I am a Bangladeshi citizen living in Saudi Arabia. I hold a PhD in computer science from Leeds University, UK.
My thesis was about text mining the Quran. That means, over years I have accumulated experience and knowledge on topics such as: Arabic, Linguistics, Islam, Quran, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Corpus Linguistics, to name few.
Then, I started a job in the field of Business Intelligence, mainly working in the space of SAP Business Warehouse and Business Objects. After spending some time, I moved into the world of Statistics looking into Macroeconomic datasets and building visualizations trying to explore data and discover interesting insights from tons of seemingly unrelated information. Hence, to the previously mentioned skill sets, please add things like: Data Science, Macroeconomics and Data Visualizations. My favorite tools to play with are languages like Python, R and JavaScript visualization packages. Recently, I moved again into the business of measuring and evaluating results from developmental operations and projects in the public sector.
This blog is my free space to exercise my intellectual freedom. It is a little window to release some of my inner thoughts and insights. You may agree on certain points and disagree on others. I do not claim infallibility and as such these agreements and disagreements form the basis of a healthy dialog in any society.
Needless to say that this is my personal blog, and neither my employer nor any other party hold responsible for my writings.
One common thread you would notice in my writings is my obsession with the Quran. You may feel that I attempt to indulge Quranic scriptures in everything. Yes, you are right and I feel proud of that.
I started my elementary school in remote villages of Saudi Arabia and had chance to study Arabic with native Arabs. That gave me an access to the language of the Quran to an extent that allowed me to appreciate its beauty and rhetorics. After graduating from high school I started undergraduate program in computer science. This technical track allowed me to gradually feel comfortable with English to a level I can express myself albeit mixed with frequent grammatical and stylistic embarrassments.
Yet I decided -amidst these barriers- to expose myself to the world. Why?
I believe observing the modern world with the lenses of the Quran is a subject that is not picked up by many scholars. By ‘modern world’ I mean whatever the contemporary Western civilization has produced and under which influence the majority of today’s mankind are governed. This system has hypnotized human kind today with materialistic fantasies and created a class system with unequal distribution of wealth. The shallow surface of this civilization hides beneath hundreds of contradictions.
My believe -as all Muslims do- considers the Quran as words of Allah and book of guidance not only for Muslims but for the mankind. It’s guidance -when properly understood and applied- guarantees solutions for mankind’s problems. This strong claim has been historically tested in the golden era of Islam - when Prophet Muhammad (and after him the four Caliphs) applied this Quran to establish on earth a system of government and civilization that no past or future system can rival.
The Quranic text is time-agnostic, that means it’s solutions and methods are not restricted to a certain time in history - and for that matters to certain geographic location. It was a solution for Arabs 14 hundred years ago and it IS the solution for the 21st century and it will remain so till doomsday.
The difficult part then is the ability to convert the time-agnostic text to time-conscious text. In other words to make the text of the Quran fit for 21st century. This opens the door of pondering and intellectual-ship wide open for Muslims as well as anyone wants to engage in this scholarship.
And that is exactly what I attempt to do in this blog.
You will find me try to explain and solve the financial crisis of 2008 in the light of the Quran. You will find me talk about the symptoms of the decline of the United States through the light of the Quran. You will find me discuss linguistic propositions of Noam Chomsky in the light of the Quran. You will find me discuss Artificial Intelligence in the light of the Quran. You will find me discuss capitalism in the light of the Quran. And the list goes on.
Of course, the application of Quranic text to our times is purely my endeavor given my limited intellectual background and my limited world knowledge. Errors can easily creep in this undertaking from various doors. I might misunderstand the contemporary problem or topic that I wanted to apply the Quranic text to. I might misunderstand the Quranic verse itself while understanding the modern topic. I might mistake in the method of appling the Quranic text to the modern context. And any combinations of these three cases can happen as well. Nevertheless, the very intellectual pleasure in this undertaking is worthwhile, regardless of the outcome. My naive and rudimentary game here might ignite a wonderful research thread in the mind of more able scholars. You might be that scholar.
You will find a number of audio lectures and casual talks - in English or Bangla- on my archive.com space. I have my YouTube series on Tafsir in Bangla called Quranic thoughts in Bangla, and also my other English YouTube channel on Quran: a random talk. By searching these channel names you will find podcasts as well in itunes or other apps I think. Lately, I am on Substack as well. I will try to copy the articles in this website to keep everything in one place. Please consider subscribing and spreading the message to others.
If you liked my stuff and wanted to thank me, then just pray for me and share the content with others. If you become my fan and wanted to do something beyond just dua, then why not purchase me a cup of coffee :)
