Notes on Contributors
Amir Abbas Alizamani (أمير عباس علي زماني )
is Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Tehran. He obtained his PhD degree in Philosophy of Religion from the University of Tehran. His publications include Khudā, Zabān va Maʿnā: Dar Āmudī bar Falsafah Zabān Dīnī (“God, Language and Meaning: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religious Language,” 2003) and Zabān Dīn (“The Language of Religion,” 1996) as well as a Persian translation of John Cottingham’s (b. 1943) On the Meaning of Life (2003) titled Maʿnā-yi Zandagī (“The Meaning of Life,” 2019).
Beate Anam
is Research Associate at the Department of Law and Anthropology, Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale and Associate at the Erlangen Zentrum für Islam und Recht in Europa (EZIRE), University of Erlangen-Nürnberg. She is the managing editor of the Zeitschrift für Recht & Islam (“Journal of Law and Islam”), co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Medizin, Ethik und Islam (“Journal of Medicine, Ethics and Islam”) and co-leader of the Working Group “Medical Ethics and Islam” (Arbeitskreis “Medizinethik und Islam”). Her research focuses on applied Islamic medical ethics (especially at the beginning of life) and artificial intelligence.
Hamed Arezaei (حامد آرضائي )
is Faculty Member at the Imam Sadiq University (ISU, Tehran) and the Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS, Tehran), as well as member of the Academy of Medical Sciences in Iran. He obtained BA in Arabic Language and Literature from Tehran University, BA and MA degrees in Islamic Theology and Philosophy from Imam Sadiq University (ISU, Tehran 2011) and a PhD in Islamic Philosophy from Tarbiat Modares University (TMU, Tehran, 2017). Arezaei’s research interests include the history of philosophy and sciences in the Islamic age, and Ibn Sīnā’s (Avicenna, d. 428/1037) heritage in particular. He has published on the classification of knowledge and natural philosophy in Islamic thought – especially the Avicennian tradition – and the relationship between philosophy, medicine, alchemy and other natural sciences. Arezaei has a keen interest in the philosophical approaches of Islamic medicine.
Asma Asadi (أسماء أسدي )
is a Medical Doctor who specialises in infections. Born in Tehran, she studied at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBUMS). She obtained her medical degree (MD) in 2010. At the same university she pursued her specialisation in internal medicine and subsequently infection diseases and virology. In 2015 she obtained her PhD degree. Ever since, she is active as a medical specialist in various hospitals and performs research in both modern medicine and herbal medicine. Asadi has published a number of clinical studies on inflammatory diseases and their treatments with medicinal herbs.
Pieter Coppens
is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he teaches in the Spiritual Care programme. He obtained his BA and MA degrees in Arabic Language and Culture from the Radboud University Nijmegen, and his PhD degree in Islamic Studies from Utrecht University. A reworked version of his dissertation was published under the title Seeing God in Sufi Qurʾan Commentaries: Crossings between This World and the Otherworld (2018). Coppens has published on the history of Qurʾān commentaries (tafsīr), Islamic hermeneutics and the history of Sufism.
Hans Daiber
was Chair of Oriental Languages at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main from 1995 until his retirement in 2010. He obtained his PhD in 1967, and in 1980 his thesis was published under the title Aetius Arabus. In 1973 he finalised his monograph titled Das theologisch-philosophische System des Muʿammar Ibn ʿAbbād as-Sulamī (gest. 830 n. Chr.), which granted him the qualification for teaching Arabic and Islam; the work appeared in print in 1975. Daiber taught at the Free University of Amsterdam 1977–1995, at the University of Tokyo 1992, ISTAC (International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, Kuala Lumpur/Malaysia) 2001, and is member of the KNAW (Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences) since 1981. His main fields of interest are Arabic and Islam, including Islamic philosophy, theology, the history of sciences and Greek-Syriac-Arabic-Latin translations. Daiber is an expert in analysing and describing Arabic manuscripts. He is the editor of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Sciences (Brill) and of Aristoteles Semitico-Latinus (Brill). In 1999 and 2007 he published the Bibliography of Islamic Philosophy in three volumes. His latest book publication (2012) is Islamic Thought in the Dialogue of Cultures. A Historical and Bibliographical Survey. Daiber’s forthcoming book, From the Greeks to the Arabs and Beyond (Brill, 6 volumes), will contain thematically arranged key publications and unpublished articles.
Khalid Elzamzamy
is a Psychiatry Fellow at the Institute of Living/Hartford Healthcare in Connecticut, USA. Currently he also serves as researcher with the Family and Youth Institute, the Khalil Center and as a faculty member at The Alkaram Institute, all in the USA. Previously Elzamzamy served as a research assistant at Yale University. He received his Medical Degree from Ain Shams University, Egypt, and completed his psychiatry residency at Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar. Elzamzamy also holds an MA degree in Islamic Studies from Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. His research interests lie at the intersection of mental health, culture, spirituality and religiosity. He has a particular focus on the integration of religion and spirituality in clinical practice, suicide in the Islamic literature and the Muslim community, contributions of Muslim intellectuals to psychology and mental health and Islamic ethics in clinical practice.
Mohammed Ghaly
is professor of Islam and Biomedical Ethics at the Research Center for Islamic Legislation & Ethics (CILE), College of Islamic Studies at the Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar. He holds a BA degree in Islamic Studies from Al-Azhar University (Egypt) and MA and PhD degrees in the same field from Leiden University (the Netherlands). During the period 2007–2013, Ghaly was a Faculty Member at Leiden University. Since 2011, he has been Faculty Member at the European Master of Bioethics, part of the Erasmus Mundus Program, jointly organized by a number of European universities. Ghaly’s main research area is the Islamic Ethics and how it relates to applied fields like biomedical sciences and artificial intelligence. He published on various topics from an Islamic ethical perspective, including disability, principles of biomedical ethics, GenEthics, human genome editing, infertility treatment, etc. His publications can be accessed via https://cilecenter.academia.edu/MohammedGhaly. Ghaly is the founding editor and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Islamic Ethics (published by Brill). He was Visiting Researcher/Professor at various institutions, including the Kennedy Institute of Ethics (Georgetown University, USA), the School of Anthropology (University of Oxford, UK) and the School of Philosophy (Erasmus University, Netherlands). Ghaly is also the Lead Principal Investigator (LPI) and research consultant of a number of funded research projects.
Hadil Lababidi
is PhD candidate in the field of Medical Ethics in Islam at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg. She holds an MA in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Leiden. Since 2016, Lababidi is Research Assistant at the Department of Islamic-Religious Studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her main research interest are: dementia in Islam, medical ethics and gender-specific medicine. She co-authored an article on the compliance of psychiatry with human rights, with a focus on patients with dementia and the Islamic tradition. Furthermore, she published a chapter on the concept of legal capacity in Islam with special attention to persons with dementia. Lababidi is co-founder of the Working Group “Medical Ethics and Islam” (Arbeitskreis “Medizinethik und Islam”) and the Zeitschrift für Medizin, Ethik und Islam (“Journal of Medicine, Ethics and Islam”). She is also member of the commission for interreligious dialogue in the archdiocese Bamberg since 2022.
Shahaboddin Mahdavi (شهاب الدين مهدوي )
is a scholar in Islamic Religion and Philosophy. He holds a BA degree in Islamic Studies from the Qom Seminary and an MA in the Philosophy of Religion from Tehran University.
Aasim Padela
is a Researcher and Lecturer in the fields of Muslim Community Health Research and Intervention Design as well as Islamic Bioethics. Using Muslim Americans and Islam as a model, he studies how (i) religion impacts patient health behaviours and healthcare experiences, (ii) informs the professional identities and workplace experiences of clinicians, and (iii) furnishes bioethical guidance to patients, providers, policymakers and religious leaders. This knowledge is subsequently mobilised towards educational and policy interventions. Methodologically Padela’s expertise spans community-engaged research, religiously tailored and faith-based message design, educational interventions aimed at health behaviour change, discourse analysis, and mixed-methods research. His current projects span behaviours related to cancer screening, organ donation, end-of-life care, and the intersection of religion and science and are funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the Health Research and Services Administration, the Greenwall Foundation and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute. He has authored over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, three books, and serves in an editorial capacity for the Encyclopedia of Islamic Bioethics, American Journal of Bioethics, BMC Medical Ethics, International Journal of Islam, BETIM Journal of Medical Humanities, and TAHFIM Journal of Islam and the Contemporary World.
Rafaqat Rashid
is a General Practitioner, Academic Director of Al Balagh Academy, a traditionally trained Sharīʿa Scholar, and an International Professional Trainer and Educator. He is the co-founder of Al Balagh Academy and Course Director of many of its courses in particular its popular international medical fiqh and bioethics programmes. He is also an honorary lecturer at the University of Leeds. He gained his MBChB from the University of Liverpool and his MA in Healthcare Ethics and Law from the University of Manchester. He has contributed to academic peer-reviewed chapters in volumes and journal articles on the topics of Islamic Bioethics and Islamic Medical Jurisprudence and continues to contribute to these at an international level. He has been involved with the JKN Fatawa Department in Bradford, UK, and other organisations responding to queries related to medical fiqh and bioethics for over a decade, having undergone continuous and ongoing training in iftāʾ (issuing fatwās) and contributing to the collection of medical fatwās published by the JKN Fatawa Department as well as leading on the Islamic medical ethics research conducted by the Sharīʿa Department of Al Balagh Academy.
Ayman Shabana
is Associate Research Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar. He received his BA degree from al-Azhar University in Egypt, his MA from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles. His teaching and research interests include Islamic legal and intellectual history, Islamic law and ethics, human rights, and bioethics. He is the director of the Islamic Bioethics Project, which has been supported by three consecutive grants from Qatar National Research Fund’s National Priorities Research Program. In 2012 he received the Research Excellence Award at the Qatar Annual Research Forum and during the academic year 2013–2014 he was Visiting Research Fellow at the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. Shabana is the author of Custom in Islamic Law and Legal Theory (2010) in addition to several book chapters and academic journal articles, which appeared in Islamic Law and Society, Journal of Islamic Studies, Journal of Qurʾanic Studies, Journal of Islamic Ethics, Journal of Religious Ethics, The Muslim World, Zygon, Hawwa, Religion Compass, Sociology of Islam and Medicine Health Care and Philosophy. He contributed to several reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Islam THREE, Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Law, Oxford Handbook of Islamic Law and Routledge Handbook of Islamic Law. He is also the chief editor of the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of Islamic Bioethics.