ASMA National Conference
October 4, 2025
Ann Arbor, Michigan
THEME: ITQAN | إِتْقَانَ
Highly decorative spiritual spaces were once the pinnacle of a society’s cultural expression in the old world. Not so in modern industrialized America, where architectural design often omits purposeful expressions of faith and tradition. Instead, architecture continues to prioritize efficiency through advanced technologies and streamlined design strategies—depriving our built environment of a deeper, more meaningful connection to culture and place.
As a growing sense of rootlessness feeds public discontent, a unique opportunity emerges: to design with intention, to reintroduce purpose and meaning into our spaces. In response, the first annual ASMA Conference invites a conversation on how to incorporate the concept of itqaan into contemporary practice.
It was narrated that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said “‘Allah loves that when anyone of you does a job, he should perfect (إِتْقَانَ) it.”
Often translated as excellence, mastery, or proficiency, itqaan calls us to elevate both our craft and our understanding of space through attention to detail and devotion to process. Rather than taking the path of least resistance, itqaan urges designers to engage in deliberate effort—gaining insight with every stroke, and gradually achieving mastery over their work.
Students, professors and practitioners are invited to share how itqaan has shaped Muslim architecture in the past, present and ways we can collectively do more to serve the public.
Keynote Speaker
Diana Darke
We’re honoured to welcome Diana Darke as the keynote speaker for ITQĀN 2025, taking place on October 4th.
Diana Darke is an acclaimed cultural historian, Middle East specialist, and author of Stealing from the Saracens: How Islamic Architecture Shaped Europe. With decades of experience living and working in the Arab world, Diana brings a richly informed and critical lens to the overlooked contributions of Islamic civilisation to Western heritage. Her groundbreaking work exposes the deep architectural and cultural interconnections between East and West—prompting audiences to re-evaluate the origins of what we often consider exclusively “Western” traditions.
In her keynote, Diana will invite us to rethink inherited narratives of design and identity. As she asserts:
“A highly skilled new workforce, schooled in the Islamic tradition, gave Medieval Europe the essential foundation and springboard for all its future architectural styles. This foundation, known to art historians as ‘Romanesque,’ should rightly be renamed ‘Islamesque.’”
Join us for a vital conversation on what it means to build with intentionality—grounded in knowledge, shaped by history, and guided by cultural respect.
Oludamini Ogunnaike
We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Oludamini Ogunnaike to ITQĀN 2025, where he will be presenting a session titled:
“Stones, Light, Air: Material and Immaterial Architectures of Itqān.”
A scholar of Islamic and African intellectual traditions, Dr. Ogunnaike explores how knowledge, aesthetics, and spirituality intersect across diverse cultural worlds. His work highlights the deep philosophical and metaphysical insights found in traditions like Sufism and West African thought—challenging conventional boundaries between the material and the immaterial, the visible and the invisible.
Mohamad Nahleh
We’re pleased to welcome Mohamad Nahleh to ITQĀN 2025, where he will be presenting a session titled:
“Nightrise.”
An architect and scholar, Nahleh is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at The Ohio State University. His research moves across environmental history, cultural anthropology, and postcolonial literature pushing architecture to engage with overlooked dimensions of space, time, and meaning.
With a practice rooted in both critical theory and design, his work opens new paths for thinking about atmosphere, perception, and the ethics of visibility
CALL FOR SPONSORSHIPS
The American Society for Muslims in Architecture is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Since its founding in 2023, we have made every effort to unite the Muslim design community across the U.S. Through inspiring talks, social gatherings, collaborations, and online sessions - including the first annual virtual Town Hall - and more, a small yet energetic collective of practitioners, academics, and students of architecture and design has been steadily growing into an ambitious community that aspires to positively impact the built environment and the wider community with perspective from our shared faith.
Throughout these gatherings, one thing has been clear: the biggest need for the Muslim community in architecture and design is to have a place to gather, share knowledge on Muslim architectural heritage, provide a platform for Muslim architects and researchers to share their work to that end, and have collective discussions by which to aspire to a future where, together, we can impact the built environment with perspective from the Islamic faith.
Islam instills into every Believer the noble principles of comradery, altruism, sustainability, and itqan. In a built environment where efficiency is valued over tradition and cost-effectiveness over care, we have an opportunity to alter the status quo.
Sponsor ITQAN: ASMA NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2025 today to help ASMA make a difference on the world we share.
