May 6, 2026
Al-Amin Ethics, under the leadership and direction of its founder, Shaykh Mohammed Amin Kholwadia, was grateful to host the Beyond Resilience academic conference in Dallas, Texas. The conference explored how medicine can move beyond resilience toward true healing through Islamic ethics, civilizational values, and Allah's shifāʾ.
The conference began with Dr. Yasir Akhtar's recitation of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa, a reminder that all openings are from Allah. He then introduced the aims of the Al-Amin Ethics conference to the Dallas community. Dr. Akbar Ali spoke about how Shaykh Mohammed Amin Kholwadia, together with a multidisciplinary group of physicians, works collaboratively to provide a bioethics consultation service. The physicians serving on this committee have completed coursework in Islamic Ethics through the Al-Amin Ethics curriculum, designed and taught by Shaykh Amin.
This bioethics consultation service operates as a free community resource and has provided guidance to Muslim patients and clinicians around the world as they navigate complex disease states and clinical circumstances. It is an example of putting theory into practice, which is central to Al-Amin Ethics' approach: bringing Islamic ethics to the bedside and into the mainstream.
The next session featured an academic debate between Dr. Asim Babar and Dr. Umar Shakur on the use of gene editing in cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Babar introduced a central concept from Shaykh Amin's classification of knowledge, which distinguishes between beneficial knowledge (al-ʿilm al-nāfiʿ) and more beneficial knowledge (al-ʿilm al-anfaʿ). He argued that the Islamic civilizational values of altruism, the pursuit of comprehensive cures, and the preservation or restoration of the fiṭra — the natural human form — provide strong reasons to pursue somatic gene editing.
Dr. Shakur, by contrast, argued that the technology has many scientific limitations that may lead to off-target or unintended biological harms. He maintained that these biological concerns alone warrant caution. Drawing on Shaykh Amin's exegesis (tafsīr) of Qur'an 4:119, he further argued that gene editing may become a gateway to spiritual harm by altering the creation of Allah, particularly that aspect of creation which possesses a soul (rūḥ). This, he noted, is precisely what Shayṭān declares he will command those who take him as a patron to do.
This was followed by a debate between Dr. Omar Hussein and Dr. Ahsan Arozullah on the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Dr. Hussein argued that AI is a tool that can be used to relieve physician burnout and moral injury by reducing administrative burdens, helping identify errors — particularly in imaging — and freeing clinicians to be more present and human in the delivery of care. As a tool, however, AI must be used and designed with justice (ʿadl) and in service of the public good (maṣlaḥa).
Dr. Arozullah, on the other hand, argued that AI is fraught with serious concerns. It can generate false information, make harmful recommendations, replicate existing biases, and contribute to the "de-skilling" of physicians. He also noted that AI cannot provide the spiritual or moral benefits at the heart of the Muslim physician's care, which are mediated through physical presence, moral intention, and the attraction of Allah's shifāʾ through conduct rooted in Islamic ethics.
The conference then featured a lecture by Dr. Aasim Padela of the Initiative on Islam and Medicine, who spoke eloquently on the need to respond to medicine's reductionism. Dr. Padela explained how reductionist thinking contributes not only to the commoditization of healthcare, but also to the ways in which disease and wellness are understood and defined. He challenged the audience to reconnect with Islamic ethics through praxis and articulated a vision for moving from merely "doctoring" bodies to truly healing human beings.
Dr. Kanwal Ahmed then presented, for the first time, "Nafsology," a novel paradigm for mental health developed by Shaykh Mohammed Amin Kholwadia. Nafsology is based on the understanding that the human being is composed of the nafs — which includes the ʿaql, or intellect; the qalb, or metaphysical heart; and the rūḥ, or soul — and the jism, the corporeal body.
Nafsology is the science of ordering the human self by removing what disrupts its alignment (takhliya) and cultivating what restores it (taḥliya), so that the individual may attain shifāʾ: the complete removal of disease and imbalance. What makes this approach unique is that the physician is trained to address the jism and determine how much of a person's mental health condition may be driven by factors such as substance dependence, hormonal imbalance, or other biological concerns. The scholar, often a Sufi Shaykh, can then address the imbalances of the nafs.
As exciting as the introduction of Nafsology was for the audience, the defining moment of the conference came at the end, with the keynote address by Shaykh Mohammed Amin Kholwadia. In his presentation, Shaykh Amin passionately called upon the Muslim community to reconnect with Sunni orthodoxy through ʿilm. He noted that many of the Muslim community's struggles stem from a failure to understand its context: life in dār al-kufr, accompanied by a false sense of security derived from material success and relative personal freedoms.
He reminded the audience of an analogous period in history, when Muslims faced tremendous persecution in British India and were forced to come to terms with the loss of political wilāya, or authority. After the failed Mutiny of 1857, the scholars of British India recognized that the survival of the subcontinental Ummah depended on preserving more beneficial knowledge (al-ʿilm al-anfaʿ). This realization led to the establishment of Dār al-ʿUlūm Deoband.
This did not mean that these scholars became politically passive. Indeed, both Shaykh al-Hind Maḥmūd Ḥasan and Shaykh Ḥusayn Aḥmad Madanī, may Allah have mercy on them, were imprisoned in Malta for their political activities. Rather, it was their commitment to preserving and protecting orthodox Sunni Islam that allowed Islam to continue thriving in the subcontinent and, by Allah's decree, contributed to India's eventual political independence.
Learning Islam, Shaykh Amin emphasized, is neither passive nor defeatist. It is among the most important and positive acts a Muslim can undertake. It is a recognition that regardless of the state of the world, Allah is present. When Muslims demonstrate this level of tawakkul, there is no doubt that Allah's Help and Assistance will come.
Shaykh Amin then highlighted the profound difference between beneficial knowledge and more beneficial knowledge in a way that deeply affected the audience. He asked whether we could imagine a physician walking through the streets of Jannah with a stethoscope around his neck and a white coat, or a lawyer defending a case in the courtrooms of Jannah, or an AI or gene-editing expert conducting experiments in a luxurious laboratory in Jannah. The answer, of course, is no.
The conclusion was unmistakable: all beneficial worldly knowledge loses its direct utility at death. Those who excel in beneficial knowledge cannot claim that such knowledge will serve the same function beyond this life. However, if they serve human beings with the correct intention (niyya), they will receive reward and recompense in Jannah. In this way, Shaykh Amin offered iṣlāḥ to all members of Al-Amin Ethics.
Through his keynote address, Shaykh Amin outlined not only a path toward healing the medical profession, but also a path for the Muslim Ummah in the United States and beyond. We have become highly skilled in ʿilm nāfiʿ, but we have neglected ʿilm anfaʿ. In doing so, we have deprived ourselves of Allah's shifāʾ, which is the means by which both our individual and collective maladies are cured.
May Allah grant us the tawfīq to follow Shaykh Amin's advice, and may we see its fruits in this life and the next.