Kalam

For other uses, see Kalam (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Qalam.
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Ilm al-kalam [a] or ilm al-lahut,[b] often shortened to kalam, is the scholastic, speculative, or rational study of Islamic theology (aqida).[2] It can also be defined as the science that studies the fundamental doctrines of Islamic faith (usul al-din), proving their validity, or refuting doubts regarding them.[3] Kalām was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of Islam against the philosophical doubters.[4][5] A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (plural mutakallimun), a role distinguished from those of Islamic philosophers and jurists.[6]

After its first beginnings in the late Umayyad period, the Kalām experienced its rise in the early Abbasid period, when the Caliph al-Mahdi commissioned Mutakallimūn to write books against the followers of Iranian religions, and the Barmakid vizier Yahya ibn Khalid held Kalām discussions with members of various religions and confessional groups in his house. Until the 10th century, the Muʿtazilites were considered the real "masters of the Kalām". Later, two important Sunni Kalām schools emerged: the Ashʿariyya and the Maturidiyya. They positioned the Kalām particularly against the growing Neoplatonic and Aristotelian philosophy and elevated the "Kalām science" (ʿilm al-kalām) to the highest ranking science in Islam. Some of the arguments of the Mutakallimūn also found their way into Jewish and Christian theological discussions in the Middle Ages. After the Kalām science in the early modern period was essentially limited to the study of manuals and commentaries, from the late 19th century onwards various reform thinkers appeared in British India and the Ottoman Empire who called for the founding of a "new Kalām".

  1. ^ Abdel-Haleem, M. A. S. (2008). "Part I: Historical perspectives - Qur'an and hadith". In Winter, Timothy (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–32. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521780582.002. ISBN 978-1-139-00181-6.
  2. ^ Mutahhari, Murtada. "An Introduction to 'Ilm al-Kalam". Muslim Philosophy. Translated by Qara'i, 'Ali Quli. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  3. ^ Mutahhari, Murtadha (12 March 2013). "An Introduction to Ilm al-Kalam". Retrieved 2023-10-31. For a definition of 'ilm al-kalam, it is sufficient to say that, "It is a science which studies the basic doctrines of the Islamic faith (usul al-Din). It identifies the basic doctrines and seeks to prove their validity and answers any doubts which may be cast upon them."
  4. ^  • Treiger, Alexander (2016) [2014]. "Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period - Origins of Kalām". In Schmidtke, Sabine (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 27–43. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.001. ISBN 978-0-19-969670-3. LCCN 2016935488.
     • Abrahamov, Binyamin (2016) [2014]. "Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period - Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology". In Schmidtke, Sabine (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 264–279. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.025. ISBN 978-0-19-969670-3. LCCN 2016935488.
  5. ^ Madeleine Pelner Cosman, Linda Gale Jones, Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, p. 391. ISBN 1-4381-0907-5
  6. ^ Clinton Bennett, The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies, p. 119. ISBN 1-4411-2788-7.


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