The MIAS Blog: News and Views about Ibn Arabi

Young Writer Award 2019

We are delighted to announce that Hina Khalid, a student at the University of Cambridge, UK, is the winner of the 2019 MIAS Young Writer Award.

The judges have also mentioned Muhammad Faruque, a student at Fordham University, USA, who is given a special commendation, and Esmé Partridge, who is given a commendation.

There were nine entries this time from young scholars from all over the world, and we thank all of them for participating in the project. We would also like to thank Stefan Sperl, Éric Geoffroy and Cecilia Twinch for undertaking to judge the entries.

Hina Khalid is currently a student of Islamic and Indic philosophy, and her work has previously examined varying strands of Sufi thought in both their poetic and philosophical modalities. Her current research centres on the literary and lived traditions of Sufism in particular regions of India and the distinctive textures of Islamic practices as they have been shaped by indigenous cultural and religious forces therein. She is due to start a PhD at the University of Cambridge which will engage, on comparative registers, the philosophical and theological worldviews of two philosopher-poets of the Indian subcontinent, Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) and Muhammad Iqbal (1877–1938). Hina’s academic pursuits in the field of comparative theology are met, on the ground, by an interest in and engagement with forums for interfaith dialogue and collaboration.

Winner

Hina Khalid: “A comparative exploration of the motif of negation as a process of spiritual attunement, with specific reference to the concept of Śūnyatā in Mahāyāna Buddhism and Fanāʾ in Sufism.”

Highly Commended

Muhammad Faruque: “Eternity Made Temporal: An Indian Sufi Theologian on Colonial Modernity and the Concept of the Perfect Human”

Commended

Esmé Partridge: “The Celestial ‘Polished Mirror’: The Theurgic Dimension of The Moon in The Writings of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi”

Submitted

Heba Youssry: “In search for Identity: Beyond Huwā and Heyā. Contemplating Akbarian Gender Reality in the #MeToo Era”

Muhammed Mehdi: “Miʿrāj al-kalima: The Ascent of ‘Annihilation’ in Chapter 220 of the Futūhāt”

Bharatwaj Iyer: “‘That which Separates Them is what Unites Them’: Looking for Ibn ʿArabi in Allam Tabatabai’s Bidayat Hikma”

Sezin Özdemir: “A Journey within the Treasures of Akbarī Tradition”

Fithri Dzakiyyah Hafizah: “Human and Nature within the Love Frame of Ibn ʿArabi: an alternative view in preventing climate change terrorism”

Maryam M. Rezayi: “The Concept of Time in Ibn al-ʿArabi and Parallel Reading Works with Heidegger”