The intellectual foundation

Essays behind FISLI

Longer arguments on Islamic epistemology, the isnād system, adab and the classical sciences, written for a modern reader. The essays are published on Medium; the weekly letter, Sacred Knowledge Weekly, goes out every Friday on Substack.

We Memorized the Qurʾān and Forgot How to Think

Why memorization without the classical sciences produces students who can recite but cannot reason, and what the tradition did about it.

What Adab Does to a Human Being

Adab as the recognition of the proper place of things, and why taʾdīb, not tarbiyah, is the aim of Islamic education.

We Are Building the First AI-Assisted Classical Islamic Curriculum

How FISLI uses AI under a four-gate scholarly audit, and where the line is drawn.

They Said AI Cannot Touch Classical Islam: What That Debate Taught Me About Manṭiq

The objections, the classical answer, and why logic is the discipline that settles it.

Keep reading on the site

• Tarbiyah vs. Taʾdīb: why the word matters
• What is manṭiq? Islamic logic explained
• What is the isnād system?
• Classical vs. modern Islamic education