Abstract:

​

Al- Kindī offers a conceptualization of the macro/micro-cosmic relationship that is contingent upon self-knowledge. The epistēmē (knowledge) of the basic underlying substance of the human being, the soul (nafs), provides the gateway towards the metaphysical ‘ilm (ultimate truth of reality) (Chittick, 2007). This paper will argue that for al-Kindī one of the ways that knowledge of the self is actualized is through music as a means of both aesthetic beauty and ethical knowledge. The structure of the paper will reflect the two major divisions in his writings, (1) how music can lead the soul to harmonious or ethical states of consonance, as well as, (2) the argument of similtudinem, that the harmonic representation of the soul is found in musical structure.

​

​6th Annual Islamic Philosophy of Conference, the American Society of Islamic Philosophy and Theology in partnership with Harvard University. Boston, Dec 6-8 2024.

Key Argument:

The keystone argument of this paper is that the theological and philosophical science of Aristotle and Augustine among others, give us an accurate photograph of what occurs in a non-conceptualized and embodied way among reciters of the Qur’ān. These scientific inquiries demonstrate that the teleology of oral recitation is found in its productivity, giving the sacral tools for inscribing objective time; it is a ‘making-present, appresenting,’ that relates to the cognitive ability of human consciousness to instantiate atemporal ideals through ‘the temporal variance of intentional acts’; what Husserl identified as a psychic apprehension vel ‘attunement’ – of an internal time that makes possible the constitution of objective time.’ Furthermore, the temporal theory of becoming is the most amenable theory of time with respect to recitative praxis and serves as the constituent glue between individual experience and metaphysical time. Put simply, recitation manifests the recognition and recollection of the coterminous time of God, the time Aeon, what Muslims call: Dahr.

​

​Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies at St Anne's College. University of Oxford, UK, March. 19th to 21st, 2025.

Abstract:

Islam, Beauty, and Grief: Sounding the Aporia of Qur’ānic Grief in its Aesthetic and Temporal Dimension

The words that typify the quintessence of the experience of grief in the Qur’ān were uttered by the Prophet Jacob upon hearing of the death of his son, he proclaimed I endure with ‘Beautiful Patience’ (faṣabarun jamīlun) (The Qur’ān, 12:18). The pairing of beauty and patience articulates a profound principle in Islamic ethics (takhalluq) and roots that conceptualization in aesthetics. Furthermore, one can deduce that by necessity experiences of grief in Islam must submit to time, as being patient in grief can nearly be approximated as an experience of suffering or forbearance through duration. This paper will attempt to demonstrate that Qur’ānic recitation provides the grounding for an authentic experience of grief. Artistically, this is achieved in terms of the aesthetic of ideal recitation which places an emphasis on the pathos of grief (ḥuzn) (Nelson, 1989). Additionally, that melody itself gives authentic intuitive knowledge that a coherent unity can be experienced sequentially through time (Husserl, 1905). Following Levinas (1993), I will argue that death is a kind of trauma that strikes (ḍaraba) against time to sudden-ness and there emerges patience as length of time, where time is deferred and transferred up to the Infinite (God). Furthermore, that deferred patience transforms into existential ethical responsibility to our neighbors (ibid). I will explore the social activity of Qur’anic recitation as a macrocosm of the prophetic debt that is reflected in a being-toward-others that is re-collected (dhikr) in communal memory. Additionally, I will analyze the aporia that approximates the experience of Qur’ānic recitation in Ricouer’s Time and Narrative (1983) specifically the aporia between Augustine’s Confessions Book XI, whose phenomenological method of hymnal recitation brings temporality into memory as a lamentation on the eternal Word, and the atemporal melodic line of mimesis-muthos found in Aristotle’s Poetics.

​

70th annual Society of Ethnomusicology conference. Athens, Georgia, Oct 21-24, 2025

“أرسطو ونظرية الموسيقى العربية: إحياء الفكر اليوناني في الموسيقى المصرية وعصر الذكاء

االصطناعي.

 Aristotle and Arab Music Theory: The Renaissance of Greek Thought in Egyptian Music and the Age of Artificial Intelligence. 33rd Annual Festival and Scientific Conference in Arab Music. Cairo Opera House. Oct 16-24.2025