June Research Seminar 2026
- CMS
- 10 hours ago
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Primordial Sanctity:
The Blessed Virgin in the Holy Koran
Date: Wednesday 3 June 2026
Time: 3:00pm in the UK
[9:00 US CT; 10:00 US ET; 16:00 Central Europe]
Online via Zoom
Theme
A great Persian saint of Shiraz, Rūzbihān Baqlī (d. 1209) states in his mystical commentary on the Koran that the spiritual substance (jawhar) of Maryam is primordial sanctity (fiṭrat al-qudus). This talk will explore some aspects of this identification of the Blessed Virgin with perfect human nature, al-fiṭrah, doing so with reference to the Koranic depiction of her persona, and in the light of certain sayings of the Prophet Muhammad regarding Maryam. Special emphasis will be placed on the words of the angels to Maryam: ‘God has chosen you, and purified you, and chosen you above all the women in all the worlds’ (K 3: 42), on the one hand; and on the other, this saying of the Prophet: ‘All the babies born in this world are touched by Satan, except Jesus and his mother’.
Our guest speaker
Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London; Managing Editor of Encyclopaedia Islamica; and author of books on Islamic Studies and Comparative Religion.
Among his publications are Paths to Transcendence: According to Shankara, Ibn Arabi and Meister Eckhart; and Common Ground between Islam and Buddhism.
Register
To receive the free Zoom link, please send an email to Catherine O'Brien at the following address: info@marianstudies.ac.uk
