Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has visited the Moscow Cathedral Mosque to meet Russian Muslim clergy. The Director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at St Petersburg University and Doctor of Theology Damir Mukhetdinov took part in the meeting.

Centre for Islamic Studies at St Petersburg University

Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation, met with the Pakistan’s delegation. He told the delegation: how Russian Muslims live today; how mosques are constructed and work; and about the social life of Russian Muslims and their role in society.

Just a few days before Imran Khan’s visit, new works of the series "Revival and Renewal" (Al-islah wa-t-tajdid) were published in Russian and English. They are published under the auspices of St Petersburg University. The books are about the authors who have had a huge impact on Islam in Pakistan, India, and across the world. Among them are: "Major Themes of the Qur"an’ by Fazlur Rahman Malik, an outstanding Pakistani Muslim figure of the second half of the 20th century, a prominent representative of the renovationism; a collection of selected works of an Islamic reformer and philosopher of the 19th century, the founder of the Muslim scientific society in Moradabad, Sayyid Ahmad Khan, whose works have been first published and translated into Russian; and a work ’The Development of Metaphysics in Persia: A Contribution to the History of Muslim Philosophy’ by Shaikh Muhammad Iqbal, who is the spiritual father of Pakistan.

A special edition of "The Renovationist Ideas of Fazlur Rahman" by Professor Damir Mukhetdinov has been published in English.

The preface is written by Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin. This monograph is the first chapter of Damir Mukhetdinov’s doctoral dissertation on theology, which was defended in October 2019 at St Petersburg University. The topic of his dissertation research is "Islamic Renovationist movement from the end of the 20th century to the start of the 21st century: ideas and prospects".

The monograph focuses on the renewal movement in Islam, i.e. neomodernism. It was founded by the Pakistani scholar and thinker Fazlur Rahman, according to the preface to the book "The Renovationist Ideas of Fazlur Rahman".

The Muslim community must be worthy of the deeds of its great predecessors who strove to turn historical Islam into a tradition of unbroken renewal of tradition.

Damir Mukhetdinov, Director of the Centre for Islamic Studies at St Petersburg University and Doctor of Theology

’Thinkers from the renewal movement demonstrated throughout their lives (both in theory and practice) that Islam does not contradict the living experience of modernity,’ added Professor Damir Mukhetdinov.