Centre for Islamic Knowledge - CIK

We are honoured to welcome Dr. Issam Eido as part of the distinguished faculty for the 2026 CIK Summer Academic Intensive at the Süleymaniye Madrasa in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Dr. Eido will be teaching Hadith and Islamic Legal and Theological Schools, with Readings from Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī​

Dr. Issam Eido is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Undergraduate Studies of the Department of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University. He was a former Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Eido's research focuses on the Qur'an and Ḥadīth Studies and Sufism. Prior to the Syrian uprising, Eido served as a lecturer in the faculty of Islamic Studies in the Department of Qur'an and Ḥadīth Studies at the University of Damascus. His doctoral work, 'Early Ḥadīth Scholars and their Criteria of Ḥadīth Criticism,' presented a new understanding of the criteria used by Muslim scholars in accepting or rejecting traditions attributed to the Prophet and the transformations of that criteria from the classical to the modern period. Eido is one of the main students of well-known muḥaddith Shaykh Nūr al-Dīın ʿItr. In addition to Shaykh ʿItr, Eido studied and got traditional ijaza from several well-known scholars such as Shaykh Abū al-Ḥasan al-Kurdī, Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāma, and Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Shāghūrī, and Shaykh Maḥmūd Maṣrī.

Currently, his research focuses on the question of authenticity and authoritative Islamic texts among Muslim scholars in the Islamic formative period. He has published extensively, including:​
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- Early Ḥadīth Scholars and their Criteria of Ḥadīth Criticism (two volumes)
- A critique on Khadiga Musa’s critical edition of ʿUmdat al‑Nāzir (published in Reading Religion, American Academy of Religion)
- The Rise of Syrian Salafism: From Denial to Recognition in The Syrian Uprising: From Denial to Recognition (Routledge, 2018)
- “Ṣaḥīḥ Al‑Bukhari’s Criteria: An Epistemological Perspective” (Ibn Haldun University Press, 2020)
- “Ḥanafī’s Criteria of Ḥadīth Criticism: The Role of Islamic Legal Maxims” in The Journal of Islamic Sciences, Al‑Fātiḥ University (Arabic, 2020)
- “Confession in the Public Sphere: A Trusteeship Criticism of Foucault’s Concepts of Confession and Power,” in The Theory of Trusteeship of Taha Abdulrahman (Brill, 2020)

Learn More About the Program and Apply: www.cikedu.org/summer-intensive

We are honoured to welcome Dr. Naoki Yamamoto as part of the distinguished faculty for the 2026 CIK Summer Academic Intensive at the Süleymaniye Madrasa in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Dr. Naoki will be presenting on Islam in East Asia and Our Intellectual and Cultural Imperative

​Dr. Naoki Yamamoto is an Assistant Professor at the International Islamic University of Science and Technology-Türkiye and Director of the Institute of Muslim Societies and East Asian Civilizations (IMSEAC) in Japan.

He specializes in Ottoman Tasawwuf, Japanese classical culture, and comparative intellectual history, with a particular focus on Islamicate readings of East Asian traditions.

He is the founder of Japanese Islamicate Art, a cross-disciplinary project encompassing scholarship, calligraphy, narrative fiction, and cultural commentary. His publications include a Japanese translation of Sulamī’s Kitāb al-Futuwwa, Introduction to Tasawwuf: The Way of Training (Shueisha, 2023), and an English translation of Liu Zhi’s Wugong Shiyi (The Exposition of the Five Pillars of Islam), which is forthcoming from Fons Vitae.

Through teaching, writing, and artistic practice, his work seeks to explore how ethical traditions travel, settle, and take root without losing depth or integrity.

Learn More About the Program and Apply: www.cikedu.org/summer-intensive

CIK Summer Academic Intensive 2026: Prospective Student Information Session

The Centre for Islamic Knowledge (CIK) invites prospective students to attend an information session regarding the 2026 CIK Summer Academic Intensive, to be held at the historic Suleymaniye Madrasa in Istanbul, Turkiye, from July 18–26, 2026, in collaboration with Ibn Haldun University.

This nine-day intensive is designed to provide students with a rigorous engagement with the Islamic intellectual tradition through seminars delivered by a distinguished international faculty. In addition to structured coursework, participants will have the opportunity to visit leading academic institutions in Istanbul and engage with contemporary scholarly discussions across a range of disciplines.

To learn more about the program, we invite you to join a prospective student information session with Ustadh Amir Abu Ghudda and Ustadh Mohamud Awil Mohamed on Monday, June 15, 2026, at 7:00 PM Central Time via Zoom.

The session will address:

- The academic vision and objectives of the program
- Courses and areas of study
- Student life and the educational experience in Istanbul
- Admissions requirements and application procedures
- Questions from prospective students

Information Session Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6LdABssAQDiRWGMbgV0obg #/registration

Summer Academic Intensive Information: https://www.cikedu.org/summer-intensive.html

We look forward to welcoming you and discussing the program further, in sha Allah.

We are honoured to welcome Shaykh Hamza Karamali as part of the distinguished faculty for the 2026 CIK Summer Academic Intensive at the Süleymaniye Madrasa in Istanbul, Türkiye.

Shaykh Hamza will be teaching Isnāds, Tawātur, and Rational Grounds for Affirming the Messengerhood of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

Shaykh Hamza Karamali earned his BASc And MASc in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, after which he moved abroad to study the Islamic sciences full-time in private one-on-one settings with distinguished traditional scholars in Kuwait, UAE, and Jordan, reading and memorizing traditional works in all of the Islamic sciences, and earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Islamic Law and Legal Theory from Jamia Nizamiyya in Hyderabad, India.

He specializes in developing authentically Muslim responses to the problem of atheism (visit his personal website: www.hamzakaramali.com). He is developing The Thinking Muslim’s Guide to Atheist Arguments (a free YouTube series) as well as a curriculum of courses that are designed to take our Islamic education to a new level by basing all of their conclusions on rational evidence. All of his work is grounded in the scholarly traditions of traditional Muslim seminaries such as al-Azhar of Cairo, the Qarawiyyin of Fez, the Zaytuna of Tunisia, and the Deoband of India. He has described the evidence-based curriculum of these classical seminaries in his The Madrasa Curriculum in Context, and will develop that scholarly vision further in a forthcoming work that presents traditional Islamic logic in the idiom of contemporary logic and philosophy.

He has taught the Islamic sciences online at SunniPath.com, then at Qibla.com, then taught advanced Arabic grammar and rhetoric at Qasid Institute, and then joined Kalam Research & Media, where he worked for three years, designing, managing, and participating in research and education projects around the integration of modern analytic philosophy and science with traditional Islamic theology and logic.

In the summer of 2019, he founded Basira Education to fill a gap in the religious education of Muslims in the modern world — his goal at Basira is to develop a deploy an original seminary-level curriculum that is grounded in the traditional Islamic sciences but fully integrates modern science and culture into an intelligent and God-centered worldview.

Learn More About the Program and Apply: http://cikedu.org/summer-intensive

Programming Update

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the upcoming CIK Talk, Ibn Taymiyya’s Thought: Corpus, Reception, and Legacy, featuring the volume's co-editors, Dr. Arjan Post (University of Leuven, Netherlands) and Dr. Mehdi Berriah (Institut français du Proche-Orient, France), with Dr. Nazir Khan (McMaster University, Canada) serving as discussant, has been postponed until the Fall Semester.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding. In shāʾ Allāh, a revised date will be announced in due course.

We look forward to hosting this important discussion and welcoming you to the event later this year.

The Centre for Islamic Knowledge is pleased to participate in the ICNA Convention 2026 in Baltimore. Visit us at Booth F69 to learn more about our academic programs, distinguished faculty, publications, conferences, and educational initiatives.

The Centre for Islamic Knowledge (CIK) invites the community to take advantage of the 2026 MAC Convention, taking place from May 16–18, 2026, one of the largest annual Muslim gatherings in North America. A number of scholars and faculty affiliated with CIK will be presenting and participating throughout the convention, including:

• Dr. Ovamir Anjum — ADIL Program Faculty; Board of Advisors
cikedu.org/ovamiranjum
• Dr. Yakoob Ahmed — Foundations & ADIL Program Faculty
cikedu.org/yaakob-ahmed
• Dr. Sharif El-Tobgui — ADIL Program Faculty
cikedu.org/sharif-el-tobgui
• Dr. Abdalla Idris Ali — Board of Advisors
cikedu.org/abdallaidrisali
• Shaykh Zahid Abu Ghudda — Board of Advisors; ADIL Program Faculty
cikedu.org/zahidabughudda
• Dr. Iqbal al-Nadwi — Resident Scholar
cikedu.org/iqbalnadvi

We encourage the community to benefit from the convention’s programming.

Registration and additional details are available at: macconvention.ca

Please note: Due to high interest in the upcoming in-person CIK Talk with Dr. Waleed Kadous on Tech and AI Sovereignty, we have arranged a larger nearby venue to better accommodate attendees.

Updated Venue: Al Falah Islamic Centre
391 Burnhamthorpe Rd E, Oakville, ON L6H 7B4

Revised Start Time: 7:00 PM

We look forward to welcoming you, in shāʾ Allāh.

Register at cikedu.org/ciktalks

Upcoming CIK Talk - Tech and AI Sovereignty:
​Why the Muslim Community Can’t Afford to Wait

Presented by: Dr. Waleed Kadous
​​(Islam and AI thought leader | Former Head of AI Engineering and Chief Scientist at StockApp, Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google)

Discussant: Dr. Nazir Khan
(McMaster University / Centre for Islamic Knowledge)

On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON)

Saturday, May 2, 2026, at 7:30 PM (15 Dhul Qa'dah 1447)

Register at cikedu.org/ciktalks

Artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as the defining technology of our age—reshaping economies, knowledge production, governance, and global power structures. Yet, as Dr. Waleed Kadous argues, the Muslim community risks repeating a familiar historical pattern: a 10–20 year delay in adopting transformative technologies, a lag that, in the case of AI, may prove far more consequential than ever before.

This CIK Talk examines the concept of tech and AI sovereignty—the capacity of a community to control its digital infrastructure, data, and technological direction in a way that reflects its values and protects its interests. Moving beyond abstract concerns, the lecture explores how dependence on external platforms can translate into real vulnerabilities, including the shaping, suppression, or distortion of Muslim voices in global digital spaces.

Dr. Kadous situates AI not merely as another technological wave, but as a meta-technology—one that accelerates progress across all domains while reinforcing inequalities between those who build it and those who consume it. As AI systems become increasingly self-improving and embedded in critical sectors, the gap between technologically sovereign communities and those without control is set to widen dramatically.

Drawing on both historical precedent and the Prophetic model, the lecture argues that the Islamic intellectual tradition has never been characterized by technological withdrawal, but rather by strategic engagement and mastery. From early investments in literacy and knowledge infrastructure to contemporary opportunities in AI development, the talk calls for a renewed vision of civilizational agency—one rooted in scholarship, ethics, and institutional leadership.

​Bringing together insights from AI engineering, policy, and Islamic thought, this session will explore the challenges, risks, and emerging opportunities in building a Muslim-led AI ecosystem. It will also highlight the roles of scholars, technologists, institutions, and community leaders in shaping a future where AI serves not only efficiency and profit, but also justice, knowledge, and the common good.

Upcoming CIK Seminar - Leveraging AI to Enhance Islamic Leadership: A Workshop for Muslim Institutional Leaders & Imams

Presented by: Dr. Waleed Kadous
​​(Islam and AI thought leader | Former Head of AI Engineering and Chief Scientist at StockApp, Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google)

Onsite Sunday, May 3, 2026, from 10 AM to 5 PM (16 Dhul Qa'dah 1447) ​at Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON L5L 5R5)

Leveraging AI to Enhance Islamic Leadership - A Workshop for Muslim Institutional Leadership and Imams is a comprehensive, hands-on workshop designed to equip Muslim institutional leaders and Imams with the knowledge, tools, and strategic frameworks needed to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence.

Delivered by one of the Muslim world’s foremost authorities on artificial intelligence, Dr. Waleed Kadous, this seminar brings together over two decades of experience at leading global technology firms with a commitment to advancing ethical and effective AI within Muslim institutional contexts.

As AI increasingly shapes how knowledge is produced, disseminated, and consumed, Islamic leaders need to move beyond passive awareness toward active, principled engagement. This seminar introduces participants to the core capabilities of modern AI systems and explores their practical applications across key domains of Islamic leadership—including khutbah preparation, research, education, community engagement, and content development.

Through a structured combination of conceptual grounding and live demonstrations, participants will gain a clear understanding of what AI can—and cannot—do, how to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, and how to responsibly integrate these tools into their institutional and scholarly work. Particular attention will be given to questions of accuracy, epistemic integrity, and ethical use, ensuring that AI serves as an aid to, rather than a replacement for, sound Islamic scholarship.

The seminar takes a practical, implementation-oriented approach and guides participants through real-world use cases and interactive exercises. By the end of the session, attendees will have developed a personalized framework for leveraging AI to enhance productivity, expand reach, and strengthen their institutions' intellectual and operational capacity.

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"I recently attended Dr. Waleed Kadous's AI training, and I cannot recommend it enough. It was an eye-opening experience that showed how AI can significantly enhance our creativity, productivity, and overall effectiveness. More importantly, it highlighted why Muslim scholars must engage this space firsthand to guide it with sound ethical and Islamic principles."
-Shaykh Mohammad Elshinawy
Religious Director at Islamic Society of Allentown and Research Director at Yaqeen Institute

Upcoming CIK Talk - Tech and AI Sovereignty:
​Why the Muslim Community Can’t Afford to Wait

Presented by: Dr. Waleed Kadous
​​(Islam and AI thought leader | Former Head of AI Engineering and Chief Scientist at StockApp, Canva, Anyscale, Uber, and Google)

Discussant: Dr. Nazir Khan
(McMaster University / Centre for Islamic Knowledge)

On-site at the Centre for Islamic Knowledge (3150 Ridgeway Dr, Unit # 26, Mississauga, ON)

Saturday, May 2, 2026, at 7:30 PM (15 Dhul Qa'dah 1447)

Register at cikedu.org/ciktalks

Artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as the defining technology of our age—reshaping economies, knowledge production, governance, and global power structures. Yet, as Dr. Waleed Kadous argues, the Muslim community risks repeating a familiar historical pattern: a 10–20 year delay in adopting transformative technologies, a lag that, in the case of AI, may prove far more consequential than ever before.

This CIK Talk examines the concept of tech and AI sovereignty—the capacity of a community to control its digital infrastructure, data, and technological direction in a way that reflects its values and protects its interests. Moving beyond abstract concerns, the lecture explores how dependence on external platforms can translate into real vulnerabilities, including the shaping, suppression, or distortion of Muslim voices in global digital spaces.

Dr. Kadous situates AI not merely as another technological wave, but as a meta-technology—one that accelerates progress across all domains while reinforcing inequalities between those who build it and those who consume it. As AI systems become increasingly self-improving and embedded in critical sectors, the gap between technologically sovereign communities and those without control is set to widen dramatically.

Drawing on both historical precedent and the Prophetic model, the lecture argues that the Islamic intellectual tradition has never been characterized by technological withdrawal, but rather by strategic engagement and mastery. From early investments in literacy and knowledge infrastructure to contemporary opportunities in AI development, the talk calls for a renewed vision of civilizational agency—one rooted in scholarship, ethics, and institutional leadership.

​Bringing together insights from AI engineering, policy, and Islamic thought, this session will explore the challenges, risks, and emerging opportunities in building a Muslim-led AI ecosystem. It will also highlight the roles of scholars, technologists, institutions, and community leaders in shaping a future where AI serves not only efficiency and profit, but also justice, knowledge, and the common good.