Islamic Theology

Aims

Islamic Theology, or Kalam, has its roots in the Quran and Hadith and its influence can be seen on many facets of Muslim thought. Muslim theologians have produced a vast corpus of literature throughout the course of history. This module aims to critically analyse the development of Islamic theology. In this historical approach, the main concepts, different schools and great Muslim thinkers of the field and the extent to which these thinkers relied upon the Quran and Hadith will be evaluated.

Syllabus

'Ilm al-kalam (literally 'the science of debate') denotes a discipline of Islamic thought generally referred to as 'theology' or (even less accurately) as 'scholastic theology', is one of the Islamic sciences, which deals with the fundamental Islamic doctrines. The Islamic teachings are divided into three parts: Doctrines ('aqa'id), Morals (akhlaq), and the Law (ahkam). The science which deals with the first of the above-mentioned is 'ilm al-kalam. The module is intended to deal with the prominent representatives of kalam as well as its major issues.

Discussions in "classical" Kalam centred around a number of theological issues including, but not limited to, God's names and qualities, free will and predestination, the relationship between reason and revelation, and political philosophy. The course will examine these issues within the larger context of Islamic thought and try to see how Kalam arguments have been articulated in a more and more philosophical language until the culmination of this process in Khwaja Nasir al-din al-Tusi.

There will also be a critical analysis of the historical development of Mu`tazilism, Ash'arism and Shi`ism. To complement this, there will be a survey of such leading theologians as Wasil ibn Ata, the founder of the Mu'tazilite school of thought, and his later followers, namely Nazzam and al-Jahiz; Abu'l-Hasan al-Ash'ari, the founder of the Ash'arite school of thought, and his tradition, and how their thought both influenced and was by adjusted by the later theologians, namely Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Ibn Taymiyya. Parallel with this, the ideas of the most outstanding Shi`ite theologians, which reached its culmination with `Allamah al-Hilli, a contemporary of Ibn Taymiyya, will be examined.