A series of lectures on nothing less than the most important topic in Islam or any field of thought or activity: what is the limit, if any, on the use of the human intellect in terms of arriving at ‘truth’?

Is there a conflict between reason and revelation in revealed religions and which has primacy?

At the risk of spoilers, this series of lectures is indispensable, because it literally frees the imprisoned minds of Muslims and others: reason is openly given primacy by both itself and the Quran: if the role of reason is merely to take one to revelation and thereafter not to be trusted, as many false intellectuals amongst both Muslims and Christians claim, then the means by which one reached said revelation are faulty, since they are not to be trusted.

Thus reason has primacy for it is the means by which we decide if God exists in the first place and thereafter which if any is the correct message from him.

The intellect is given free reign by Islam and no question is disallowed: in short, Islam has nothing to fear from the intellects’ unlimited application and in fact demands it in the Quran in explicit terms and in numerous places, as conclusively shown in parts 1-3 (with numerous fascinating digressions).

After showing the clear logical, rational and Quranic proofs, the eminent speaker goes on to tackle in the latter parts how the clear message of the Quran, which respects the intellect and yes, even philosophical thinking, in the strongest terms, was subverted, perverted or outright ignored by various movements and thinkers, including our old friend Ibn Taymiyyah (and by inference perhaps his faux intellectual modern day interlopers such as Hamza Tzortzis and Yasir Qadi et al…)

A brilliant talk that will remove the guilt felt by many Muslims in intellectual and scientific fields and an essential call to the actual message of the Quran and indeed for a return to the real drive of mankind – what Victor Frankl has called ‘Man’s search for meaning’

The Lecturer:

Sheikh Atabek Shukrov Nasafi is a noted scholar and specialist in Islamic aqeeda and theological sciences. Undertaking his religious studies at first in secret in Uzbekistan while it was part of the USSR, he has gone on to have an eclectic and comprehensive Islamic education all over the Muslim world.

Already a scholar when he arrived in the Middle East, he studied in Damascus under such luminaries as Mhmd Adnan Darwish, graduating finally from Al Azhar but only after having studied both in Medina and the wider region, for example under Sh. Uthaymeen (and numerous others).

He is currently based in the Northwest of England where he is the founder of the Avicenna Academy.

http://www.avicennaacademy.com/