Ilm al-Kalam
Kalam (Arabic كلام ) is an Arabic term, the general language the meaning of " speech", "talk ", " words" has, in the specific sense but refers to a particular form of theological disputation, based on rational arguments. In the Arab-Islamic Middle Ages Kalam was first cultivated by Muslim, but later also from Jewish and Christian scholars. Those scholars who participated in it were called mutakallimun. If the Kalam has evolved into a separate discipline of controversial theology, he is also known as ʿ Ilm al - Kalam ( علم الكلام Kalam Science ).
History
The Kalam within the meaning of theological disputation developed at the beginning of the Abbasid period and was funded by the rulers as a means to combat the teachings of dualistic sects such as the Manichaeans, the Bardesaniten and Marcionites. As the followers of these sects resorted to defend their teachings on methods and concepts of Greek philosophy, it was necessary that the mutakallimun that should defend Islam, these methods also knew. For this purpose, the topic and physics of Aristotle from the Greek were translated under the Caliphate of al - Mahdi. Also, the term kalam itself is probably a borrowing from the Greek. It is based on the word dialexis ( " conversation " ), from which the term dialectic is derived. It was the Arabs mamlā about the Aramaic word or melleṯā ("Speech " ) conveys.
The specific meaning for the word Kalam has, however, developed only very slowly. Only at al - Jahiz (d. 868/9 ), we find a definition. In his " Epistle on the privilege of talking about the silence " ( Risala fī Tafdil to - nuṭq ʿ alā S- velvet) he describes Kalam after discussion of several other meanings of the term as a " cause for the recognition of the truth of religion, for the rational Close ( qiyas ) in the proof of the divine greatness and truth of the prophetic message. "
In the early days of Kalam was operated almost exclusively in the urban centers of Iraq, in Basra and Baghdad. Evidence of theological debates from Egypt, however, are very rare. The only kalam scholars, of which it is known that he stayed some time in Egypt, was Hafs al - Fard ( early 9th century).
The early directions from which emerged made of Kalam, Ǧabrīya, Qadarīya and Murǧi were ʾ a In this phase, the student's level of Kalam was still very elementary. In a slightly more advanced stage of phase, other Kalāmströmungen caused, inter alia, the Mu ʿ tazila. At the turn of the 10th century tried Abū l -Hasan al - Ash ʿ arī to provide the Kalam method in the service of the Sunni doctrine, in which he justified this by the means of Kalam and defended. Those theologians who joined this direction are referred to as Ash ʿ ariten. Another theological direction followed a very similar concern, is the Maatreediyyah, which goes back to Abu Mansur al - Maturidi. However, there were also Sunnis, who completely rejected the Kalam. These included in particular the early Hanbali. Strict Kalam - rejection can be found today at Salafis, Wahhabis and Atharis.
Debates and concepts of Kalam have had influence on Islamic philosophers like al-Farabi ( Alfarabius ), Ibn Sina ( Avicenna ) and Ibn Rushd ( Averroes ). Especially on these theorists and direct about Spain (Andalusia ) and Jewish philosophers ( Saadia Gaon, Ibn Daud, Maimonides in Guide of the Perplexed ) concepts and arguments of Kalam have found their way and partly esteem in Western discussions.
ʿ Ilm al - Kalam as a discipline
End of the 11th century, the development of Kalam paved to a science of its own. The Asch arit ʿ al -Ghazali described in this period in his work al - Kalam Mustaṣfā as the core discipline of the religious sciences, which guarantees the validity of their first principles and has a universal character. Among the religious sciences, which are subordinate to the Kalam and only have particularistic character, he is one of fiqh, usul al - fiqh, hadith and Koranic exegesis. The mutakallim is the one according to al -Ghazali, who " studied the most general of things as opposed to the representatives of other religious sciences, namely, the existing. Then he divides the existing in the eternal and the addition Come, then the addition Come in substance and accident, then the accidentals in those for whom life is a requirement, such as knowledge, will, power, hearing, vision ... This is the content of the Kalam - science. "
Later the term ʿ Ilm al - Kalam became the general term for Islamic theology. The Ottoman scholars Taschköprüzāde (d. 1561) consists ʿ Ilm al - Kalam in his Encyclopedia of Science Miftah al- sa ʿ ada wa - Misbah al- siyāda with the term ʿ Ilm Usul ad - dīn ( " science of the foundations of religion " ) is equal and explains that it is the science, " with which one can determine the religious truths, by giving arguments for and avoid the specious arguments made against it ."
Conceptually narrow ʿ Ilm is meant by al - Kalam a preschool of rational speech, which serves the purpose of discussion of deeper theological problems, especially those that are the subject of the dogma of Islam. The method is equivalent in comparison with western scientific theory of almost theological propaedeutic. The acquisition of knowledge of the ʿ Ilm al - Kalam was and is for Muslim theologians a prerequisite to understand and deal with the dogmatics (Arabic ʿ Aqida (or I ʿ tiqād ) ), but also to bring to the people they are close to. It is systematic methodological reasoning (often in extensive contexts ) and dialectical knowledge in the foreground. Also, the rhetorical use of metaphors and symbols as well as the inclusion of context- compliant Koranic verses and traditions in support of arguments belong to this discipline.
Since Muslim theologians between ʿ Ilm al - Kalam as a theological propaedeutic one hand and ʿ Aqida ( or I ʿ tiqād ) have other, often considered as a dogma no sharp dividing line and the transition between the two a fluid is - as the theological propaedeutic can not be implemented as an abstract dry run, but is always practiced on specific thematic objects - Ilm al - ʿ you Kalam often also associated with an enhanced sense of the word, by the use of the wider notion of scholastic theology. In such a concept the discipline of theological methods propaedeutic and the subject discipline of dogmatics can be framed together; the term does not have the theological propaedeutic ( ʿ Ilm al - Kalam ) remain limited in principle. Ultimately this is a matter of linguistic convention.