Hyderabad, Jan 3: Islamic scholar Prof. Muhammad Mumtaz Ali has been conferred with Malaysia’s National Book Award 2023 for his book titled ‘Islamic Research: Theory, Methodology and Thesis Writing’.
Currently head of the Department of Usool-e-Diniyat at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Prof Mumtaz Ali received the award and certificate recently.
The certificate carries the signatures of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Minister for Higher Education Zambry Abdul Kadir.
This is the third award for the scholar from Hyderabad. He had earlier received the awards in 2014 and 2016.
Born in Hyderabad in 1955, Mumtaz Ali is a Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic studies from Aligarh Muslim University. After receiving Bachelor’s Degree on Modern Western Political Thought from Osmania University, he did masters in Islamic studies at Aligarh Muslim University. He also holds a masters’ degree in modern political theory.
Prof. Ali started his career as an Assistant Professor in IIUM in 1987. Since then, he has been serving in the same University.
According to his profile on IIUM website, currently he is in the Department of Usul al-Din and Comparative Religion, Abdulhamid Abusulayman Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences. Initially, he taught the History of Modern Islamic Thought. Later, he developed interests in several areas of Islamic thought such as Developmental Studies, Modernization, Epistemological and Methodological Studies, Critical Thinking, Philosophy of Science and Modernity.
He taught courses related to these areas at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
He has produced several textbooks from Islamic perspectives. His books on Islamization of Knowledge are considered bestseller books in the campus. In 2014, he was awarded the National Book Award for his book, ‘Issues in Islamization of Human Knowledge: Civilization Building Discourse of Contemporary Muslim Thinkers.
Prof. Ali is currently serving as the Chairman of the Committee for Postgraduate Studies and Committee for Seminars in the Department of Usul al-Din and Comparative Religion. He has presented several research papers in national and international conferences in more than 20 countries. Several of his articles have been published in journals which address the area of Islamic thought. He is the author of several books such as Islam and the Western Philosophy of Knowledge: Reflections on Some Aspects, The Philosophy of Science: Western and Islamic Perspectives on Certain Aspects, Islamic Critical Thinking, The Failure of Modernity and the Development of Contemporary Islamic Revivalist Discourse: Towards an Alternative Civilizational Development, The History and Philosophy of Islamization of Knowledge: A Preliminary Study of Pioneer’s Thought, The Clash of Civilizations or Civilizational Peaceful Co-Existence: An Analysis of the Views of Huntington and Khurshid Ahmad.
