Publications

A collection of scholarly papers, book reviews, dialogues, and interview articles authored or featuring Dr. Sayed Hassan Akhlaq

📑 Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Muslim Communists: Afghan Atheism in the 20th Century
• Introducing a Comparative Echotheology: Islamic Concept of Basmalah and Luther’s Commentary on the Ten Commandments
• Being a Muslim in Global Times: Taqlid, Jihad, and Hijra in the Quranic Hermeneutic
• Christian–Muslim Cooperation Demonstrating God’s Image/Caliph in Ecotheology
• Afghanistan Nation-Building and the Missed Critical Element of Unifying Ideology
• The Source of the Problem: Both Islam and the West Have Forgotten Their Roots (A Philosophical Study of the Charlie Hebdo Shooting)
• When Sufism Meets Politics (the Pluses and Minuses of Nasafi’s Perspective)
• How can Muslims and Christians practice Wilayat (Support) toward Each Other? A Response to Nostra Aetate
• Looking Inside the Heart: The Universal Appeal of God and Humanity as Reflected in Ibn al-‘Arabi’s Fusus al-Hikam and Maulana Rumi’s Mathnawi Manawi
• The Hermeneutics of the Sacred and the Secular in Shariah
• Reflection on Nostra Aetate
• The Conjunction between the Quranic Justice and Islamic Civilization
• Rationality in Islamic Peripatetic and Enlightenment Philosophies
• Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism
• Identity and Immigration: A Quranic Perspective (PDF)
• The Shared Concerns of Nietzsche and Rumi on Humanity
• The Theoretical Foundations of Tolerance in Rumi (PDF)
• The Discourse of Human Rights and the Reality of Man (Farsi)
• Basic Differences and Shared Human Rights in Rumi and Nietzsche (Farsi)
• The idea of the Progress in Averroes and the Enlightenment Philosophies (Farsi)
• The Deliberation on the Strengths and Weaknesses of al-Afghani (Farsi)
• The Guise of the Sunnis-Shiite Use of Excommunication (Takfir) in the Middle East
• The Tradition of Rationality in Islamic Culture
• Rationality in Islamic Peripatetic and Enlightenment Philosophies
• The Marriage of Senses and Reason in Peripatetic Philosophy (Farsi)
• Al-Farabi and Machiavelli (Farsi)
• The idea of the Progress in Averroes and the Enlightenment Philosophies (Farsi)
• A Dialogue Between Human Nature and Human Rights (Farsi)

📖 Book Reviews

• Understanding ‘Sectarianism’: Sunni-Shi’a Relations in the Modern Arab World by Fanar Haddad
• Defending Muhammad in Modernity by SherAli Tareen
• Critical Approaches to Science and Religion by Myrna Peres Sheldon, Ahmed Ragab, and Terence Keel
• The Caliph and the Imam: The Making of Sunnism and Shiism by Toby Matthiesen
• Democracy and Morality: Religious and Secular Views by Patti Tamara Lenard and Margaret Moore
• Muslims and Christians Debate Justice and Love by David L. Johnston
• The Religious Other: A Biblical Understanding of Islam, the Qur’an and Muhammad by Martin Accad and Jonathan Andrews
• The Routledge Companion to the Qur’an by George Archer, Maria M. Dakake, and Daniel A. Madigan
• Handbook of Islamic Sects and Movements by Muhammad Afzal Upal and Carole M. Cusack
• Freedom: Christian and Muslim Perspectives: A Record of the Eighteenth Building Bridges Seminar by Lucinda Mosher
• A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity by Michael Cook
• Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects by Matti Moosa

📜 Public Scholarships

• A Story of Failure: Ignoring the Local in Democratic Nation-Building in Afghanistan (Jadaliyya, 2023)
• Politicized Sufism in Islam: A Double‑Edged Sword (E‑International Relations, 2023)
• The Crisis of National and Religious Identity in Afghanistan Today (Open Democracy, 2015)
• Taliban and Salafism: a historical and theological exploration (Open Democracy, 2013)
• 7 Things We Can Learn from Islamic Philosophy: Honoring World Philosophy Day (Huff Post, 2016)
• 10 Tips to Recognize and Fight Islamic Terrorism (HuffPost, 2017)
• Easter Hope: Imam in a Catholic Seminary (Huff Post, 2017)
•  Human Rights in Afghanistan Today: Dreams and Realities (Huff Post, 2017)
•  Threats to Academic Freedom in Afghanistan Today, Personal Experience (Huff Post, 2017)
• European Enlightenment and Humanism in Danger: Refugee Crisis (Huff Post, 2017)
• What Should American Islam Look Like? (Huff Post, 2017)
• The Philosopher of Modernity and The Peace (Farsi)
• The Vulgarity of Democracy in Afghanistan’s Miracle (Farsi)
• Salmaan Farsi: An Inspiring Existence (Farsi)
• Ayatollah Asif Mohseni: A Mirror of Afghanistan in Transition (Farsi)
• The Killing of Farkhunda: The Struggle Between Tradition and Modernity (Farsi)

🗣️ Dialogues

• Re-reading Avicenna: the Eastern Collapse and the Western Progress — with Dr. Yeganah Shayegan (Farsi)

• Literature and Domestic Development — Dr. Mir Jalal al-Din Kazzazi (Farsi)

• Afghanistan: From Politicization to a Cultural Self-Consciousness (Farsi)
• Afghanistan’s Crossroads: Modernization, War, and the Search for Peace (Farsi Lecture at Tehran University)

📰 Interview Articles

• Boston University Hosts First Academic Refugee (BU Today, 2018)
  • Boston University profile article about my fellowship and refugee scholarship

• What do the Taliban Believe (BBC, Beyond Belief, Report)

• Taliban follows strict Islamic creed that doesn’t change with the times, scholars say (Washington Times)
• Scholars in Context: Sayed Hassan Akhlaq (Jadaliyya)

• Dr. Akhlaq Shares His Journey to Freedom (The Mirror)
• Concerns About the Future of the Afghan Shia Hawza (Farsi Interview with Mubahithat, Qum)
• Philosophy Provides Wings, But Is Not the Flight (Farsi Interview with Nebesht)