The epistemic function of typological correspondence in Qur’anic narrative. for our upcoming Oases of Wisdom article on Qur’anic typology.
(Side note: allegory doesn’t necessarily mean ahistorical, but historicity is usually less important to allegory than it is to typology.)
Latest video on Nicolai Sinai’s view on Quranic Cosmology in light of the ongoing debate.
Our new interview and Q&A with Dr. Suleyman Dost is now available through early access in the link below!
Before The Quran and its Ethiopic Influences with Dr. Suleyman Dost
https://youtu.be/bqKhlwga57o
My recently published article for the Oases of Wisdom Substack: The Debate Industrial Complex and the Wrestling Match for God
As far as I know, there has been very little work examining modern apologetics through the lens of media theory. This article is my attempt to begin that conversation.
I explore the connection between modern debate culture and pro wrestling, examining how apologetics has evolved through the internet and how the attention economy shapes the way we engage with religion.
Full article here: https://open.substack.com/pub/oasesofwisdom/p/the-debate-industrial-complex-and?r=80p3fy&utm\_medium=ios
Our bonus 90-minute Q&A with Joshua Little is now available exclusively for members of r/MuslimAcademics and r/AcademicQuran. The questions were submitted by members of both subreddits, and the link is below.
We discuss the originality of Isnad, Ghadir Khumm, Moon Splitting, Motzki’s actual views, and whether a junior Companion can be a CL 🤔
https://www.reddit.com/r/MuslimAcademics/s/6yCbVYiThh
Please check out the announcement for our upcoming Video AMA with Dr. Suleyman Dost on the 29th which will work similarly to this one!
We promised a lot of changes, and I think this is the one you’ll enjoy the most!
Our bonus 90-minute Q&A with Joshua Little is now available exclusively for members of r/MuslimAcademics. The questions were submitted by members of the subreddit, and the link is below.
We discuss the originality of Isnad, Ghadir Khumm, Moon Splitting, Motzki’s actual views, and whether a junior Companion can be a CL 🤔
This will be made public on YouTube in the next few days but for now enjoy exclusive content made just for you guys!
Link:
https://youtu.be/GOQaCN2Yd6s
Please check out the announcement for our upcoming Video AMA with Dr. Suleyman Dost on the 29th which will work similarly to this one!
u/TheQadri and I are happy to announce that we’ll be conducting a special video AMA with Dr. Suleyman Dost on our @oasis_wisdom YouTube channel! You can submit your questions over at r/MuslimAcademics (@MuslimAcademics) beginning on the 26th!
In his response to Ahmad Al-Jallad, Suleyman Dost clarifies that his project was never to replace a Syrian or Iraqi origin theory with a South Arabian one. Instead, he argues that the Qur’an “best fits to a Ḥijāzī/western Arabian context” and explicitly states that “Paleo-Arabic inscriptions are the most relevant and salient material sources for the context of the Qur’an,” while also emphasizing the importance of Safaitic and Hismaic evidence.
(Link below!)
Our latest podcast interview explores Joshua Little’s former islamophobic background and how he outgrew it. Along with that he gives at least 8 reasons on how we can use hadith to reconstruct historical data!!!! He further answers questions on whether mutawaatir hadith are reliable and whether miracles are possible.
He also answers the common objection of Sean Anthony on the plausibility of Aisha’s 6 year old age during the time of marriage to the Prophet.
Dr. Joshua Little on the possibility of identifying super-early material in hadith literature in our upcoming interview on Oases of Wisdom this weekend!
I’m looking forward to uploading the full conversation soon.
We also discuss how Little overcame his hatred for Islam and why he is optimistic about certain hadith and their capacity to preserve historical information.
Join Oases of Wisdom for a unique video formatted AMA with Dr. Suleyman Dost, Assistant Professor of Late Antiquity and Early Islam at the University of Toronto. Dr. Dost received his PhD from the University of Chicago and specializes in the Qur’an, pre-Islamic Arabian inscriptions, Late Antiquity, and the historical context of early Islam. His research explores the emergence of the Qur’an through epigraphy, archaeology, and documentary sources, and he is the author of Before the Qur’an: Material Sources at the Advent of Muslim Scripture.
Submit your questions in the comments on r/MuslimAcademics. Dr. Dost will review the submissions one day before the event, and the interview will be recorded and published on the Oases of Wisdom YouTube channel, where we will ask questions from the r/MuslimAcademics community!
We encourage thoughtful questions on Qur’anic studies, Arabian epigraphy, Late Antiquity, manuscript studies, and the origins of Islam.
Links below:
A brief summary of Dost’s recent book: https://twitter-thread.com/t/2028745600804491499
Our YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@oasesofwisdom?si=K7AvW3Av8dC_ihyr
Dr. Joshua Little is a historian of early Islam and hadith who works primarily on the formation and transmission of early Islamic traditions, especially questions around isnād development (chains of transmission) and the historical reliability of early reports.
He completed his PhD at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Christopher Melchert, his doctoral work focused on the early origins and evolution of hadith attribution systems. In that research line, he engages with the idea that systematic isnāds likely developed later than traditional Muslim historiography assumes, situating their consolidation in broader late antique historiographical practices.
More recently, he has become known for detailed studies of specific hadith corpora, including the report on the age of ʿĀʾishah, where he applies source criticism and isnād analysis to argue for complex, multi-stage transmission histories rather than single-origin reports.
Many of you may know a lot of Dr. Little’s work so we would love to open the floor up for some questions you’d like to ask him and we’ll pick some of the best ones!
u/theQadri and I are excited to announce that we’ve officially taken over management of r/MuslimAcademics and are launching a major rebrand with a new moderation team.
DO NOT PANIC NOTHING WILL CHANGE! It will just be more organized and structured. But we need your help to make it work!
The subreddit will remain independent from Oases of Wisdom, but we hope to build productive connections between the forum, the podcast, and our Substack. Members will be able to suggest podcast guests, propose interview questions, recommend historical figures and topics for future episodes, participate in AMAs with academics, submit articles for publication, and receive feedback from fellow researchers and enthusiasts.
Alongside regular discussion of academic Islamic studies, we’re expanding the scope to include academic philosophy, theology, and history while encouraging substantive debate in a welcoming environment. We also hope to bridge traditional scholarship and the modern academy by engaging with non-English primary sources and contemporary academic literature alike, eventually building a comprehensive bibliography and digital library accessible to everyone.
Most importantly, we want r/MuslimAcademics to become a hub where students, academics, and serious enthusiasts can network, collaborate, and learn from one another. We’re excited for what’s ahead.
Our YT channel: https://youtube.com/@oasesofwisdom?si=e-FkSiE-D5xCCgIr
The Qur’an’s reference to ʿUzayr in Q. 9:30 reflects Palestinian rabbinic traditions present in the Hijaz. Building on the work of Holger Zellentin and Hythem Sidky, it identifies Rabbi Eliʿezer ben Hyrcanus as the strongest historical candidate for ʿUzayr through linguistic and textual evidence. The proposal suggests the Qur’an reframes “Eliʿezer the Great” as “ʿUzayr,” or “little helper,” to emphasize his status as God’s servant while critiquing the elevation of rabbinic authority. The broader conclusion places Palestinian Judaism at the center of the Qur’an’s engagement with Jewish and Syriac traditions.
I’ve decided, thanks to a great suggestion from Al-Firas, to start sharing my Twitter threads here. I’ll begin with one of my favorites: my thread on the issue surrounding Uzayr in the Qur’an.
Enjoy! The link to the full thread and screenshots is below.
In our upcoming episode of the Oases of Wisdom Podcast, featuring Filip Holm, we explore a wide range of topics, including jinn possession, Sufism, online apologetics, and much much more. Stay tuned!
Subscribe for now: https://youtube.com/@oasesofwisdom?si=ens-MOGSuZMBVlnC
Dr. Ramon Harvey’s latest article on our substack magazine where he explores different philosophies of mind in light of AI and Islamic thought. This is an excellent article and conversation starter for how a contemporary Islamic philosophy of mind will look in the coming decades!
Check out my link in the comments for the full interview!
Adamson argues that mutawātir transmission alone is not enough to verify miracles and that the threshold required for such claims is astronomically high. Check out the interview for a much more in-depth discussion.
We also discuss iʿjāz (inimitability), and Adamson pushes back against the idea that it is purely subjective. Rather, he argues that it is intended as an objective claim.
Would love to hear some of your thoughts on a topic that has been at the center of heated discussion on this sub.
Check out the interview for a much more in-depth discussion.
Link to the full interview below!
u/theQadri and I are excited to announce that we will be recording an upcoming episode of the Oases of Wisdom Podcast with philosopher and historian Peter Adamson on the 25th of May.
Many of you probably already know him from his incredible work on the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast, as well as his contributions to Islamic philosophy, Late Antiquity, and intellectual history more broadly.
The episode will be uploaded shortly after recording, and we also want your help. We’d like for your direct interaction! If you have any questions you would like us to ask Professor Adamson, drop them below and we’ll look through them before the interview and select some we think would be good!
We also have more interviews lined up in the coming weeks, including conversations with Nicolai Sinai and Philip Goff.
Thank you all for the support you’ve shown us so far. We genuinely appreciate it and hope to continue building a space for thoughtful conversations that bridge tradition, philosophy, and contemporary academic discourse.
(Link to subscribe to the channel will be below!)
The article argues that the preservation of the Qur’an is best understood as a historical process involving both oral and written transmission rather than a simplistic “word-for-word identical copies from day one” narrative. It explores how the Qur’an was preserved through communal memorization, the Uthmanic codification, and the canonization of the qirāʾāt, while also engaging modern manuscript studies and academic scholarship. The main thesis is that early variations existed within controlled boundaries and do not undermine the integrity of the Qur’an’s transmission. Instead of avoiding textual criticism, the article argues that manuscript evidence actually reinforces the remarkable stability of the Qur’anic tradition over time.
Link here: https://open.substack.com/pub/oasesofwisdom/p/the-preservation-of-the-quran?r=80p3fy&utm\_medium=ios
