Kalām
Definition
Kalam is the discipline of Islamic scholastic theology — the use of rational argumentation to defend and articulate Islamic doctrine against philosophical and sectarian challenges. Al-Ghazali has a complicated relationship with kalam: he was one of its greatest masters, but he also believed that for most Muslims it was more spiritually dangerous than useful. He worried that kalam trained people to debate propositions rather than to live them, and that exposure to the arguments could shake weak faith rather than strengthen it. His prescription: ordinary Muslims should learn simple, clear doctrine without excessive rational elaboration.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
Appears in
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