Concept

Kalam

Overview

Ilm al-kalam or ilm al-lahut, often shortened to kalam, is the scholastic, speculative, or rational study of Islamic theology (aqida). 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. Kalām was born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of Islam against philosophical doubters and non-Muslims, and also to defend against heretical and religious innovations (bidʿah). A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (plural mutakallimun), a role distinguished from those of Islamic philosophers and jurists.

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. By the 10th century, the Muʿtazilites were main pioneers of 'Kalam' during the early formative period of Islam. Soon after, two new important Sunni Kalām schools emerged: the Ashʿaris and the Maturidis. They positioned themselves against the growing Neoplatonic and Aristotelian philosophy within the Mu'tazilites and elevated the "Kalām science" (ʿilm al-kalām) as an acceptable ranking science in mainstream Sunni discourse. Some of the arguments of these Mutakallimūn also found their way into Jewish and Christian theological discussions in the Middle Ages. Kalām science by 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".

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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Again, what reaches unto its Perfector and attaches itself to Him is safe against corruption, all the more so if even during disconnection from Him it has not undergone corruption. Wherefore the soul after death shall ever remain and continue unwavering [and undying] and attached to this noble essence, which is called generic universal mind, and in the language of the lawgivers the Divine Knowledge. As to the other…
Avicenna, A Compendium on the Soul
States what Kalam is; the author is tied to Kalam in the knowledge graph.
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Openly to make them known to strangers was the one thing forbidden, as indeed it was made a crime in the case of certain people. Such matters however, as being holy, were not to be spoken of. Herodotus often expressly says (e.g. ii. 45-47) that he would speak of the Egyptian Divinities and mysteries in as far as it was pious so to do: he knew more, but it would be impious to speak of them. In the Christian Religion…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
States what Kalam is.
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We shall see at the article "Certainty" that we ought often to be very uncertain of what we are certain of; and that we may fail in good sense when deciding according to what is called _common_ sense. But what is it that we call _believing_? A Turk comes and says to me, "I believe that the angel Gabriel often descended from the empyrean, to bring Mahomet leaves of the Koran, written on blue vellum." Well, Mustapha…
Voltaire, A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 02
States what Kalam is.
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Kalam

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