FALL 2025

An Islamic Ethics of War and Peace

An Islamic Ethics of War and Peace

What this course gives you

A working command of the vocabulary of Islamic metaphysics — wujūd, māhiyya, the gradation of being — used precisely, not loosely.

The capacity to read primary texts of Ibn Sīnā and Mullā Ṣadrā with comprehension rather than reverence alone.

An understanding of why the tradition treats metaphysics as the science of realities — and what that claim asks of the knower.

Direct exchange with Professor Nasr in open Q&A after every session — the part no book can replace.

The eight weeks

A syllabus, not a playlist.

Download full syllabus

FALL 2025 Lecture Series

Seyyed Hossein Nasr

Being and Consciousness

September 5, 2025 - 12:00PM (EST) - 1 hour

Carl Ernst

Modern Misreadings of Mystical Commentaries on Hafez

September 10, 2025 - 7:00PM (EST) - 1 hour

Asma Afsaruddin

An Islamic Ethics of War and Peace

September 17, 2025 - 12:00PM (EST) - 1 hour

Shawkat Toorawa

Rhyme’s Reason: Translating the Qur’an’s (Most) Important Features

September 24, 2025 - 10:00AM (EST) - 1 hour

Abdallah Rothman

What is “Islamic” about "Islamic Psychology?

October 1, 2025 - 11:30AM (EST) - 1 hour

Maria Dakake

The Relationship between Prophecy and Sanctity: The Significance of Non-Prophetic Figures in the Qur’an

October 8, 2025 - 12:00PM (EST) - 1 hour

Mahmut Erol Kılıç

Multiple Degrees of Being in Sufism: An Interpretive Tool for Religious Understanding

October 15, 2025 - 12:00PM (EST) - 1 hour

Peter Adamson

From Ibn Sina’s Necessary Existent to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s God

October 24, 2025 - 10:00AM (EST) - 1 hour

Your instructor
Professor Asma Afsaruddin

Asma Afsaruddin is the Class of 1950 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor and Professor of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is also adjunct professor in the departments of Religious Studies and Gender Studies there.