Dr. Mukhtar Ali is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, specializing in mysticism (Sufism) philosophy and ethics. His areas of interest include Arabic and Persian literature, Qurʾānic studies, theology, Traditional Chinese Medicine and comparative religion. He is the author of Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-ʿArabī (Routledge, 2021) and The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī (Brill, 2020) and his forthcoming work, Inscriptions of Wisdom: The Sufism of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Mirror of Jāmī, is a study on Ibn al-ʿArabī's masterpiece, Fuṣūṣ al-ḥikam through the lens of Jāmī’s Naqd al-nuṣūṣ fī sharḥ Naqsh al-Fuṣūṣ. He has also translated two works in contemporary Islamic metaphysics, Dr. Akram Almajid's The Law of Correspondence (2021) and The New Creation (2018).

His research program and forthcoming monograph focuses on theories of knowledge in Islam. It investigates epistemic modalities characteristic of the Islamic tradition: reason, revelation and mystical experience, but also considers the role of sensory experience, empiricism and approaches within postmodern epistemology. Framed as a philosophical investigation rather than intellectual history, the aim of the study is to examine methods of validity and epistemic justification. Thus, it takes a critical approach to the study of scripture, hadith authority and methods of legal derivation by investigating the role of reason in religious thought. It ponders therefore the dynamic and interpretative nature of the Qurʾān, and the broader questions of how we know what we know, and how we arrive at the guiding principles of human thought and action.

While his teaching includes Islamic Studies and Arabic language, he is also a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine, having earned a master’s degree from Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine (2011) and his doctorate from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (2017). Integrating his knowledge of traditional medicine and religious studies, he has developed a course on healing traditions.

Courses Taught

1. Introduction to Islam (REL 214) – 3 credits

History of Islamic thought from the time of Muhammad to the present, including the prophethood of Muhammad, the Qur'an, theology and law, mysticism and philosophy, sectarian movements, modernism and legal reform, and contemporary resurgence.

2. Mystics and Saints in Islam (REL 260) – 3 credits

Examines mystical concepts and practices in Islam through the ages, through the lives and writings of important mystics and Sufi holy men and women, as well as the integration of mysticism and the Sufi Orders into Muslim society and Islamic orthodoxy.

3. The Qur’an (REL 223) – 3 credits

Introduction to the Qur'an (Koran), the holy scripture of Islam, examining its major doctrines, thematic development, literary style, and its relationship to pre-Qur'anic, especially Biblical, traditions. Special attention is given to various methods Muslims have used to interpret the Qur'an.

4. Islamic Philosophy (REL 343) – 3 credits

Survey of major developments within Islamic philosophy from the early classical to the early modern period. Focuses on the ideas and figures that have shaped Islamic philosophy through the centuries, as well as the contexts in which those ideas were produced. Topics covered include the transmission of Greek philosophy into Arabic. Islamic Peripatetic philosophy, Illuminationism, Shi'ite philosophy, and philosophical Sufism, including the great synthesis of Mulla Sadra.

5. Islamic Theology (REL 514) – 3 credits

Study of the language, arguments and schools of classical Islamic theology, mainly through direct study of English translations of theological texts from various theological schools.

6. Islamic Ethics (REL 481) – 3 credits

This course presents a comprehensive survey of ethics in Islamic theology and philosophy. The main focus is to examine ontological and epistemological questions related to ethics, covering different approaches to human action, obligation and ethical judgments. In the philosophical section, the course covers principle ethical themes in Greek philosophy and its effect on classical Islamic philosophy and later developments. Students will learn the history, concepts, doctrines, and philosophers in the classical Islamic tradition, as well as modern contemporary trends in moral philosophy.

7. Rumi: Poetry, Wisdom, Metaphysics (REL 495) – 3 credits

Hailed as one of the world’s greatest mystical poets, Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) transcends the boundaries of language, religion and ethnicity. Today Rumi’s poems can be heard in mosques, monasteries, churches and synagogues. This course examines Rumi’s teachings, the metaphysics of love and his perennial wisdom through translations of his sublime verse, the quintessential art form of the Sufis.