Hujjat al-Islam Dr Mohammad Ali Shomali is a graduate of the Islamic Seminaries of Qum and has also both a BA and an MA in Western Philosophy from the University of Tehran. He has earned his Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Manchester. His doctoral thesis was on ethical relativism. He did his postdoctoral research on ethical issues related to life and death. He is currently the Founding Director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Qum, IRAN and the Director of Islamic Centre of England, London. Dr Shomali is editor-in-chief of two journals: the Message of Thaqalayn: A Quarterly Journal of Islamic Studies and the Spiritual Quest: A Biannual Journal of Ethics and Spirituality.

Dr Shomali is very interested and involved in interreligious dialogue and has organised or attended and presented papers in UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Austria, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Philippines, Sweden, etc.

His publications include: Self-Knowledge (1996 & 2006, also translated into Malay, Spanish and Kiswahili), Ethical Relativism: An Analysis of the Foundations of Morality (2001, also translated into Malay), Discovering Shi‘a Islam (87th edition 2014; also translated into 14 languages), Shi‘a Islam: Origins, Faith & Practices (2003 & 2010; also translated into Spanish, Swedish, Arabic, Farsi and Kiswahili), Principles of Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Methodology of Fiqh (2006). He is a co-editor of Catholics & Shi’a in Dialogue: Studies in Theology & Spirituality (2004 & 2011), Catholic-Shi’a Engagement: Reason & Faith in Theory and Practice (2006 & 2011), A Catholic-Shi‘a Dialogue: Ethics in Today’s Society (2008 & 2011), Monks and Muslims: Monastic and Shi‘a Spirituality in Dialogue (2012) and Monks and Muslims II: Creating Communities of Friendship (2014).

To follow Dr Shomali’s works you can refer to the following websites:

www.shomali.net

www.hawzaengland.com

www.shia.com