CIS | Center for Islamic Studies

Water, Light, Knowledge: Towards an Ecology of Imagination

Todd Lawson

Water and Light pervade the writings of Ibn 'Arabi as they do the Quran itself. In the poetic literalism of Ibn 'Arabi's discourse, these everyday realities are frequently involved in specific events of knowing. Knowledge appears to be built upon water and light. Water and Light are also essential "hormones of the imagination" – they are elements of the natural realm that lead us beyond nature.

Join us for an afternoon of interfaith text study, and open dialogue co-facilitated by Dr. Leyla Ozgur Alhassen, scholar of Qur’anic narrative, and Arielle Tonkin, visual artist and specialist in Jewish text. We will explore text as an intellectual and artistic pursuit in the Jewish and Islamic traditions, focusing on the stories in the Qur'an and the Torah that explore the character of Musa/Moshe's sister. We look forward to learning, creating, and building community with you! Hosted at the Graduate Theological Union, this event is open to the public and to people of all faiths.

The Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project in conjunction with Center for Islamic Studies at GTU cordially invite you to their first and largest conference on Islamophobia, which is held annually on the legendary University of California, Berkeley campus.  This event includes Scholars, Researchers, Artists, Poets, Media Producers, Artists, Activists and Community Organizations to foment a multi-medium engagement with Islamophobia.

In a climate of fear, misinformation, and generalization, how can we equip ourselves to speak and act in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters? Dr. Jiwa from Center of Islamic Studies, GTU, and President and Dean Mark Richardson of CDSP will meet in conversation at CDSP to discuss the reality of Islam. This event will be available via livestream.

When: Thursday, March 3rd, 7:45pm
Where: Tucson Common Room, CDSP Campus, 2451 Ridge Road Berkeley CA 94709

The Center for Islamic Studies would like to encourage you to attend an exciting exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco February 25- May 8 entitled, Pearls on a String: Artists Patrons and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts.

Two, very different contemporary characters discover romance in a dramatic reading of best-selling novel The Forty Rules of Love by acclaimed Moroccan theater, voice, film, and TV performer and translator Hassan El Jai (recently performed at Form Mason in SF). Elif Shafak’s novel follows the lives of a Jewish-American housewife and a Sufi Muslim based in Amsterdam and the unlikely love they develop for each other. El Jai’s adaptation

The Center for Islamic Studies at Graduate Theological Union invites you to attend an important upcoming conference, Institutionalizing Islamophobia: Critiquing the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Framework and Emerging Programs.