American imams actively assess medieval Islamic theological disputes in daily life

Evidence

Mohammad would narrate the dispute in the fourteenth century between the conservative scholar Ibn Taymiyya and the Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi (taking Ibn Taymiyya’s side) or tell us why he doesn’t respect the popular Egyptian televangelist Amr Khaled (not scholarly) or why the commentary on the Qur’an by the Islamist intellectual Sayyid Qutb is totally wrong in its approach. (It ought to be considered only as one man’s reflection on the Holy Book, he explained, not admired as a piece of scholarship.) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 926