Description
A multi-media dramatic presentation that will challenge your perceptions and transform your understanding of Islam and the West.
In his thought-provoking book, Rethinking Islam and the West: A New Narrative for the Age of Crises, Cambridge University visiting fellow Ahmed Paul Keeler invites us to view the tangled relationship between Islam and the West through an alternative lens, proposing that the true yardstick for measuring success should be the balance achieved between the spiritual, social, and material needs of humanity – a balance which makes it possible to live in harmony with nature. When the world is viewed from this perspective, a completely different picture of Islam and the West emerges.
Changing our perspective from one rooted in the principle of progress to one informed by the criterion of Mizan – a concept that encompasses balance, scale, justice, and harmony – can bring about a deeper understanding of the multiple crises that humanity faces.
Bringing this narrative to life, the special guests joining Ahmed Paul Keeler and the Cambridge University Mizan Study Circle include Shaykh Ahmed Saad al-Azhari, director of the Ihsan Institute, Shaykh Ma’an al-Dabbagh, director of research at the Tabah Foundation, Dr Samir Mahmoud, academic director of Usul Academy, and Ustadh Ali Keeler, scholar, musician and founder of the Firdaus Ensemble.
Guidance: This event is ages 10+ as the content is not suitable for young children.
About the Speakers
Ahmed Paul Keeler
Ahmed Paul Keeler was the founder and director of the World of Islam Festival that took place in London and the UK in 1976. The Festival was remarkable in that the arts and sciences were presented as a manifestation of the unity of Islam, instead of from the Eurocentric, fragmentary point of view. The Festival was opened by Her Majesty the Queen, and was the most comprehensive exposition of Islamic culture ever to have taken place in the West, having a far-reaching impact both in the UK, the West and the Muslim world.
On April 27th 2014 Ahmed presented his ground-breaking Mizan Thesis at Cambridge University in an Illustrated Lecture, after which the University’s Centre of Islamic Studies invited him to become a Visiting Fellow to continue his work. 2019 saw the publication of his seminal work Rethinking Islam & The West: A New Narrative for the Age of Crises, followed in 2022 by A Life’s Journey: The Story behind a Book, which serves as a commentary on Rethinking Islam & The West. Applying the mizan perspective Ahmed produced Gazan Awakening in 2024 and Breaching the Mizan: From a Sacred to a Secular World in 2025.
Shaykh Dr Ahmed Saad
Dr Ahmed Saad Al-Azhari, is an Egyptian born, British Islamic scholar, and is the founder of the Ihsan Institute. He is an advocate of teaching traditional Islamic sciences; which he has taught in various parts of the world. Dr bSaad loves poetry and writes it frequently mainly in Arabic and sometimes in English. He has published an anthology of his poetry and some other books including Contemplating the Qur’an’.
Dr Samir Mahmoud
Dr. Samir Mahmoud is currently Academic Director of Usul Academy. He is also Program Manager of the Diploma in Islamic Psychology at the Cambridge Muslim College. Recently he was Assistant Professor at the Lebanese American University. He also holds an MPhil in Theology & Religious Studies with a focus on comparative philosophy and aesthetics. He completed a PhD in Islamic Studies from the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Dr. Timothy Winter (Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad).
Shaykh Maan Aldabbagh
Ma’an al-Dabbagh is a student of the traditional Islamic sciences who hails from Jeddah and studied under Sayyid Muhammad b. Alawi al-Maliki. He is currently a doctoral scholar at the University of Cambridge, focusing on the ‘ulama of the Hijaz in the late Ottoman Period.
Ustad Ali Keeler
Ustad Ali Keeler studied classical violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester where he gained experience playing in a string quartet. He then went to Damascus in Syria to study Arabic and the Islamic sciences. In 2012 he founded the sufi music group Al Firdaus Ensemble based in Granada with musicians from Morocco and Spain. He has toured extensively with Al Firdaus Ensemble in Europe, North Africa, Turkey, Lebanon, the US, Canada and Malaysia. With Al Firdaus he has recorded 3 albums contributing as performer, composer, arranger and producer; Safa released in 2014, Nur released in 2017 and Shifa released in 2022.
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