The Adnan Husain Show

Adnan and Marc plunge into the "name" that is unique in being distinguished from all others as having no attribute or characteristic and almost definitionally contrasts with the human. How should the "human" and "divine" dichotomy be understood theologically and phenomenologically in this spiritual tradition of the 99 Names in Sufi Islam? We wrestled with these and other questions related to the spiritual meaning and experience of Allah with the help of Sufi writers al-Ghazali and al-Tilimsani. Marc cooked up a bouillabase through which the "ascending arc" of Akbari meditative practice could express itself, while Adnan puzzled over al-Ghazali's surprising confession that even in this name of the Divine Essence, the human strives for "ta'alluh" or assuming some quality of the Divine. The mysteries of spiritual experience were many in this episode. This initial foray will therefore involve a return to the Divine Being, Allah, after traveling through the 98 other names in our journey together.

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

Adnan has a wonderful conversation with a remarkable radical activist, Elaine Mokhtefi, in this special collaborative edition w/Guerrilla History and its ongoing series of interviews with living historical revolutionaries. Elaine Mokhtefi is author of "Algiers, Third World Capital: Freedom fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers." This fascinating discussion retraces Elaine's early political engagement with the FLN mission to the UN, her decision to move to Algeria to help build the postcolonial nation after liberation from France, her experiences as a translator and journalist covering the transnational movements for liberation across the Global South, and work with the Black Panthers exiled in Algiers. She danced with Fanon, met radical third world leaders, and struggled for a better world. Now in her 90's, she remains an inspiring and committed activist. A lot to learn in this conversation!

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Adnan discusses a crucial history of US subversion of Syria's sovereignty even before the conclusion of WW2 starting with interference and covert operations by the OSS precursor to the CIA and then through the entire Cold War with Dr. Patrick Higgins, a Middle East historian, co-editor of Liberated Texts and member of the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective. His article "Gunning for Damascus: The US War on the Syrian Arab Republic" is mandatory reading and the state of the field on this dark history. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19436149.2023.2199487?scroll=top&needAccess=true#abstractart

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

Normally, the audio of livestreams (Struggle Sessions and Office Hours) are exclusive to supporters on patreon.com/adnanhusain but this Struggle Session was so important and sizzling with insight, I'm making it available on the podcast feed. You can always watch these back on YouTube and X as videos, but if you like your audio, be sure to consider supporting and joining.

Adnan was joined by Benji Schoendorff of Resistance is Fertile, Jared Ball of IMIXWHATILIKE and Black Liberation Media, and Nora Barrows-Friedmann of the Electronic Intifada. Nihal El Aasar couldn't make it but will join for an Office Hours soon and a future Struggle Session. This was a wonderful, intense, and insightful conversation with the panel and engaging discussion with audience. Here is the full audio. Enjoy!

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

The East is a Podcast hosted a collaborative conversation with multiple friends, airing grievances, covering multiple topics, discussing news and raising funds for Mohammed and his siblings amid evacuation orders. This stream featured Nick Estes from The Red Nation, Adnan Husain from The Adnan Husain Show and Guerrilla History podcast, Jared Ware from Millennials Are Killing Capitalism, and Mtume Gant of Within our Gates podcast. We are affectionately calling this a episode of "Red Millenials are Killing Adnan Within our Gates in the East!"

But the main purpose was to:

Support Mohammed from Gaza as he and his siblings seek to relocate to Southern Gaza amid evacuation orders:

https://chuffed.org/project/120676-mohammed-from-gaza

Adnan and Marc continue their conversation about the Names of God in the Sufi Muslim mystical tradition and its wider resonances for spiritual experience and self-examination. In particular we observe some of the challenges of beginning such an ambitious project and the preparation required by discussing the openings to two major medieval Arabic commentaries on the divine names introduced in episode 1, al-Ghazali's treatise on the "beautiful names" and al-Tilimsani's commentary on the names and attributes as they appear in the Qur'an, the scriptural text of Islam. We also give a brief overview of the names to comment on the contrasts among the "jamali" and "jalali" or "beautiful" and "majestic" attributes as facets of the divine and the nature of apparent synonyms among the traditional 99 names. What does it mean that God self-describes in the Qur'an as both "the Just" and "the Merciful", "the Punisher" and the "Forgiving"? How do these contrasting qualities, like "the First and the Last" or "the Hidden and the Manifest," often paired in the devotional tradition of reciting the names, relate to the human encounter with these dimensions? We also respond to an interesting comment from a listener about our preference to translate as "the Complete Human" rather than "the Perfect Man" the concept the great mystic Ibn al-Arabi developed and we discussed in the first episode of the Insan al-Kamil.

Marc has a new companion video on "Relating to God: the God image in Sufism." https://youtu.be/b4ILWhKHN2A?si=wk8la4b_xqAAlC-z

You can follow his work: https://phenomenologyblog.com/?author=1

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

An excerpt from a very exciting and inspiring Office Hours livestream Friday Aug 29, 5pmET. For the full conversation and full audio of all livestreams (Office Hours and Struggle Sessions), join patreon.com/adnanhusain.

In this edition of Office Hourse, I talked with Calla Walsh about taking action against genocide and empire. Calla is a brilliant analyst and courageous anti-imperialist activist. She discussed her experience in Cuba solidarity, direct action against the Israeli genocide in Gaza with comrades following the example of Palestine Action (UK), about her recent trip to Iran, and her analysis of and thoughts about moving from spectatorship to action in resisting ZioAmerican empire and its genocidal violence in Gaza, Palestine, and beyond. Do not miss this edition of Office Hours w/Prof Adnan Husain.

Again, you can hear the full audio version on patreon.com/adnanhusain and also watch for free on YT.

These Office Hours and Struggle Session livestreams are meant for interaction and engagement. You can post questions to social media announcements ahead of time or join the YT livestream comments to post your questions and comments and also discuss with other members of the audience community. But, by becoming a patron and supporter, you will have priority for your questions, suggested topics and comments for livestream guests and panels. So join patreon.com/adnanhusain

You can also support with a one-time donation via buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain

You can support Calla's work on Substack: https://calla.substack.com/

In particular, support our political prisoners, notably T. Hoxha and now Casey Goonan on hunger strike.

Calla calls for your action here:

https://calla.substack.com/p/casey-hoxha

It has a toolkit for calling the prison administration to support political prisoners!

Read her account of her trip to Iran:

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/08/16/753182/tehran-ruins-found-resistance-us-journalist-activist-postwar-firsthand-account?ht-comment-id=27431626

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

Adnan discusses recent developments in Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria with journalist, media activist and geopolitical commentator Laith Marouf of Free Palestine TV. Referring to recent reports on the platform as a basis for further analysis of ZioAmerican imperialism, its regional agents, and popular resistance to it. Support this media platform on the front lines by donating at freepalestine.video

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

Drs. Rabab Abdulhadi (San Francisco State) and Salman Sayyid (Leeds), join Adnan to discuss the geopolitically important Afro-Asian Conference of 1955, seventy years ago, that brought leaders of states newly freed from colonial rule together to advocate an agenda of peace and development that would give rise to the Non-Aligned Movement, the Tri-Continental and UNCTAD. Our panel engages in a critical discussion of that history and its relevance today for people's movements not only across the Global South but globally.

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org

The second half of Dr. Isa Blumi's brilliant exposition of the history of Yemen. Our conversation reviews how the earlier history continued to inform the fierce resistance to imperialism and its agents through the 2010's with the Saudi/Gulf/ZioAmerican attack and siege upon Yemen. Isa analyzes how Ansarullah's diverse coalition has combated the destruction of the country while forging new paths in the annals of the history of solidarity and resistance against genocide. Do not miss this episode! For further readings and links to Dr. Isa Blumi's recent scholarship, see the description to part 1.

Support the show on Patreon if you can (and get early access to episodes)! www.patreon.com/adnanhusain Or make a one-time donation to the show and Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/adnanhusain Like, subscribe, share! Also available in video on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@adnanhusainshow X: @adnanahusain Substack: adnanahusain.substack.com www.adnanhusain.org