Negotiating Doubt in the Age of Occultation

The world that we live in today presents unique challenges to the maintenance of faith. Living in an increasingly secularized and irreligious world, young Muslims may find themselves in need of affirming their beliefs constantly and deliberately. On the journey towards conviction (yaqin), doubt is a familiar and incessant companion. This, in turn, raises two important questions: Are faith and doubt opposites or correlative terms? How does the fact that the Imam of our time (as) is in a state of occultation (ghayba) influence the resolution of our doubts? This presentation focuses on the phenomenon of doubt in religious life, especially as it pertains to young Muslims living in the West, by exploring the following questions: