Though
nothing definite can be said about the beginnings of 'ilm al-kalam among
Muslims, what is certain is that discussion of some of the problems of kalam,
such as the issue of predestination (jabr) and free will (ikhtiyar),
and that of Divine Justice, became current among Muslims during the first
half of the second century of Hijrah. Perhaps the first formal centre of such
discussions was the circle of al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110/728-29). Among the
Muslim personalities of the latter half of the first century, the names of
Ma'bad al-Juhani (d. 80/ 699) and Ghaylan ibn Muslim al-Dimashqi (d. 105/723)
have been mentioned, who adamantly defended the ideas of free will (ikhtiyar)
and man's freedom. There were others who opposed them and supported
predestination (jabr). The believers in free will were called "qadariyyah"
and their opponents were known as "jabriyyah".
Gradually
the points of difference between the two groups extended to a series of other
issues in theology, physics, sociology and other problems relating to man and
the Resurrection, of which the problem of jabr and ikhtiyar was
only one. During this period, the "qadariyyah" came to be
called "Mu'tazilah" and the "jabriyyah" became
known as "Asha'irah ". The Orientalists and their followers
insist on considering the beginnings of discursive discussions in the Islamic
world from this point or its like.
However,
the truth is that rational argumentation about Islamic doctrines starts with
the Holy Qur'an itself, and has been followed up in the utterances of the Holy
Prophet (S) and especially in the sermons of Amir al-Mu'minin 'Ali (A). This
despite the fact that their style and approach are different from those of the
Muslim mutakallimun. [1]
Inquiry
or Imitation?
The Holy
Qur'an has laid the foundation of faith and belief on thought and reasoning.
Throughout, the Qur'an insists that men should attain faith through the agency
of thought. In the view of the Qur'an, intellectual servitude is not sufficient
for believing and understanding its basic doctrines. Accordingly, one should
take up a rational inquiry of the basic principles and doctrines of the faith.
For example, the belief that God is One, should be arrived at rationally. The
same is true of the prophethood of Muhammad (S). This requirement resulted in
the establishment of 'ilm al-'usul during the first century.
There
were many reasons which led to the unprecedented realization of the necessity
for the study of the fundamentals of the Islamic faith amongst Muslims and the
task of defending them, a realization which led to the emergence of prominent mutakallimun
during the second, third, and fourth centuries. These were: embracing of
Islam by various nations who brought with them a series of (alien) ideas and
notions; mixing and coexistence of the Muslims with people of various
religions, such as, the Jews, the Christians, the Magians, and the Sabaeans,
and the ensuing religious debates and disputes between the Muslims and those
peoples; the emergence of the Zanadiqah [2]
in the Islamic world - who were totally against religion - as a result of
the general freedom during the rule of the 'Abbasid Caliphs (as long as it did
not interfere in the matters of state politics); the birth of philosophy in the
Muslim world - which by itself gave birth to doubts and skeptical
attitudes.
The
First Problem:
Apparently,
the first problem which was discussed and debated by the Muslims was that of
predestination and free will. This was very natural, since it is a primary
problem linked with human destiny and which attracts the interest of every
thinking adult. Perhaps it is not possible to find a society which has reached
intellectual maturity in which this problem was not raised. Secondly, the Holy
Qur'an has a large number of verses on this subject, which instigate thought in
regard to this problem. [3] Accordingly,
there is no reason to try to seek another source for the origin of this problem
in the Islamic world.
The
Orientalists, habitually, make an effort, in order to negate the originality of
the Islamic teachings, to trace the roots, at any cost, of all sciences that
originated amongst Muslims to the world outside the domains of Islam, in
particular the Christian world. Therefore, they insist that the roots of 'ilm
al-kalam should be acknowledged to lie outside Islam, and they make similar
attempts with regard to the study of grammar, prosody (and perhaps semantics,
rhetoric, and studies of literary and poetic devices), and Islamic 'irfan.
The
problem of determinism and free will (jabr wa ikhtiyar) is the same as
the problem of predestination and Divine Providence qada' wa qadar, the
first formulation relates to man and his free will, while the second one
relates to God. This problem also raises the issue of Divine Justice, because
there is an explicit connection between determinism and injustice on the one
hand, and free will and justice on the other.
The
problem of justice raises the issue of the essential good and evil of actions,
and the latter in its turn brings along with it the problem of the validity of
reason and purely rational judgements. These problems together lead to the
discussion of Divine wisdom (that is the notion that there is a judicious
purpose and aim behind Divine Acts) [4],
and thereby, gradually, to the debate about the unity of Divine Acts and the
unity of the Attributes, as we shall explain later.
The
formation of opposite camps in the debates of kalam, later acquired a
great scope, and extended to many philosophical problems, such as, substance
and accident, nature of indivisible particles which constitute physical bodies,
the problem of space, etc. This was because, in the view of the mutakallimun,
discussion of such issues was considered a prelude to the debate about
theological matters, particularly those related with mabda' (primeval
origin) and ma'ad (resurrection). In this way many of the problems of
philosophy entered 'ilm al-kalam, and now there are many problems common
to both.
If one
were to study the books on kalam, specially those written after the
7th/l3th century, one would see that most of them deal with the same problems
as those discussed by philosophers - especially, Muslim philosophers - in their
books.
Islamic philosophy
and kalam have greatly influenced each other. One of the results was
that kalam raised new problems for philosophy, and philosophy helped in
widening the scope of kalam, in the sense that dealing with many
philosophical problems came to be considered necessary in kalam. With
God's help, we hope to give an example of each of these two results of
reciprocal influence between philosophy and kalam.
