Muslim Futures: Abdul-Rehman Malik's Closing Remarks

Muslim Futures: Abdul-Rehman Malik's Closing Remarks

by Abdul-Rehman Malik

Humanities, Social Sciences & Thought Religion & Beliefs QRReligion and beliefsQRPIslam
🎙 Abdul-Rehman Malik 👥 1K 📅 June 18, 2026 ⏱ 52 min 👁 24 📄 expert opinion 🧭 2026-08-16
Available in: English (current) Français

Keywords

Muslim futuresgenerative AIspeculative fictiondecolonizationIslamic studies

Summary

In this closing keynote, Abdul-Rehman Malik reflects on the two-day conference ‘Muslim Futures’ held at the AbuSulayman Center for Global Islamic Studies. He begins by critiquing AI-generated images of Muslim futures, noting their lack of memory, wound, and gravity. He emphasizes that the future is being manufactured in the present, and that we are living through dystopias in Gaza, Sudan, and elsewhere. Malik draws on the tradition of storytelling (‘it was and it was not’) to highlight the generative space between being and non-being. He discusses the deep lineage of futurism in Islamic and global traditions, referencing works like Sultana’s Dream. He stresses the importance of the Black Atlantic experience and its intersection with Islam, citing figures like Malcolm X, Sun Ra, and the Black Arts Movement. He presents dystopian art from Gaza, such as Malik Matar’s ‘Phoenix Rise’ and the Gaza Phoenix Project, as examples of imagining futures beyond apocalypse. He highlights the novel ‘Everything for Everyone’ by M. Abdul Hadi and Emmy O’Brien as an imagined ethnography of post-collapse New York. He also references the works of Morehshin Allahyari, Larissa Sansour, and Leila Suker, and concludes with a call for scholars to engage in world-building and speculative fiction as a means of creating new epistemologies and futures.

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Critical Evaluation

Value of the Information & Strength of the Argument

The talk offers valuable insights into the intersection of Islam, technology, and futurity, drawing on a wide range of cultural and artistic references. Malik argues that the future is not a distant abstraction but is being actively constructed in the present, and he emphasizes the importance of imagination and speculative fiction in shaping possible futures. He critiques the erasure of memory and trauma in AI-generated visions of Muslim futures, and he highlights the role of decolonial and Black Atlantic perspectives. The argumentation is coherent and persuasive, though it is more of a synthesis of ideas than a rigorous academic analysis. Malik’s personal engagement with the material and his passion for the subject enhance the value of the talk.

Scientific Rigor, Source Quality, Title Accuracy

The talk is a closing keynote, so it is not a formal academic presentation with citations. However, Malik references numerous works and projects, including Sultana’s Dream, Sun Ra’s music, the Gaza Phoenix Project, and novels like Frankenstein in Baghdad. These references are credible and relevant, but they are not systematically cited. The title accurately reflects the content, as it is indeed the closing remarks of the conference. The talk is well-structured and the speaker’s expertise is evident, but the lack of formal citations and the subjective nature of the content limit its scientific rigor.

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Title / Content Match

The title accurately reflects the content: it is the closing remarks of the conference 'Muslim Futures' by Abdul-Rehman Malik.

Quality & Reliability

7/10

The speaker is an academic affiliated with Yale, and the talk is a closing keynote at a university conference. It is an opinion piece grounded in scholarly discourse, but it is not a peer-reviewed study. The speaker references specific works and projects, but does not provide detailed citations or data. The content is reflective and synthesizes conference discussions, which limits its empirical reliability.

Key Moments

Markers derived by PSI from the transcript: the creator did not define chapters.

Cited Sources

Concurring Sources

Contribution & Novelties

The talk provides a rich synthesis of perspectives on Muslim futures, emphasizing the importance of imagination and speculative fiction in shaping possible futures. It highlights the intersection of Islam, technology, and decolonial thought, and calls for scholars to engage in world-building as a method of knowledge production. The speaker’s personal reflections and cultural references offer a unique perspective that goes beyond typical academic discourse.

Pour aller plus loin :

  • Sultana’s Dream — A 1905 feminist utopian novella by Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, referenced as an early example of Muslim futurism.
  • Sun Ra — Jazz musician and Afrofuturist pioneer, whose work intersects with Islam and speculative thought.
  • Frankenstein in Baghdad — A novel by Ahmed Saadawi, which imagines a composite Iraqi citizen, relevant to discussions of identity and future.
  • Gaza Phoenix Project — A participatory initiative to reimagine Gaza’s future, mentioned in the talk.

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Radar Profile

The radar profile shows high scores in quantity and quality of information, reflecting the rich synthesis of cultural and academic references. The technical level is moderate, as the talk is accessible but assumes some familiarity with the topics. The overall reliability is high for an opinion piece, but not as high as a peer-reviewed study.

Reliability 7/10

💬 No comments were provided for analysis.