The Art of the Soul: Islamic Architecture, Beauty, and Spiritual Formation in Islamic Civilization:Dr. Raana Akbar Memorial Lecture Series on Islam and Culture- Feryal Salem, Ph.D.

 YouTube Video:Excellent Scholarly Lecture with Slides Presentation

https://www.youtube.com/live/47ZiOu9DIcg?si=Yx2ejjsOFZxXZjKb

In partnership with the Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists Program Thursday, November 5, 2026 | 6 p.m. Topic: The Art of the Soul: Islamic Architecture, Beauty, and Spiritual Formation in Islamic Civilization

 Speaker: Feryal Salem, Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, American Islamic College This lecture highlights how Islamic aesthetics sought to cultivate spiritual refinement and the nourishment of the soul. Drawing on examples ranging from gardens, mosques and calligraphy to light symbolism, geometric design and sacred space, Feryal Salem examines how beauty was understood in Islamic civilization as a means of cultivating mindfulness, harmony and awareness of the divine.

 Dr. Feryal Salem is associate professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at American Islamic College in Chicago, where she also directs the Master of Divinity in Islamic Studies and Muslim Chaplaincy programs. In 2018 she was named one of “25 Influential American Muslims” by CNN for her work in higher education. Her research interests include Islamic philosophy and theology in the postclassical period, interfaith dialogue and the development of Muslim thought in the contemporary era. She is the author of “The Emergence of Early Sufi Piety and Sunni Scholasticism: ‘Abdallah b. al-Mubarak and the Formation of Sunni Identity in the Second Islamic Century” (2016) in Brill’s “Islamic History and Civilization” series. She also published “Isagoge: A Primer in Classical Logic” (2022), in which she translated and wrote a lengthy commentary on Athir al-Din al-Abhari’s foundational treatise. She received her Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of Chicago’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.

 The Raana Akbar Memorial Lecture on Islam and Culture was established in 2011 by Dr. Waheed Akbar in memory of his wife Raana, a former member of the SVSU Board of Control, physician and community leader. The Dow Visiting Scholars and Artists program was established through an endowment from The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation to enrich our regional cultural and intellectual opportunities.Source: The Conference Center at SVSU

Amazon:The Emergence of Early Sufi Piety and Sunnī Scholasticism: ʿAbdallāh b. al-Mubārak and the Formation of Sunnī Identity in the Second Islamic Century (Islamic History and Civilization, 125)
by Feryal Salem

In the figure of ʿAbdallāh b. al-Mubārak (118–181/736–797), we find a paragon of the fields of ḥadīth, zuhd, and jihād, as attested to by the large number of references to him in the classical Islamic texts. His superior rank as a ḥadīth transmitter earned him the title “commander of the faithful” in ḥadīth. He contributed to Islamic law at its early phases of development, practiced jihād, composed poetry, and participated in various theological discussions. In addition, Ibn al-Mubārak was a pioneer in writing on piety and was later regarded by many mystics as one of the earliest figures of Sufism. Ibn al-Mubārak’s position during the formative period of Islamic thought illustrates the unique evolution of zuhd, ḥadīth, and jihād; these form a junction in the biography of Ibn al-Mubārak in a way that distinctively illuminates the second/eighth-century dynamics of nascent Sunnī identity. Furthermore, Ibn al-Mubārak’s status as a fighter and pious figure of the Late Antique period reveals a great deal about the complex relationship between the early Muslim community and the religiously diverse setting which it inhabited. This critical and comprehensive monograph of ʿAbdallāh b. al-Mubārak situates him within the larger context of the social and religious milieu of Late Antiquity. It explores the formation of Sunnī identity in the second Islamic century and demonstrates the way in which it manifested itself through networks of pious scholars who defined, preserved, and passed on what they understood to be normative Islamic practice and beliefs from one generation of Muslim intellectuals to another. Source: amazon.com

Feryal Salem, PhD (University of Chicago, 2013) is Assistant Professor of Islamic Scriptures and Law at the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary.

Amazon:Reframing Reason and Philosophy in Post-Classical Kalām: The Formation of a Tradition from al-Ghazālī to the Ottomans (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies)
by Feryal Salem (Editor) 

This edited volume reexamines the development of post-classical kalām after Abu Hamid al-Ghazali by advancing beyond the familiar observation that philosophy and theology became increasingly intertwined after al-Ghazālī. Through historically grounded case studies, the volume demonstrates the concrete mechanisms through which philosophical methods, concepts, and forms of reasoning were gradually naturalized within theological discourse. Divided into three sections on philosophy naturalized, agency and political legitimacy, and transmission and institutionalization, the chapters trace how kalām absorbed philosophical reasoning, applied it to debates on divine agency and the Imamate, and transmitted these developments across successive scholarly traditions from the post-Ghazālian period through the late Ottoman era.Source: amazon.com