Shii News – Venue Change: Imam Ali Seminar, Sunday 9th March 2025, Regent’s University London, NW1 4NS

SEMINAR

TO COMMEMORATE THE MARTYRDOM OF

IMAM ALI (a.s.)

SUNDAY 9th MARCH 2025 – 2:00 PM

NEW VENUE – REGENT’S UNIVERSITY LONDON
TUKE HALL
INNER CIRCLE, REGENT’S PARK, LONDON NW1 4NS

Tube station: Baker Street

Chair: Professor Justin Jones

Justin Jones is Associate Professor in the Study of Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford, and specialises in South Asian Islam. His previous published research has focused upon Shi’i Islam in South Asia, including themes such as Shi’i clerical revivalism, religious writing and practice, martyrology, and Shi’i politics. He is the author of Shi’a Islam in Colonial India: Religion, Community and Sectarianism (Cambridge University Press, 2012), the editor of The Shi’a of South Asia: Religion, History and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2014), as well as having written various articles and other publications in this field.

Gulamabbas Lakha

Developing Islamic AI: Balancing Mental Health Benefits and Theological Risks

Gulamabbas Lakha takes a multi-disciplinary approach to research and teaching at Oxford. His doctorate in Psychiatry investigates mental health applications of Islamic concepts and practices, including empirical work on depression in the UK Muslim population. He serves as a tutor in Psychology of Religion and leads seminars on Neuroscience of Religious Experience, including supervising medical students and postgraduates. In addition, he also teaches Christian-Muslim relations and psychotherapy from Old Testament and Islamic psalms, having previously undertaken research on comparative neuroimaging of dhikr and secular mindfulness practices. His first degree in Economics & Econometrics was followed by the Chartered Financial Analyst programme and subsequently founded an investment firm at which he serves as CEO. He later completed four master’s degrees, spanning Psychology and Neuroscience, Theology, Islamic Studies, History and Arabic. Following religious training over two decades, he was accredited as a Shaykh and has lectured on contemporary Islam for fifteen years.

Dr George Warner

The Blunt Arrow and the Two-Pointed Sword: Encountering Imam Ali in Early Islamic Epic

Dr George Warner is a scholar of Islamic studies specialising in Sunni-Shi’a relations, hadith, ritual, and devotional literature in Arabic and Persian. Having completed his BA and MPhil at the University of Cambridge, he received his PhD from SOAS University of London in 2017. He has previously held academic positions at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, SOAS and the University of Exeter, and is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He has published widely on diverse aspects of Shi’i Islam and its history, including his first book, The Words of the Imams: al-Shaykh al-Saduq and the Development of Twelver Shi’i Hadith Literature, which was published by I. B. Tauris in 2021.

AN OPEN INVITATION

PLEASE BE SEATED BY 2:00 PM

ORGANISER & SPONSOR: THE AHMED FAMILY – C/O MUHAMMADI TRUST (020 8452 1739)

Posted in: Field-specific (academic)