Faisal Abdullah · Essays & notes
A working notebook on theology, law, and what lies beyond.
A small, slowly growing collection of essays — on early and medieval Islamic theology and law, and on the question of intelligent non-human life. Added to over time, never in a hurry.
About
On this site you'll find a slow accumulation of essays and notes — on early and medieval Islamic theology, law, and the question of intelligent non-human life: terrestrial, extraterrestrial, and synthetic.
First series
Islam & non-human intelligence.
Could Islam's theological and legal tradition conceive of intelligent and non-human sentient life? And do Islamic precedents exist to allow for meaningful engagement with intelligent extraterrestrials, AI sentient beings, and the like?
Scope
Extraterrestrial life · sentient AI · cyborgs · non-human cognition
Tradition
Classical kalām, Qurʾān, hadith, fiqh
Status
Open and ongoing
Second series
Islamic law.
Reading the early and medieval jurists carefully — usūl, the maddhāhib, and the contemporary problems the classical apparatus is still being asked to handle.
Enter the series