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In this episode, I caught up with Hamza Dudgeon from the YouTube channels "Hamza the Historian" and "Hamza the Linguist". Hamza is a Muslim convert from Minnesota who I met while he was doing his graduate studies at the University of Chicago. In this almost 3 hour long episode, we talked about powerlifting, his upbringing in Minnesota, his conversion to Islam, approaches to understanding various world views and the aftermath of the George Floyd murder.(We recorded this episode during the trial but it's being released after the conviction of Derek Chauvin)

His full bio is available below.

Hamza Dudgeon is an academician in Religious Studies and Islamic History. He holds an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago and is currently a doctoral student at the Islamic University of Minnesota.

He has experience teaching at the university level, in public schools, and in a seminary setting. Hamza has taught Somali refugees, graduate students, undergrads, and visiting professors, as well as children of all ages and people of various ethnic backgrounds.

Besides teaching, Hamza is also passionately committed to his research. At the University of Chicago, he specialized in Islamic ritual (fiqh). Hamza's doctoral dissertation is on nascent Islamic legal epistemology (U\u1e63\u016bl al-Fiqh) before al-Sh\u0101fi\u02bf\u012b (d. 820). Most in the field claim that a 9th century figure, al-Sh\u0101fi\u02bf\u012b is the first to advocate an Islamic legio-ritual theory known as U\u1e63\u016bl al-Fiqh. However, al-Sh\u0101fi\u02bf\u012b\u2019s teacher, Mu\u1e25ammad b. al-\u1e24asan al-Shayb\u0101n\u012b (d. 805), promulgated a legio-ritual theory in his Kit\u0101b al-A\u1e63l, which is largely untouched and unknown by Western Academics. Even before that, legal analogy (qiyas) and jurisprudential discretion (isti\u1e25s\u0101n) is seen in the thought of al-Awz\u0101\u02bf\u012b (d. 774).

Hamza Dudgeon has also written on Sufism\u2019s esoteric allegories of Islamic ritual, how Chicago muftis use modern science to produce fatwas on transgenderism, Islamic ritual footwear, and Isma\u2019ili Shi\u2019ite legio-ritual theory. Hamza's paper on Islamic ritual footwear, \u201cThe Khuffayn in Muslim Ritual Thought,\u201d was presented at the Middle Eastern Studies Association\u2019s annual conference held in San Antonio, TX Nov, 2018. He has also published in JMIAS twice \u201cThe Counter-Current Movements of Andalusia and Ibn \u02bfArab\u012b: Should Ibn \u02bfArab\u012b be considered a \u1e92\u0101hir\u012b?\u201d and \u201cThe Revival of Sharia's Allegories: al-Ghazz\u0101l\u012b and al-\u1e24ak\u012bm al-Tirmidh\u012b.\u201d Hamza has an article on the entire history of the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, which is forthcoming in Routledge\u2019s Handbook of Islamic Ritual & Practice.