Islamic thought, past and present, on video
Tahqiq is a YouTube channel by Ömer F. Gürlesin. The name comes from the Arabic taḥqı̄q, careful inquiry or verification. The videos introduce debates from Islamic theology, philosophy and Sufism, and look at how these ideas meet modern thought and religious life today.
They draw on academic research and classical texts, but are made for a general audience and assume no prior knowledge.
- Englishlanguage
- 120+videos
- 16,000+subscribers
Four kinds of videos
Imagined dialogues
Thinkers who never met, or who disagreed across centuries, are brought to the same table: al-Ghazali and Ibn Rushd, Ibn Arabi and Ibn Taymiyya, or Ibn Arabi in conversation with Spinoza, Jung and Freud.
Short explainers
Shorter videos on a single figure, idea or practice, such as al-Ghazali on the levels of fasting, al-Hallaj’s saying “Ana al-Haqq”, or the meeting of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz.
Religion today
Current debates read through the sociology of religion: artificial intelligence and religious authority, nationalism.
Series
Longer sequences on a single work. Ibn Khaldun: The Muqaddimah introduces Ibn Khaldun’s account of society, history and the rise and fall of states in eleven episodes.
Watch the series →Latest uploads
9:14Why more data doesn’t mean more truth: René Guénon’s warning
24:25Do we have good reasons to believe in God?
25:03Freud called it the unconscious. Ibn Arabi called it something else
16:38Is the world God, or God’s face? Ibn Arabi meets Spinoza
16:508 hours, 2 winners: reading the Ahmadi–Salafi “true Islam” debate
9:20Turks are religious about Turkey
Most viewed so far
Islam’s greatest debates: al-Ghazali vs Ibn Taymiyya
An imagined debate on philosophy, Sufism and the relation between faith and deeds.
The 800-year-old feud shaping Islam today
Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Arabi, two very different readings of Islam, in one conversation.
Who was right about philosophy? Al-Ghazali vs Ibn Rushd
The classic dispute over reason, revelation and the place of philosophy.
Ibn Rushd and Richard Dawkins: a debate on the God hypothesis
A medieval philosopher and a modern biologist on science, reason and belief in God.
Ibn Arabi on what fasting is
A short introduction to Ibn Arabi’s understanding of fasting, beyond abstaining from food.
Why the first American Pope chose a 99% Muslim nation
On Pope Leo XIV’s first journey abroad, to Turkey.
From research to a wider audience
Several videos grow out of the research presented on this site, including Sufi thought, Turkish civil religion and religious authority. For the academic work behind them, see the research and publications pages.