The ‘Nomad Archetype’ and the ‘Great In-Between’: Part 6 — Abdal Hakim Murad on Arabic, the Quran, Deleuze and ‘Nomadism’

Much of my coming into Islam can be credited to the tireless efforts of one man: the English academic, theologian and Islamic scholar Timothy Winter — or as he is known primarily in the Islamic world, Abdal Hakim Murad.

I have also long been a fan of James Joyce and his most ‘complex’ and enigmatic novel, Finnegans Wake.

Listening to a talk that Abdal Hakim Murad gave early in 2023 on the Arabic language and the Quran, he mentioned various attempts of Western authors who have taken up the challenge to try and ‘imitate’ the Quran — all of which have ended in failure. There was one possible and unique exception, he said — and that was James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Remarking on the copious references to Islam in Finnegans Wake, Abdal Hakim Murad explains that one of the intentions of James Joyce in writing his final novel was to create a unique work in the English language (loosely speaking) which approached the equally unique language revealed in the Quran.

It came as no surprise, then, when a good friend of mine sent me a clip last night of Abdal Hakim Murad speaking about all of the same themes I’ve been writing about in my blog: Deleuze, Islam, Louis Massignon, Arabic, nomadism, Finnegans Wake… It’s all in this clip! Yet Abdal Hakim Murad is able to express it all so succinctly and beautifully from the hallowed academic halls of Cambridge.

Here is the clip, and I will just let it speak for itself:

In a separate interview, Abdal Hakim Murad speaks on similar ‘nomadic’ themes in Islam and our primordial connection to the sacred and ‘enchanted’ natural world of Allah’s creation.

I’m not terribly surprised that Abdal Hakim Murad — somebody who I have long considered my ‘teacher’ and with whom I feel an intellectual affinity — would speak on much of the same themes I’ve meditated upon in this blog. Yet it is exciting to find these gems within A.H.M.’s talks, as I feel he is able to express much of what I wish to say about these matters in a precise, beautiful and erudite way.

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