Explaining Kalam

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

Shaykh Nur ad-Din Abu ‘Ubadah ‘Ali ibn Juma’ah explained, in the linguistic sense, “kalam”, “speech”, denotes a word indicating a certain meaning.  In its technical sense, “kalam” denotes the theoretical consideration of matters of religious creed, or theology.  Shaykh Wali ad-Din ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun (r.a.) said, “It is the discipline comprised of disputation over creedal beliefs with rational proofs.” 

Imam al-‘Ayhi (r.a.) said, “Kalam is the discipline that enables one to affirm creedal beliefs by amassing arguments and repelling doubt.”  Imam al-‘Ayhi (r.a.) recorded four types of etymologies for the name of the discipline, respectively claiming it is so called because of its linguistic sense of speech, kalam, yielding al-jadal, dialectical debate, which is the primary tool of the discipline, much like logic is the primary instrument or bulk of philosophy; its chapter-headings, which were first titled, “al-Kalam on such-and-such;” its paradigmatic topic of the Kalam, Speech, of Allah (s.w.t.), meaning the Qur’an, which raised ancillary questions to such profusion that the discipline itself came to be named after the topic; and the fact that it enabled al-kalam, adversarial discourse, in religious matters. 

Kalam gained different names corresponding to the theoretical perspective taken.  As Imam Muhammad ‘Ala ibn ‘Ali at-Tahanawi (r.a.) and Imam Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ath-Thahawi (r.a.) variously noted, it is also known as the science of uswul ad-din, the foundations of religion, and ‘ilm an-nadzr wa al-istidlal, the science of theoretical consideration and deduction; Imam Abu Hanifah Nu’man ibn Tsabit (r.a.) famously called it al-fiqh al-akbar, the greatest jurisprudence.  The preferred name is ‘ilm at-tawhid, the discipline of unity, in that it explained, on a Qur’anic basis, the relation between the axis of existence, Allah (s.w.t.), humanity and the cosmos with reference to the two concepts of istikhlaf, Divinely-Appointed Successorship; and taskhir, subservience.  Imam Sa’ad ad-Din Mas’ud ibn ‘Umar at-Taftazani (r.a.) said the discipline related to derivative or inferential matters is called ‘ilm al-ahkam, the science of rulings; and the discipline related to first principles or creedal matters is called ‘ilm at-tawhid wa asw-swifat, the science of Divine Unity and Attributism.