Working Group Session 2

Goals

  1. Review the conceptual definitions and major debates regarding what ‘health’ consists of with an eye towards considering the telos of medicine/public health and how it relates to human flourishing.
  2. Introduce the major concepts related to the science of medical prognostication, risk assessment, and population health epidemiology. Specifically we will focus on concepts of and the tools assess risk at the clinical (patient) and community levels.
  3. Review Islamic ethico-legal definitions of public benefit (maslaha) and individual necessity (darurah) and the objectives of the Shar’iah (maqasid) with an eye towards what this signifies for an Islamic vision of the priorities of human society and human flourishing
  4. Discuss visions of Islamic cosmology as it relates to the Islamic epistemological visions of the relations between revelation-based, rationally acquired and empirically generated knowledge.
  5. Gain further clarity regarding the definitions of ‘aql, the classification of ilm daruri and yaqin as we were charged to  generate a conceptual mapping of terms related to knowledge in usul al-fiqh (epistemic authority and evidence) so we can relate them to medicine/public health.

Agenda

Sunday Aug 3rd (12:45pm-6:15pm):

  • 12:45pm: Arrival
  • 1-2: A Review of Islamic Epistemologic Terms from Retreat 1 & Q&A Session with Shaykh Omar Qureshi [coinciding with lunch]
  • 2:05-3:05: Maturidi/Hanafite Reflection on ‘aql; ilm daruri, hukm ‘adi, yaqin- Shaykh Amin
  • 3:10-3:30: Break (Dhuhr)
  • 3:35-4:25: Group Discussion regarding a map of Islamic epistemological frameworks  
  • 430-5:45:  A theological conceptualization and ethico-legal definition of maslaha; & introduction to maqasid- Shaykh Jihad
  • 6: Break for Asr
  • 6:30-7:45pm: Dinner at Cedar’s Restaurant

Monday Aug 4th (7:30am-5:45pm):

  • 7:30am: arrival and coffee
  • 7:45-8:10: Welcome and comments on a philosophy of medicine-Dr. Dan Sulmasy- Director, Program on Medicine & Religion, Co-Director MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics
  • 8:15-9: Relationships between Maslaha & Maqasid & Darurah- Sh. Jihad
  • 9-9:45:  Group Discussion on objectives of law and right ordering of human society
  • 9:45-10: Break
  • 10-10:55: A Posited Conceptual Mapping of Levels of Reality & Classification of Knowledge followed by critique from group- Dr. Aasim
  • 10:55-11:10: Classification of Sciences – Dr. Ahsan
  • 11:10-12:30: Concepts of Health- Dr. Trinka
  • 12:30-1:45: Concepts of Risk: From Clinical to Epidemiological-Dr. Ahsan
  • 1:45-2:25: Lunch & Zuhr Break 
  • 2:30-3:15: Group Reflection on Q1: Can scientific notions of risk (e.g medical, statistical) and religious concepts of necessity be combined to generate a schema of human health needs?  
  • 3:15-4: Group Discussion on Paper Ideas  
  • 4-4:45: Divide into groups and generate paper abstracts/outlines
  • 4:45-5:30: Group discussion on next steps and assignments
  • 5:45- Departure & Asr