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Mukhtar H Ali

Profile picture for Mukhtar H Ali

Contact Information

707 S. Mathews
M/C 176
Urbana, IL 61801
Assistant Professor

Biography

Dr. Mukhtar Ali is Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies, specializing in Sufism, Islamic philosophy and ethics. His areas of interest include Arabic and Persian literature, Qurʾānic studies, theology, traditional 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.

  1. Mystics and Saints in Islam (REL 263) – 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.

  1. The Qur’an (REL223) – 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.

  1. Islamic Philosophy (REL343) – 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. Rumi: Poetry, Wisdom, Metaphysics (Religion 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.

Education

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2007

B.A. University of California, Berkeley, 1998

Highlighted Publications

Books

Inscriptions of Wisdom: The Sufism of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Mirror of Jāmī (SUNY Press, September 2025).

Philosophical Sufism: An Introduction to the School of Ibn al-ʿArabī. London: Routledge, 2021.

The Horizons of Being: The Metaphysics of Ibn al-ʿArabī in the Muqaddimat al-Qayṣarī. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

Translations

Almajid, Akram. Qānūn al-Tanāsub (The Law of Correspondence), translated by Mukhtar H. Ali. London: Sage Press, 2021.

Almajid, Akram. al-Khalq al-jadīd (The New Creation), translated by Mukhtar H. Ali. London: Sage Press, 2018.

Current Research

The Compendium of Mysteries and Source of Lights: A Study and Translation of Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī’s Jāmiʿ al-asrār wa manbaʿ al-anwār.

Recent Publications

Articles

“Truth and Reality (al-ḥaqq wa-l-ḥaqīqa)” in St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology, edited by Brendan Wolfe et al. University of St Andrews, 2024.

“Sufi Ethics: Synthesis and Legacy” in Oxford Handbook of Islamic Ethics, edited by Mustafa Shah. Oxford: Oxford University Press (in press).

“The Fusion of Shi’ism and Sufism in the Thought of Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī.” Intellectual History of the Islamicate World 11.1 (2024) 1-24.

“The Book of Majesty Which is the Word Allah (Kitāb al-Jalāla wa huwa kalimat Allāh).” Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society 74 (2023): 39-58.

“The Religion of Abraham: Sufi Perspectives on the Abrahamic Reality” Journal of the Institute for Sufi Studies (JISS) 1, no. 2 (2022), 3-16.

“Prophetic Archetypes in Sufi Hermeneutics: The Allegories of Abraham, Joseph and Moses.Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society 70 (2022), 1-21.

Futuwwa as the Noblest Character Traits (Makārim al-Akhlāq) in Anṣārī’s Manāzil al-Sāʾirīn with al-Kāshānī’s Commentary.” Journal of Islamic Ethics 4, no.  1-2 (2020): 8-24.

“The Doctrine of Love in Khwāja ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī’s Manāzīl al-sāʾirīn with a Critical Paraphrase of ʿAbd al-Razzāq Kāshānī’s Commentary.” Journal of Sufi Studies 5, no. 2 (2016): 140-155.

“The Concept of Spiritual Perfection According to ʿAlī ibn Sīna and Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī.” Journal of Shiʿa Islamic Studies 2, no. 2 (2009): 141-158.

Book Chapters

“Islam and the Unity of Being” in Nondualisms: An Interreligious Exploration, edited by Jen Wade, Anthony Watson, and Jon Paul Sydnor. Lexington Books, 2023.

“On Self-knowledge, Divine Trial and Discipleship” in From the Divine to the Human: Contemporary Islamic Thinkers on Evil, Suffering, and the Global Pandemic, edited by Muhammad Faruque and Mohammad Rustom. London: Routledge, 2023, 29-43 (Routledge Studies in Islamic Philosophy).

“Translating Islamic Metaphysical Texts: Reflections on Knowledge Transmission,” in Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation: Essays in Honor of William C. Chittick and Sachiko Murata, edited by Mohammad Rustom. Leiden: Brill, 2023, 429-440 12 (Islamic History and Civilization; vol. 202).

“Maḥmūd Shabistarī: The Rosegarden of Mystery - Shams al-Dīn Lāhījī: Keys to the Wondrous Exposition” in Global Philosophy: A Sourcebook, edited by Mohammad Rustom. Sheffield: Equinox (2024).

Personality Analysis according to Islamic Analytical and Spiritual Physiognomy (al-firāsa), in Typologies in the Islamic Ethical Discourse. Beirut: Beiruter Texte und Studien (in press).

Spiritual Education: Reform and Renewal” in A Festschrift for Seyyed Hossein Nasr, edited by Muhammad Faruque, Mohammad Rustom and Atif Khalil. Leiden: Brill (in press).

 “Mullā Ṣadrā” in Handbook of Qurʾānic Hermeneutics, Volume 3: Qurʾānic Hermeneutics from the 13th to the 19th Century, edited by Georges Tamer, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2024, 291-304.

“The Chinese Classics in the Light of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s Metaphysics” in Mysticism and Ethics in Islam, edited by Bilal Orfali, Atif Khalil and Mohammed Rustom. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2022.

“Ibn al‐ʿArabī, the Greatest Master: On Knowledge, God, and Sainthood” in A Companion to World Literature,edited by Ken Seigneurie. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2020.

“The Power of the Spoken Word: Prayer, Invocation, and Supplication in Islam” in Spirituality and the Good Life: Philosophical Approaches, edited by David McPherson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017, 136-154.