The AMI Podcast

How do stories create political power? Why do narratives matter in shaping legitimacy, justice, and belonging? In this Research Seminar, Dr Fatemeh Sadeghi (University College London – Institute for Global Prosperity) examines the powerful role of narratives and storytelling in legitimising political authority. Drawing on examples from Islamism, nationalism, and contemporary far-right populism, she shows how political stories do not merely reflect power but actively produce it. The seminar explores how movements mobilise ideas of moral renewal, nostalgia, and collective identity to justify authority, and how these same narratives can both inspire emancipation and reproduce exclusion or authoritarianism. Dr Sadeghi also situates these dynamics within an “age of crisis,” marked by inequality, political disillusionment, and declining trust in institutions, where emotional resonance increasingly replaces ideology as the basis of legitimacy.Read more, or watch the full seminar:https://ami.is/sadeghi-seminarAudio Chapters:0:10 - Introduction01:29 - What is Narrative? 04:02 - Types of Narrative in Islamic Culture08:46 - Storytellers & Storytelling15:10 - Significance of Narratives in Politics17:45 - Examples of Political Narratives 31:49 - The Age of Crisis and the Future of Politics

If God is everywhere, why can't God be in an image? If devotion dissolves the self before the Beloved, what remains to draw the line between Hindu and Muslim? And can we ever find an answer to suffering that satisfies both the heart and the mind? Drawing from his acclaimed book, "The Hindu Self and Its Muslim Neighbors," Dr Barua guides us through the shared devotional languages of Bhakti and Sufi traditions. He reveals how figures like Kabir, Tagore, Nazrul Islam, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan inhabited spaces of “creative ambiguity” that transcended rigid boundaries. This episode explores Dr Barua’s journey from physics to metaphysics, delving into the theology behind “idol worship” and the intersection of quantum mechanics and religious truth. It invites us to discover profound resonances and honest tensions between two great spiritual traditions. Dr Ankur Barua is a Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He researches the conceptual constellations and the social structures of the Hindu traditions, both in premodern contexts in South Asia and in colonial milieus where multiple ideas of Hindu identity were configured along transnational circuits between India, Britain, Europe, and USA. In recent years, his research focus has moved to an exploration of the intersections between the idioms of bhakti, yoga, tawḥīd, and taṣawwuf on the multiply-stratified postcolonial landscapes of South Asia.Audio Chapters: 0:00 – Highlights 1:23 – From Physics to Metaphysics 12:30 – Language of Science vs Language of Religion 19:10 – Are There Revelations in Hinduism?24:50 – On Infallibility of the Vedas 28:28 – Revelation in Hinduism and Abrahamic Traditions 33:16 – Between Monotheism and Idol Worship in Hinduism 45:07 – Idol Worship and Muslims 47:15 – Why Muslim Neighbours? 55:52 – Muslims as Foreigners 1:04:45 – Bhakti and Sufi Love 1:17:01 – Quantum Mechanics and Truth of Religion 1:23:10 – Religion and Meaning for Modern Individuals 1:28:46 – Thinking Islam QuestionMentioned in This Episode: "Images of the Unimaginable God" by Dr Ankur Barua: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/images-of-the-unimaginable-god "The Hindu Self and Its Muslim Neighbors" by Dr Ankur Barua: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/hindu-self-and-its-muslim-neighbors-9781793642585/ "Form and Essence" by Shaykh Arif: https://www.shaykharif.com/blog/impurity?categoryId=24615

In this episode, Dr Attar explores how two major theologians — al-Ghazālī and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī — challenged the idea that miracles serve as proof of prophethood. Drawing on their engagement with the occult sciences, Dr Attar shows how both thinkers believed that extraordinary acts could be imitated by magicians and thaumaturges, raising new questions about what truly verifies a prophet. He concludes by proposing an Avicennian reinterpretation of miracles as signs of an elevated prophetic soul rather than evidentiary proofs.

Dr Calis introduces listeners to the rich metaphysical world of Ibn al-‘Arabī and the Akbarī tradition, where revelation is seen as an ontological process rather than a historical event. He explains how divine speech unfolds through the hierarchical realms of existence and clarifies the misunderstood distinction between risāla (messengership) and wilāya (sainthood). The discussion connects classical Sufi metaphysics to contemporary debates on divine communication.

Dr Nazir Khan presents Ibn Taymiyya’s comprehensive rethinking of prophetic evidence. Rather than relying solely on miracles, Ibn Taymiyya integrates moral integrity, rational coherence, and alignment with human nature into a broader epistemology of prophethood. The episode examines his critique of kalām theologians, his distinction between angelic and jinn-assisted feats, and his preference for Qur’anic terminology such as āyāt and barāhīn.