A Publication Initiative

Laṭāʾif

A publication initiative for Islamic thought, literature, and intellectual renewal.

Laṭāʾif brings together academic research, reflective essays, Arabic literary heritage, translations, and critical engagement with the questions shaping Muslim intellectual life.

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Recent Essays

Theology and Kalām14 min

Kalām in the Age of Cognitive Science

The classical kalām tradition developed a precise vocabulary for the mind, intention, and perception. Reading it alongside contemporary cognitive science reveals not a rivalry, but a sustained conversation across centuries.

Tofael NuruddinMarch 12, 2025
Technology and Ethics11 min

The Ethics of Machine Translation of the Qurʾān

When a model translates the divine speech, what is preserved and what is lost? An inquiry into the limits of statistical inference before the inimitable.

Faatima UddinFebruary 28, 2025
Fiqh and Uṣūl16 min

The Architecture of Uṣūl al-Fiqh

Legal theory as a discipline of attention: how the early uṣūliyyūn built an instrument for hearing the sharīʿah without drowning it in argument.

Rafiul MuntakimJanuary 30, 2025
Islamic Civilization9 min

Marginalia of a Damascene Codex

What a 13th-century reader wrote in the margins of his Tafsīr al-Baghawī, and what these silent annotations tell us about a culture of reading.

Aaishah LombardJanuary 16, 2025
Cognitive De-Colonization13 min

Decolonizing the Curriculum of ʿIlm

The modern university inherits a partition of knowledge that the Islamic tradition never accepted. What would it mean to teach ʿilm whole again?

Aaishah LombardDecember 22, 2024

من التراث

Arabic Literature

إِذَا غَامَرْتَ فِي شَرَفٍ مَرُومٍ
فَلَا تَقْنَعْ بِمَا دُونَ النُّجُومِ
فَطَعْمُ الْمَوْتِ فِي أَمْرٍ حَقِيرٍ
كَطَعْمِ الْمَوْتِ فِي أَمْرٍ عَظِيمِ

When you venture for an honour sought after, / be not content with what falls short of the stars. / For the taste of death in a trivial pursuit / is the same as the taste of death in a great one.

Abū al-Ṭayyib al-Mutanabbī4th century AH / 10th c. CEPoetry, Qaṣīdahtr. Editorial

The People of the Letters

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Quietly Catalogued

From the Archive

JIHAT
Vol. 3
1 · Spring 2025

The Self in Classical Islamic Thought

9 articlesRead issue
JIHAT
Vol. 2
2 · Autumn 2024

Reason, Revelation, and the Modern University

11 articlesRead issue
JIHAT
Vol. 2
1 · Spring 2024

Adab as Method

8 articlesRead issue

A New Initiative

Laṭāʾif Academy

A school of academic writing for ʿĀlimiyyah graduates, students, and academics working in Islamic thought. Self-paced lessons, cohort workshops, and written feedback from our faculty — across three tiers.

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