Omid Safi is a leading public Muslim intellectual in America. He is a Professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in contemporary Islamic thought and classical Islam.
Event Summary :
Omid Safi discusses why people should love one another and how love is connected to God. In fact, he states that “love is God, love is from God, and love is flowing back to God,” which means that love, in the Islamic context, will always be connected to God. He uses several stories and examples to illustrate this argument.
One example of the many stories Safi tells is the story of the Mystic Hawton the Deaf who pretended to be deaf for the rest of his life to spare one woman of embarrassment. With the story of Hawton the Deaf, Professor Safi is trying to show that we should live our lives putting other people’s feelings, even strangers, ahead of our own egos.
Later he tells the audience that it takes three years for rhinos to be accepted back into a herd in the wild. Safi tells this story so he can make the point that people who choose to become Muslim and follow the path to God, should be given the same consideration. He states that it is difficult for many people to be able to jump right in and follow every rule within the Islam religion and those who join should be given time to adjust.
Professor Safı explains that our hearts should be “like a hotel” and welcome every emotion, good or bad, into it. However, he also mentions that “to have a heart that is opened, that is sensitive, that is receptive, does mean putting up with whatever people bring to you.” To have such an open and receptive heart, is a difficult task for many people.
These stories and interpretations discussed above that Professor Safi gives are just a few of the several stories and enlightening statements of love that he shares with his listeners. Professor Safi concludes the program with a funny story that illustrates how deep his love for his daughter is and then the audience is welcomed to ask questions.
Biography:
He is the past Chair for the Study of Islam and the current Chair for the Islamic Mysticism Group at the American Academy of Religion, the largest international organization devoted to the academic study of religion.
Omid is an award-winning teacher and speaker, and was nominated six times at Colgate University for the “Professor of the Year” award, and before that twice at Duke University for the Distinguished Lecturer award. At the University of North Carolina, he received the award for mentoring minority students in 2009, and the Sitterson Teaching Award for Professor of the Year in April of 2010.
He is the editor of the volume Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender, and Pluralism (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2003). His work Politics of Knowledge in Premodern Islam, dealing with medieval Islamic history and politics, was published by UNC Press in 2006. His Voices of Islam: Voices of Change, was published by Praeger in 2006. His last book was published by HarperCollins, titled Memories of Muhammad, and deals with the biography and legacy of the Prophet Muhammad. He has a forthcoming volume from Princeton University Press on the famed mystic Rumi. The Carnegie Foundation recognized Omid as a leading Scholar of Islam in 2007-2008 for studying contemporary Islamic debates in Iran. That topic will be the topic of his next book from Harvard University Press. His volume on American Islam is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.
He has been among the most frequently sought speakers on Islam in popular media, appearing frequently in the New York Times, Newsweek, Washington Post, PBS, NPR, NBC, CNN, and international media. He has recently been designated as a lead Islam writer for the Huffington Post, and the lead Muslim writer for the Religion News.