BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION: GOD, NATURE AND THE CAUSE – 2ND EDITION

Islamic Courses with the support of Ebrahim College presents:

BOOK LAUNCH DISCUSSION: GOD, NATURE AND THE CAUSE – 2ND EDITION

With author Professor Basil Altaie [Emeritus Visiting Professor at the School of Physics & Astronomy, Leeds University]

In conversation with the chair/host: Ehsan Masood [Senior editor, science journal Nature]

Date: Friday 30th January 2026

Time: 6.30pm - 8pm

Venue: Ebrahim College, 399–401 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 4QZ

FREE ENTRANCE but registration only [with live on-line streaming, and in-person at the college]

AUDIENCE: Open to all members of the public interested in the Islamic theology, philosophy and modern science

In the second edition of God, Nature and the Cause by Professor Basil Altaie attempts to represents a renewed attempt to harmonise Islamic theology and modern science, showing that the intellectual heritage of Daqīq al-Kalām still speaks with great relevance to contemporary debates. Altaie, both a theoretical physicist and a scholar of Islamic theology, approaches fundamental questions of causality, natural law, and divine action with rigour and balance. Going beyond the first edition, incorporating two new appendices that significantly deepen the discussion. The first is an external critique of Altaie’s model of quantum divine action; the second is his thorough reply, in which he extends his framework to questions of measurement, time, and continuous re-creation. These additions capture the living nature of scholarship, where critique and counter-critique sharpen understanding and open new directions.

Throughout the book, Altaie addresses themes of enduring significance: the distinction between laws of nature and laws of physics, the philosophical and theological dimensions of causality, the role of divine action in a universe shaped by quantum indeterminacy, and the nature of space and time as understood within both kalām and modern cosmology. He revisits debates on the size of the universe and the fate of the Sun, weaving together insights from the Qur’ān, classical mutakallimūn, and modern scientific thinkers. His conclusion, that the Ashʿarite doctrine of re-creation resonates with quantum theory, presents a powerful and original synthesis.

This important work is a significant contribution to the philosophy of science within the Islamic tradition. It offers theologians, philosophers, and scientists a framework for dialogue that is faithful to revelation yet responsive to modern discovery. With clarity and conviction, Altaie shows that faith and reason are not adversaries but companions in the search for truth.

About the author: *Professor Basil Altaie is Emeritus Visiting Professor at the School of Physics & Astronomy, Leeds University. He obtained his PhD from Manchester University in 1978 and has worked on fundamental research problems in Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity, publishing more than two dozens of papers in peer reviewed journals like the Physical Review and the IOP journals. Over the past 40 years Altaie has taught many physics courses at Mosul University, Iraq and at Yarmouk University, Jordan and has supervised research projects at postgraduate levels. Altaie has worked on topics in Islamic Kalām that deals with problems of Natural Philosophy. He claims that Kalām can provide full view of the Islamic Philosophy of Nature. This he expressed in his book Daqīq al-Kalām: the Islamic Approach to Natural Philosophy. He has been invited by several universities and institutions worldwide to give talks about his theory. Altaie is the author of God, Nature and the Cause, 10 other titles in arabic.

*Ehsan Masood is a senior editor with the science journal Nature. He edited the science policy magazine, Research Fortnight between 2009 and 2017 and also taught science and innovation policy at Imperial College London. A 2017/2018 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has written and presented documentaries for BBC Radio 4, including 'Surviving McCarthy', 'Science: Right or Left?' and a three-part series, 'Islam and Science'. He began his journalism in the late 1980s on the pioneering and much-missed satirical magazine 'MuslimWise'. He joined Nature in 2019 and currently edits Nature’s editorials pages, and well as overseeing news from Africa and the Middle East.