Faith, Theology & Spiritual Worldview

When Aslam Hayat passed away in May 2026, his home was full of books — on Quranic exegesis, Islamic philosophy, Sufi metaphysics, comparative religion, and the sciences. He had been reading them until very close to the end. For decades, he had built a personal library spanning theology, Sufi philosophy, prophetic traditions, history, and comparative religion. Those who knew him recall finding him reading at almost any hour — annotating texts, returning to the same books across years, keeping handwritten notes.

He studied the Quran repeatedly in Arabic, alongside translations and tafsīr (exegetical commentary). He was particularly attentive to language — how individual words carried precise meanings, how a verse's historical context shaped its interpretation. His newspaper columns returned often to Quranic themes, particularly on questions of justice, knowledge, and the relationship between faith and reason.

He studied the major works of Seerah (Prophetic biography) and the classical Hadith collections. When confronted with difficult questions, he looked first to the primary sources — the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet ﷺ — rather than relying on contemporary opinion alone.

The study of the Names and Attributes of Allah held particular interest for him. Drawing on classical Sufi teaching, he understood the remembrance of Allah through His Names — dhikr — as a practice that strengthened patience, cultivated gratitude, and deepened awareness of the Divine Presence in ordinary life.

He read extensively in physics, cosmology, and astronomy — including the works of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. He was particularly interested in the origins of the universe, the nature of time and space, and how scientific inquiry bore on questions the Quran had raised centuries earlier.