Stanford: “The Secret of the Word” — rethinking intelligence in the age of AI (3 June 2026)

While in the United States, Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari, president of the Al-Karkari Institute for Sufi Studies, was the guest of Stanford University, where he gave a class on the language of the heart and the language of intelligence. The session took place on 3 June 2026.

Rethinking intelligence in the age of artificial intelligence

The class, entitled Sirr al-Kalima — “The Secret of the Word” —, was subtitled Intelligence, the Word, and the ethics of AI. It invited a rethinking of intelligence at a time when artificial intelligence is making its way into every area of life, drawing it closer to what the Sufi tradition says about the spirit and the spiritual interiority of the human being.

Two questions structured the reflection: understanding, on the one hand, the spirit and the spiritual interior of Man and, on the other, the mechanisms of AI; then seeing how the inner appears in the outer, and what the strength of this movement is.

A book at the heart of the session

These subjects were presented on the basis of the recent publication of the book The Secret of the Word by Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari, translated by Marouen Jedoui. According to the documents presented at the session, the text had first appeared in Nūr Journal (2026), in a translation by Dr Rami Koujah, before being developed into a book under the same title (Al-Karkari Institute Press, 2025).

A meeting with students

The session took place in a university workroom, in a small group, with students and participants who came to talk with the Shaykh. It is part of the collaborations that the Al-Karkari Institute conducts with American universities around research on Sufism.