Returning to Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, with Hasan Spiker

Talk Objective: This talk explores how Muslims can move beyond religious formalism, legalism, and defensive identity towards a deeper recovery of Islam’s intellectual, spiritual, and metaphysical vision. In a modern culture increasingly detached from its spiritual foundations, Dr. Hasan Spiker will reflect on the Islamic tradition’s integrated understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness, and on the cultivation of the whole human being through spiritual wayfaring and inner transformation. Drawing especially on the metaphysical and spiritual heritage of Sufism, the session will consider why the renewal of Muslim life must begin not simply with outward conformity, representation, or social contribution, but with a renewed encounter with the lived ḥaqāʾiq - the deeper realities - of the religion. It will ask how recovering this dimension of the tradition can enable Muslims to become a source of meaning, beauty, healing, and spiritual uplift in the contemporary world. Speaker Profile: Dr. Hasan Spiker is an Anglo-American philosopher and metaphysician whose work focuses on the Islamic intellectual tradition, classical metaphysics, and modern Western thought. He spent over a decade studying the Islamic intellectual sciences in the Muslim world, primarily under the guidance of the Iraqi scholar al-Sayyid Qusayy Abu’l-Si’d, before completing a First Class degree in Philosophy at the University of London and an MPhil in Philosophical Theology at the University of Cambridge, where he continues his doctoral research. He has taught philosophy and logic at Zaytuna College and is currently Dean of Blogging Theology Academy and a Senior Research Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. His books include Things As They Are (2021), The Metacritique of Kant and the Possibility of Metaphysics (2022), Hierarchy and Freedom (2023), and The Unravelling of Intelligibility: Elements of Modernity (2024). The Theme – Iqra: Read and Rise “The word of wisdom is the lost property of the believer. Where he finds it, he is most worthy of it.” (Sunan al Tirmidhi 2687) The pursuit of knowledge, wisdom, and illumination has always been at the heart of Islamic civilization. Iqra - “Read” - reflects this enduring imperative to seek, reflect, and engage deeply with revelation, history, and the world around us. This theme explores the intellectual inheritance of the Islamic tradition through its scholars, saints, texts, ideas, and civilizational histories, while also engaging the deeper questions they sought to address: the nature of knowledge, truth, meaning, metaphysics, ethics, language, and the human condition. About Us: Shajarat al-Nur is dedicated to reviving traditional cognitive frameworks embedded and influenced by the science of the heart – “iḥsan.” We draw inspiration from spiritual cultivation to respond to contemporary challenges while remaining grounded and connected through pursuing excellence and knowledge. Our mission at Shajarat al-Nur is to illuminate the path to the traditional sciences through engaging talks and live events led by renowned scholars and experts. Connect with Us Instagram - instagram.com/shajaratalnur YouTube -    / @shajaratalnur   Website - shajaratalnur.com