HASAN SPIKER (b. 1987) is an Anglo-American philosopher and Islamic metaphysician whose fresh account of the field’s foundations continues to play a formative role in the contemporary revival of traditional metaphysics within the Islamic intellectual tradition — a development students and readers refer to as exemplarism.

 Spiker was born into a family connected to the original Darqawi movement led by Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir al-Sufi, a group rooted in the teachings of Shaykh Muhammad Ibn al-Habib. Although his family left the movement in the early 1980s, Spiker was raised in a rarefied cultural and spiritual environment steeped in Sufism and the arts. He spent parts of his childhood in Jordan, Morocco, and the Dar al-Islam community in New Mexico, and at the age of fourteen, was sent abroad to study the Islamic sciences traditionally in Damascus and Aleppo.

Primarily raised in Cambridge, UK, Spiker was exposed early to the full range of secular and atheistic ideologies, but nonetheless describes his upbringing as one of ‘deep certainty,’ combining exposure to metaphysical writings with the experiential Sufi foundation of the social milieu of his parents.

After a series of life-changing spiritual encounters that took place when he was eighteen and nineteen years old, Spiker resolved to abandon a trajectory of assimilation into modern Western life and instead pursue spiritual and metaphysical knowledge at its traditional source. Determined that his encounter with Western philosophy should not precede—and thereby distort—his grasp of metaphysical truth, he sought direct instruction in traditional metaphysics from within the Islamic tradition itself. This search led him to the Middle East, where he studied for over a decade under the guidance of al-Sayyid Qusayy Abu’l-Si’d—a figure known for his rare combination of rigorous philosophical training and immersion in the esoteric and mystical sciences. Deeply charismatic and highly respected by those who have encountered him, al-Sayyid Qusayy remains largely unknown outside a small circle of students and scholars. His influence proved decisive in shaping Spiker’s vision of a metaphysical synthesis grounded in the classical Islamic tradition.

Only after more than a decade of intensive traditional study did Spiker formally enter the Western academy, going on to study philosophy at the University of London (First Class), followed by an MPhil in Philosophical Theology at Cambridge (Distinction). Alongside his scholarly output and teaching work, Spiker continues to pursue a doctorate at the University of Cambridge.

From 2014 to 2022, Spiker worked as a researcher at Tabah Foundation, during which period he was commissioned to write his major work, Things As They Are. Despite ultimately distancing himself from the Classification of the Sciences project, citing intellectual, methodological, and strategic concerns that would go on to serve as a negative boundary-marker for his subsequent work, Spiker has nonetheless retained high regard for the Secretary General of Tabah Foundation, Habib Ali al-Jifri, as well as for the organisation’s broader work.

In 2022, Spiker was invited to teach philosophy and logic at Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, where he spent a year, before returning to focus on research and writing. In 2024, he co-founded Blogging Theology Academy with Paul Williams, where he continues to serve as Dean, and teaches a highly regarded course on metaphysics and logic. Spiker also serves as a Senior Research Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, a non-governmental organisation based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Relevant links:

https://www.newarab.com/features/learning-britains-three-waves-conversion-islam

https://qawwam.online/interview-hasan-spiker/