Dr. Matthew Wilkinson presents Islamic Critical Realism at the British Association of Islamic Studies Conference (BRAIS) 2015

By Dr. Matthew Wilkinson

15 April 2015. Dr. Matthew Wilkinson presented a paper entitled, Islamic critical realism: a philosophy to ‘underlabour’ contemporary Islam, at the British Association of Islamic Studies Conference 2015 at the Senate House, London. The paper presented the core philosophical elements of the Islamic critical realist position including, ‘underlabouring, ‘philosophical and religious seriousness’, ‘a critical realist understanding of the Qur’an’, and ‘dialectical critical realism in the life of the Prophet Muhammad’. The paper stimulated a lively debate about the role of critical realism in general and Islamic critical realism in particular in creating an intellectual bridgehead between the principles of faith and the conditions of contemporary life. The conference was also attended by our Chair of Donors, Mr. Mohammed Amin.

Matthew and Amin also received the welcome news from Professor Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Professor in Religious and Theological Studies, Director for the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK (Islam-UK), University of Cardiff that Islamic critical realism is ‘underlabouring’ the research of a number of research students into Islam and Muslims at the University of Cardiff. Thus, praise God,Islamic critical realism is fulfilling the function for which it was designed.