Professor Cyrus Zargar at the ICAIR Conference 2025, Jaffari Community Centre, Toronto.
Speaker
Cyrus Ali Zargar is Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies and Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Central Florida. Zargar’s research interests focus on the metaphysical, aesthetic, and ethical intersections between Sufism and Islamic philosophy. His most recent books include, Religion of Love: Sufism and Self-Transformation in the Poetic Imagination of ʿAṭṭār; The Ethics of Karbala: Myths, Modernity, and Virtues of Nobility; and The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism.
In this talk
- 0:00 · Hadith on Anger: Physical Actions as Emotional Regulation
- 0:57 · Why Touch Calms Anger With Family
- 3:00 · Disembodied Conflict: Family Anger Through Phones & Screens
- 4:48 · Modern Life, Distance, and “Exile” From Family & Place
- 6:11 · Embodiment as a Lens for AI & Tech
- 7:37 · Growing Up Pre-Internet: Knowledge Scarcity, Boredom, and Real-World Presence
- 11:39 · AI Convenience vs Human Contact
- 13:02 · Humans Made From Clay: Qur’anic Anthropology & the Body–Soul Question
- 16:16 · Clay, Identity, and Ziyārah: Bodily Origins in Shi‘i Narrations
- 22:00 · AI vs Real Knowledge: Art, Muharram, Hyperreality, and Meaning