. ) “AI versus Human Consciousness: A Future with Machines as Our Masters?” Renovatio, Spring .

“AI versus Human Consciousness: A Future with Machines as Our Masters?” Renovatio, Spring (2023).

Faruque, Muhammad (2023. ) “Opening Pandora’s Box: Artificial Intelligence and the Challenge of Our Time.” Maydan, an online publication of AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University.

Faruque, Muhammad (2024. ) “We are Not Our Brain: How Poets and Philosophers Saw the Immaterial Life of the Self.” Renovatio, Spring .

Published Books

Faruque, Muhammad. (2021. ) Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing .Ann Arbor , University of Michigan Press

Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing

Faruque, Muhammad. (2019. ) The Pen and the Tablet: Works by and about Seyyed Hossein Nasr through His 85th Birthday .Louisville , Fons Vitae

Faruque, Muhammad and Shankar Nair (2025. ) A Cultural History of South Asian Literature, Volume 3: The Early Modern Age (1400-1700). The Cultural Histories Series .London , Bloomsbury (Co-Editor)

Faruque, Muhammad. The Interconnected Universe: Sufism, Climate Change, and Ecological Living (in progress) .

Faruque, Muhammad. Islam, AI, and the Existential Threats of Technology (in progress) .

Faruque, Muhammad (2023. ) From the Divine to the Human: Contemporary Islamic Thinkers on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic. Co-edited with Mohammed Rustom. Routledge: London and New York .

Faruque, Muhammad. Why Read Mulla Sadra Today? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, under review .

Faruque, Muhammad, M. Rustom and A. Khalil (2025. ) I of the Heart: Texts and Studies in Honor of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Islamic History and Civilization Series .Leiden , Brill (Co-Editor)

Book Chapter

Faruque, Muhammad. (2019 ) “Seyyed Hossein Nasr: A Contemporary Islamic Philosopher” The Pen and the Tablet: Works by and about Seyyed Hossein Nasr through His 85th Birthday .Louisville, Fons Vitae

Faruque, Muhammad and M. Rustom. (2017 ) “Rajab ʿAlī Tabrīzī’s Refutation of Ṣadrian Metaphysics.” Philosophy and the Intellectual Life in Shīʿah Islam .Bloomsbury, The Shīʿah Institute Press

Faruque, Muhammad. (2015 ) “The Current Situation of Sufism in Iran with Particular Reference to Philosophical Sufism.” Sufism and Social Integration: Some Observations .Chicago, Kazi

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufism and Philosophy in the Mughal-Safavid Era: Consciousness and First-Person Subjectivity in Mullā Ṣadrā and Shāh Walī Allāh.” Sufism and Philosophy: Historical Interactions and Crosspollinations.

Faruque, Muhammad. “Can Human Suffering be Justified?” In From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic, edited by M. Faruque and M. Rustom. London: Routledge, 2023

Invited Presentations

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Self and Human Ontology.” The George Washington University and Alkaram Institute, Washington DC, Dec 11, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufism: Islam’s Mystical Tradition.” Department of Philosophy, UC Clermont College, Batavia, April 08, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Who am I? The Labyrinth of Selfhood in the Islamic Tradition.” The College of Letters, Wesleyan University, Connecticut, February 24, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Is the Self a Modern Invention?” The American Philosophical Association. New York, January 9, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Transcending the Ordinary Self: Mullā Ṣadrā on the Ethics of Human Flourishing.” Islamic Philosophy Conversation Group Workshop. Bard College, December 18, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Islam and the Care of the Earth: A Response to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si'.” Interreligious Perspectives on Laudato Si': A Fifth Anniversary Celebration of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Care of the Earth. Georgetown University, Georgetown, October 29-30, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “What is Life in the Islamic Tradition?” The Concept of Life in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. University Erlangen–Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany, September 24-25, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Selfhood and Being Human in Islamic Mystical Literature.” Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, August 13, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Care for Our Common Home: Jews, Christians, and Muslims Confront Climate Change.” Annual Spring McGinley Lecture by Patrick J. Ryan. Panel Respondent. Fordham University, New York, March 31, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Crisis of Modern Subjectivity: Rethinking Iqbal, Selfhood, and the Islamic Tradition.” Religious Studies, Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA, Jan 24, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Transcending the Ordinary Self: Self-Cultivation and Human Flourishing in Islamic Philosophy.” The American Philosophical Association. San Francisco, April 8-12, 2020 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufism, Science, and Philosophy in Islamicate History: Challenging the Myth of Islamic Decline in the Early Modern Persianate World.” Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Dec 12, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Attending to Oneself: Muhammad Iqbal and Indian Philosophy.” Mind, World and Attention: Themes from Indian and Buddhist Philosophical Theory. New York University, New York, April 25-26, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Gollum and I: The Lord of the Rings, Islamic Mystical Literature, and the Practice of Being an Authentic Self.” Center for the Middle East Studies, Fordham University, New York, Mar 11, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Conversations in Islamic Ethics: A Discussion with Cyrus Ali Zargar about His New Book ‘The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism.’” The Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics, Louisville, Jan 3-6, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Problem of Selfhood in Islamic Mystical Thought.” Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, Cambridge, November 01, 2017 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Finding One’s True Self: Self-Cultivation and Human Flourishing in Islamic and Neoplatonic Thought.” Comparative Studies Doctoral Colloquium 2017-2018. Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, Cambridge, October 23, 2017 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “A Phenomenological Overview of Islamic Art.” Lecture Delivered in a Workshop Organized for K-12 Teachers. Stanford Live, Stanford University, Palo Alto, US. Sept. 26th, 2016 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufism versus Shariah? Shāh Walī Allāh on God, Existence, and the Nature of Reality.” Junior Scholars Lunch Papers. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies. University of California, Berkeley. Feb. 16th, 2016 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Islamic Identity in the West.” Panel Speaker. Delta Phi Epsilon, University of California, Berkeley Chapter. University of California, Berkeley. April 27th, 2015 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Islam, Psychology, and Selfhood.” A Conference on Islamic Psychology, Islamic Dawah Center, Texas, Feb 26-27, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad. Inaugural Bangabandhu Memorial Lecture: “Decolonizing the Muslim Self: Islam, Spirituality, and the Meaning of Life.” Bangabandhu Research Centre for Islam and Interreligious Dialogue, Chittagong, May 10, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “All Minds, All the Time: The Universality of Minds in the Philosophy of Shāh Walī Allāh.” Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, August 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad “Contemporary Indian Philosophy.” Department of Philosophy, Smith College, Massachusetts, October 28-31, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad “Qur’anic Studies in the Euro-American Academy.” Panel Discussant. 50th Annual Conference on “Approaches to Qur’anic Studies in the Western Academy.” The North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies, University of Oregon, Nov 12, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad “Interventions and Intersections.” Panel: Constructive Muslim Thought and Engaged Scholarship, the Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Religion, Denver, CO, November 19-22, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad “Shared ideas and Worlds: Mystical Philosophy in the Middle Ages as a Case Study for Coexistence.” Panelist. Festival of Faiths, Cincinnati. Aug. 26, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad “Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: Islam, Spirituality, and Human Flourishing.” Exeter-Habib Seminars on Islam after Colonialism. University of Exeter, Exeter, Nov 12, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad Inaugural Bangabandhu Memorial Lecture: “Decolonizing the Muslim Mind: Islam and the Path to Intellectual Emancipation.” Bangabandhu Research Centre for Islam and Interreligious Dialogue, Chittagong, May 11, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Islamic Moral Theology and the Future.” George Mason University, Virginia, October 20-22, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Interventions and Intersections.” Panel: Constructive Muslim Thought and Engaged Scholarship, the Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Religion, Denver, CO, November 19-22, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing.” Book Panel Respondent, the Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Religion, Denver, CO, November 19-22, 2022 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “All Minds, All the Time: The Universality of Minds in the Philosophy of Shāh Walī Allāh.” Karl H Potter Memorial Lecture Series in Philosophy. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, April 2023.

Faruque, Muhammad. “Charles Taylor and the Invention of Modern Inwardness.” College of Humanities, Carleton University, Ottawa, February 15, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Charles Taylor and the Invention of Modern Inwardness: A Non-Western Response.” College of Humanities, Carleton University, Ottawa, January 26, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Toward a Global Philosophy of Religion.” Department of Religious Studies, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, March 15, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “AI, ChatGPT, and the Mystery of Consciousness.” Department of Philosophy, University of Central Florida, Florida, April 03, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “A Response to the Upaniṣadic Self.” Hinduism for Muslim Audiences by Ankur Barua. University of Cambridge and Project Noon, Zoom Lecture, August 12, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Idea of ‘Thinking’ in a Techno-Scientific World: A Cross-cultural Perspective.” The Geophilosophies Project. The University of Michigan, Michigan, Sept. 8, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Finding Our Place on a Changing Planet: An Introduction to the Theories and Methods of the Environmental Humanities.” Department of Environmental Studies, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, September 18, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Islamic Psychology and Theories of Personality.” Humanity, Sufi Thought and Healing Lecture Series. Institute of Sufi Studies, Üsküdar University, Istanbul, Türkiye, October 03, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Decline of Philosophy and the Rise of Shallow Thinking: The Challenges of the Islamic World.” Tradisi: The Centre for Advanced Irfan Studies, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 06, 2023 [Online Lecture] .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Immortality through AI?: Transhumanism, Human Nature, and the Quest for Spiritual Machines.” The Comparison Project Lecture Series. Department of Philosophy & Religion, Drake University, Des Moines, November 15, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Burnout Society: Healing Fragmentation through Islamic Spirituality.” Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan, November 25, 2023 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Opening Pandora’s Box: AI, ChatGPT, and the Quest for Superintelligence.” University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, April 16, 2024 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Does AI Enhance or Impede Spirituality?” Panel: Tough Talk, South Asia Center, the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, June 05, 2024 [Zoom] .

Faruque, Muhammad. 8 “Rumi, Ethical Education, and the Sufi Theories of Personality.” Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany, October 13, 2024 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “An Ecological Vision of Life through the Prophetic Model.” Keynote Speech, The Aga Khan Council, Toronto, Canada, October 19, 2024 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “What It Means to be Human in a Post-Enlightenment World: A View from Islamic Philosophy.” The Institute for Epistemological Studies - Europe (IESE) in partnership with Bursa Uludağ University, Bursa, Türkiye, October 31, 2024 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Self in Islam: A Global Philosophy Approach.” Princeton University, Princeton, November 04, 2024 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Unity in Diversity: Pluralism in Islamic Philosophical Thought.” Hikmat International Institute, January 14, 2025 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Suhrawardī, Mullā Ṣadrā, and the Problem of AI.” The American Philosophical Association, Central Division, February 22, 2025 .

Paper Presentations

Faruque, Muhammad. “Co-existence with Nature?: The Eco-philosophy of Mullā Ṣadrā.” Panel: Sufism, the Qur’an, and the Natural Environment, the Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, TX, November 20-23, 2021 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “A Philosophy of Self in Islam, or an Islamic Philosophy of Self? What is the Difference and Who Cares?” The Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Religion, San Diego, California, November 23–26, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufism and Philosophy in the Mughal-Safavid Era: Consciousness and First-Person Subjectivity in Mullā Ṣadrā and Shāh Walī Allāh.” Sufism and Philosophy: Historical Interactions and Crosspollinations. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, April 26-27, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Finding one’s Authentic Self in a Secular Age: Ethics, Self-Knowledge, and Human Flourishing.” Philosophy of Religion Panel 1: Self-Deception, Authentic Selfhood, and Communal Recognition, The American Academy of Religion, Arizona State University, Arizona, March 2-3, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The View from the ‘I:’ Self-Knowledge and First-Person Subjectivity in Suhrawardī and Mullā Ṣadrā.” The American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division), Vancouver, April 17-20, 2019 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “What is it like to be a Self? Subjectivity and Selfhood from Mullā Ṣadrā to Muḥammad Iqbāl.” Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität-UC Berkeley Konferenz 2018, Munich, Germany, Dec 13-15, 2018 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sculpting the Self: Being Human through ‘Virtues’ and ‘Self-Cultivation’ in Islamic Philosophical Literature.” American Comparative Literature Association, Los Angeles, March 29-Apr 01, 2018 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Deconstruction of Self: Attention and Subjectivity in Islamic and Global Philosophy.” Virtues of Attention: Global Philosophical Perspectives.” New York University Shanghai, Shanghai, China, March 23-24, 2018 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Between Mind and Reality: Mullā Ṣadrā on the Problem of Natural Universals.” The Annual Meeting, MESA (Middle East Studies Association), Washington, DC, Nov 18-21, 2017 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Between the Centre and Periphery: Ashraf ʿAlī Thanvī, Modernity and the Problem of Selfhood.” The 32nd Annual Middle East History and Theory Conference, University of Chicago, Illinois, May 6-7, 2017 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Beyond the Essence-Existence Distinction: Mullā Ṣadrā on the Problem of Natural Universals.” The American Philosophical Association (Pacific Division), Seattle, April 12-15, 2017 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “Sufism and Philosophical Discourse: Shāh Walī Allāh on the Problem of Waḥdat al-Wujūd.” Scientific and Rationalist Traditions in Muslim India. University of California, Berkeley, October 22, 2016 .

Faruque, Muhammad. “The Islamic Intellectual Heritage in the Contemporary World.” Moderator. Al-Mustafa International University (Tehran Branch). Tehran, January 1-14, 2014 .

Event Organized

Conference Organizer. From the Divine to the Human: New Perspectives on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic. Conference 06-23-2022 06-26-2022 University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Level:International

Event Co-organizer, “What Dr. King Still Has to Say to America: From Birmingham Jail, to Riverside, to Today.” A Public Lecture by Omid Safi, Fordham University, New York, October 23, 2019.

Panel Organizer, “Conversations in Islamic Ethics: A Discussion with Cyrus Ali Zargar about His New Book ‘The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism.’” The Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics, Louisville, Jan 3-6, 2019.

Conference Coordinator, “Scientific and Rationalist Traditions in Muslim India.” University of California, Berkeley, October 22, 2016.

Organizer, “Yogis in Full Color: An Illustrated Persian Field Guide to Indian Religions.” A Public Lecture by Carl W. Ernst, University of California, Berkeley, Sept. 02, 2016.

Workshop Co-organizer, “A Phenomenological Overview of Islamic Art.” Stanford Live, Stanford University, Palo Alto, US. Sept. 26, 2016.

2021 -2022 Templeton Foundation Global Philosophy of Religion Project Grant ($27,000).

2020 Special Commendation, Ibn ‘Arabi Society Young Writers Award.

2020 Ames Foundation Grant, Fordham University ($18,000).

2014 -2018 The Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study ($137,500).

2017 -2018 Berkeley Dissertation Completion Fellowship Award (DCF) (27,500).

2018 Graduate Student Summer Grant in Religion, BCSR, UC Berkeley ($5000).

2018 Yusuf Hamza Abduljawad Student Fellowship, UC Berkeley ($3,500).

2018 American Comparative Literature Association Conference Grants ($1,000).

2018 Travel Grant, Center for Chinese Studies, UC Berkeley ($400).

2018 Mellon Foundation Conference Grants, CMES, UC Berkeley ($500).

2017 Andrew Mellon Research Grants, CMES, UC Berkeley ($2,000).

2017 The Graduate Division Travel Grant, University of California, Berkeley ($1,000).

2016 Alfalah Program Student Fellowship, CMES, University of California, Berkeley ($4,000).

2015 Townsend Lecture Grant, Townsend Center for Humanities, UC Berkeley ($1,500).

2015 CMES Lecture Grant, CMES, UC Berkeley ($1,000).

2015 -2016 Mellon Foundation Research Grants, CMES, UC Berkeley ($2,000).

2010 -2011 The Gillian Foundation Charitable Fund, UK ($1,500).

2010 Sydney-Perry Foundation Scholarship, UK ($1,500).

2009 Bestway Foundation Scholarship, UK ($6,000).

2008 International Excellence Scholarship Award, Royal Holloway University of London, UK ($15,000).

2008 The Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahayan Foundation Award: Office of Prime Minister, U.A.E ($5,000).

2022 -2026 Title IV Grant, U.S. Dept. of Education [with K. Moranski et al.] ($715,000).

2023 -2024 Taft Center Award University of Cincinnati ($25000).

2023 -2025 Society and Culture Research Advancement Award University of Cincinnati ($25,000).

2023 Taft Faculty Summer Research Fellowship University of Cincinnati ($8,000).

Oriens: Journal of Philosophy, Theology and Science in Islamic Societies Reviewer 2021

Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions Reviewer 2021

Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society Reviewer 2021

Turkish Culture and Research Quarterly Reviewer 2021

Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies Reviewer 2020

Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies Reviewer 2020

Oriens: Journal of Philosophy, Theology and Science in Islamic Societies Reviewer 2020

Journal of Sufi Studies Reviewer 2020

Theory of Science Reviewer 2020

Gorgias Press Reviewer 2020

Journal of Islamic Ethics Reviewer 2020

Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy Reviewer 2020

Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions Reviewer 2020

Journal of Qur’anic Studies Reviewer 2019

Journal of Consciousness Studies Reviewer 2019

Oriens: Journal of Philosophy, Theology and Science in Islamic Societies Reviewer 2019

Oriens: Journal of Philosophy, Theology and Science in Islamic Societies Reviewer 2019

De Gruyter Open Theology Reviewer 2018

Journal of Sufi Studies Reviewer -2022

Journal of Consciousness Studies Reviewer -2022

Foundations of Islam

Contemporary Arab Society (featuring films)

Religion and Climate Change

Religions of the Middle East

Sufism: Islam’s Mystical Tradition

Religion and the Making of the Self

Classic Islamic Texts: From the Qur’an to the Islamic Humanities

Faith and Critical Reason

Introduction to Islamic Civilization

Imagination without Limits: Mystical Thought in Islam

Islam and Social Justice Issues

Identity and the Self: The Vision for a New Human

Employing the Environmental Humanities: Finding Our Place on a Changing Planet

Climate Change and Your Future

faruqumu@ucmail.uc.edu