Abstract
The paper intends to analyze the philosophic, imaginative, and theological aspects of Islam, which give grounds to the integration, acceptance, and enhancement of the transhuman, through the analysis of core concepts such as ‘humanity’ and ‘body’ in Islamic tradition. While transhumanism is considered mainly from a lay or super-diverse perspective, Imams, fuquha (religious experts), Muslim scholars and simple believers—be they in Western or non-Western contexts—are evermore challenged to question the relationship between technological innovation effecting human nature, and Islamic tradition with its specific cultural framework. Considering that body-matter is what expresses the identity and the ‘anthropopoiesis’ of the Muslim believer, the intent of the paper is to investigate how—and through which spiritual meanings—can Islamic theology integrate the liminal bodies of the transhuman into the limited, defined, and purified human traditional models of Islamic belief.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
11 February 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-022-00904-5
Notes
I’m referring to Edward Said’s Orientalism. Western Conceptions of the Orient, Random House, New York, 1978
See, for instance, Al-e Ahmad J., Occidentosis: a plague from the West, Mizan press, Berkley, 1984
Shabbar S. Ijtihad and renewal, The international Institute of Islamic Thought, Herndon, VA, 2017; Ali Khan L. & Ramadan M., Contemporary Ijtihad: limits and controversies, Edinburgh University press, Edinburgh, 2011
See Algar H., Islam and revolution: writings and declarations of Imam Khomeini (1941–1980) Mizan Press, Berkley, 1981
Ahmed A., Islam under siege: living dangerously in a post-honor world. Polity Press, Cambridge, 2003
Bin Muda A., Islam and its challenges in the globalized world. Partridge, Singapore, 2015
Vertovec S., Super-diversity, Routledge, London, 2015
One of the main public questions addressed to Muslim was the intrinsic compatibility of Islamic religion with Western values. See, for instance, the well-known work of Samuel Huntington, The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. Simon &Shuster, NY, 1996
Mavani H., Islam—God’s deputy: Islam and transhumanism in Transhumanism and the Body: The World Religions Speak (Mercer C. & Maher, Derek F. eds) Palgrave Macmillan US, New York, pp. 67–83, is one of the few scholars who tried to depict the religious aspects in Islam that would fit, legitimate, and even motivate the transhuman vision.
Shaykh Murad is currently the Shaykh Zayed Lecturer of Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Divinity at Cambridge University, Director of Studies in Theology at Wolfson College, and a doctoral student at Oxford University, where he is studying the relationship between the government and Sufi brotherhoods in the Ottoman Empire.
It is visible on Youtube through this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWrrRpQVco
Wittgenstein L., Philosophical grammar, Los Angeles, Rush Rhees, University of California Press, 1974
Ibid. pp. 97
Fazlur R.., The status of the individual in Islam, Islamic Studies, vol. 5, no. 4, 1966, pp. 319–330.
Kaufman G.D., God the problem, MA Harvard University Press, Cambridge,1972
Al Faruqi I., Al Tawhid: its implications in thoughts and life, international institute of Islamic thought, Herndon, Va, 2000 This is referred to Orthodox Islam, while according to Sufism, unity is reached through the mystical journey of the individual.
For the Qur’an quotations, I refer to these editions: The Qur’an: Arabic text and English translation, M. Zafarullah Khan, (ed) London, 1970 and The holy Qur’an, text, translation, and commentary, A.Y ‘Ali, Leicester 1975.
Howard D., Being Human in Islam: the impact of the evolutionary worldview, Routledge, London, 2011
Dogan R., Nature of man in Islam, the international journal of religion and spirituality in society, Vol 4, 2014
Corbin H., Histoire de la philosophie Islamique, Gallimard, Paris, 1986
Marchianò G., Il corpo del Buddha nel Buddhismo Mahayana, in Corpo e religione (ed. by) Mura G. & Cipriani R., Città Nuova, Roma 2009
Ḥalāl is all that is permissible or licit according to Islamic teachings.
Massignon L., L’homme perfait en Islam et son orginalité eschatologique, in «Eranos Jahrbuch», Zurich, 1947
Ishaq Khuri F., The body in Islamic culture, University of Michigan Press, Saqi, 2001
Dhorme E:, L’emploi métaphorique des parties du corps en hébreu et en akkadien, Paris, 1963; E. Scognamiglio, Immagini del corpo nell’Islam, in Corpo e religione (a cura di G. Mura e R. Cipriani), Città nuova editrice, Roma, 2009
Bergeaud Blackler F., Fischer J., Lever J. (eds) Halal matters. Islam, Politics and markets in global perspectives, Routledge, London, 2016
In vitro fertilization
See the website https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zjw2fg8/revision/7, August 2018
Ayoub M., Islam: faith and history, Oneworld Publication, London, 2013
Ali, A., The structure of scientific productivity in Islamic civilization: orientalists’ fables. Yaqeen Institute, 2017 Retrieved from: https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/asadullah/scientism/
Seyyed Hosein N., Islamic science: an illustrated study, World of Islam Festival Publishing, 1976, pp.227
This sense generated reform movements in the nineteenth century in several Muslim societies. The reformist philosopher Ali Shariati’s works stem, for instance, from this common trend in Muslim countries. See, among other works of Shariati: Culture and ideology, tr. Fatollah Marjani Houston, 1980
Hunter S., (ed by), Reformist voices of Islam: mediating Islam and modernity, Sharpe, New York, 2009
Furber, M., Ethical dimensions of nanotechnology. Tabah Foundation, 6, 1–18, 2008
See, for instance Ghareeb, B. A.A. Human genetics and Islam: scientific and medical aspects in The Journal of IMA 43.2, 2011 pp. 83–90
Mobayed T., Immortality on earth? Transhumanism through Islamic lenses, Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, 2017
Al-Bukhari M., The hadith. Vol I, II, III, IV, e-book, Ravenio, 2018
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hejazi, S. ‘Humankind. The Best of Molds’—Islam Confronting Transhumanism. SOPHIA 58, 677–688 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-019-00755-7
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-019-00755-7