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''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doctrine (aqa'id''). It was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of the
Islamic faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people oft ...
against the philosophical doubters.
However, this picture has been increasingly questioned by scholarship that attempts to show that kalām was in fact a demonstrative rather than a dialectical science and was always intellectually creative. The
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
term ''Kalām'' means "speech, word, utterance" among other things. There are many possible interpretations as to why this discipline was originally called so; one is that one of the widest controversies in this discipline, in the second and third centuries of Hijra, has been about whether the "Word of God" (''Kalām Allāh''), as revealed in the
Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
, is an eternal attribute of God and therefore not created, or whether it is created words in the sense of ink and sounds. A scholar of Kalām is referred to as a ''mutakallim'' (plural: ''mutakallimūn''), and it is a role distinguished from those of
Islamic philosophers Muslim philosophers both profess Islam and engage in a style of philosophy situated within the structure of the Arabic language and Islam, though not necessarily concerned with religious issues. The sayings of the companions of Muhammad contained ...
,
jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the U ...
, and
scientists A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophica ...
.


Origins

As early as in the times of the
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
(750–1258 CE), the discipline of Kalām arose in an "attempt to grapple" with several "complex problems" early in the
history of Islam The history of Islam concerns the political, social, economic, military, and cultural developments of the Islamic civilization. Most historians believe that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century CE. Muslims re ...
, according to historian Majid Fakhry. One was how to rebut arguments "leveled at Islam by pagans, Christians and Jews". Another was how to deal with (what some saw as the conflict between) the
predestination Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby G ...
of sinners to hell on the one hand and "divine justice" on the other (some asserting that to be punished for what is beyond someone's control is unjust). Also Kalam sought to make "a systematic attempt to bring the conflict in data of revelation (in the Quran and the Traditions) into some internal harmony".


''Ahl al-Kalām''

In early Islam, ''Ahl al-Kalām'' essentially referred to the
Mu'tazilites Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...
, in addition to other smaller schools. Historian
Daniel W. Brown Daniel W. Brown is the author of the books ''A New Introduction to Islam'' (in its 3rd edition as of 2017), ''Rethinking Tradition in Modern Islamic Thought'' (1999). As of 2020 is under contract to write ''Muhammad Iqbal'', (Makers of the Muslim ...
describes ''Ahl al-Kalām'' as one of three main groups engaged in polemical disputes over sources of authority in Islamic law during the second century of Islam -- ''
Ahl ar-Ra'y Ahl al-Ra'y ( ar, أهل الرأي or 'liberal theologians', ''aṣḥāb al-raʾy'', advocates of ''ra'y'', 'common sense' or 'rational discretion') were an early Islamic movement advocating the use of reasoning to arrive at legal decisions.Ency ...
'' and ''
Ahl al-Hadith Ahl al-Ḥadīth ( ar, أَهْل الحَدِيث, translation=The People of Hadith) was an Islamic school of Sunni Islam that emerged during the 2nd/3rd Islamic centuries of the Islamic era (late 8th and 9th century CE) as a movement of hadith ...
'' being the other two. ''Ahl al-Kalām'' agreed with ''
Ahl al-Hadith Ahl al-Ḥadīth ( ar, أَهْل الحَدِيث, translation=The People of Hadith) was an Islamic school of Sunni Islam that emerged during the 2nd/3rd Islamic centuries of the Islamic era (late 8th and 9th century CE) as a movement of hadith ...
'' that the example of the
Islamic prophet Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
was authoritative, but it did not believe it to be divine revelation, a status that only the
Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...
had (in its view). Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.51 It also rejected the authority of the hadith on the grounds that its corpus was "filled with contradictory, blasphemous, and absurd" reports, and that in jurisprudence, even the smallest doubt about a source was too much. Thus, they believed, the true legacy of Muhammad was to be found elsewhere, i.e. in the '' sunnah'', which is separate from the hadith. ''
Ahl al-Hadith Ahl al-Ḥadīth ( ar, أَهْل الحَدِيث, translation=The People of Hadith) was an Islamic school of Sunni Islam that emerged during the 2nd/3rd Islamic centuries of the Islamic era (late 8th and 9th century CE) as a movement of hadith ...
'' prevailed over the ''Ahl al-Kalām'' (and Muslims, or at least mainstream Muslims, now accept the authority of the hadith), so that most of what is known about their arguments comes from the writings of their opponents, such as Imam
al-Shafi'i Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schol ...
. Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.13-5 Brown also describes the Muʿtazila as "the later ''ahl al-Kalām''", suggesting the ''ahl al-Kalām'' were forerunners of the Muʿtazilites. Brown, ''Rethinking tradition in modern Islamic thought'', 1996: p.15


As an Islamic discipline

Although seeking knowledge in Islam is considered a religious obligation, the study of kalam is considered by Muslim scholars to fall beyond the category of necessity and is usually the preserve of qualified scholars, eliciting limited interest from the masses or common people. The early Muslim scholar
al-Shafi‘i Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schola ...
held that there should be a certain number of men trained in kalam to defend and purify the faith, but that it would be a great evil if their arguments should become known to the mass of the people. Similarly, the Islamic scholar
al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
held the view that the science of kalam is not a personal duty on Muslims but a collective duty. Like al-Shafi‘i, he discouraged the masses from studying it. Despite the dominance of kalam as an intellectual tradition within Islam, some scholars were critical of its use. For example, the
Hanbali The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (''madhahib'') of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal ...
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
,
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari Abu Ismaïl Abdullah al-Harawi al-Ansari or Abdullah Ansari of Herat (1006–1088) ( fa, خواجه عبدالله انصاری) also known as ''Pir-i Herat'' () "Sage of Herat", was a Muslim Sufi saint who lived in the 11th century in Herat (m ...
wrote a treatise entitled ''Dhamm al-Kalam'' where he criticized the use of kalam.Jeffry R. Halverson, Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam, 2010: p 37.


Major kalam schools


Muʿtazili


Sunni

*
Ashʿari Ashʿarī theology or Ashʿarism (; ar, الأشعرية: ) is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Muslim scholar, Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer, and scholastic theologian Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in the ...
*
Maturidi Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic ...


Shiʿi

*
Twelver Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
''(
Theology of Twelvers The theology of Twelver Shi'ism contains the five principles of Shia Islam known as ''Uṣūl ad-Dīn'' ( ar, أصول الدين عند الشيعة). Usul al-dín is an Arabic Islamic term which literally translates as 'principles of the fait ...
)'' *
Ismāʿīlī Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-S ...
**
Nizari The Nizaris ( ar, النزاريون, al-Nizāriyyūn, fa, نزاریان, Nezāriyān) are the largest segment of the Ismaili Muslims, who are the second-largest branch of Shia Islam after the Twelvers. Nizari teachings emphasize independent ...
** Musta'li ***
Hafizi Hafizi Isma'ilism ( ar, حافظية, Ḥāfiẓiyya or , ) was a branch of Musta'li Isma'ilism that emerged as a result of a split in 1132. The Hafizis accepted the Fatimid caliph Abd al-Majid al-Hafiz li-Din Allah () and his successors as imams ...
***
Tayyibi Tayyibi Isma'ilism is the only surviving sect of the Musta'li branch of Isma'ilism, the other being the extinct Hafizi branch. Followers of Tayyibi Isma'ilism are found in various Bohra communities: Dawoodi, Sulaymani, and Alavi. The Tayyibi ...


See also


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * Eissa, Mohamed
''The Jurist and the Theologian: Speculative Theology in Shāfiʿī Legal Theory''
Gorgias Press Gorgias Press is an independent academic publisher specializing in the history and religion of the Middle East and the larger pre-modern world. History Founded in 2001 by Christine and George Kiraz, the press is based in Piscataway, New Jers ...
: Piscataway, NJ, 2017. . * Wolfson, Harry Austryn, ''The Philosophy of the Kalam,'' Harvard University Press, 1976, 779 pages,
Google Bookstext at archive.org


External links


Kalam and Islam by Sheikh Nuh Keller


Living Islam
Islamic Kalām: Rational Expressions of Medieval Theological Thought
Encyclopedia of Mediterranean Humanism {{Islamic theology Islamic terminology Arabic words and phrases