Editing Early Islamic philosophy (section)

=== Kalam ===
{{Main|Kalam}}
{{More citations needed section|date=June 2023}}

''Ilm al-Kalām'' ({{langx|ar|علم الكلام}}, literally the study of "speech" or "words") is the [[Islamic philosophy|Islamic philosophical]] discipline of seeking [[Islamic theology|theological]] principles through [[dialectic]]. Kalām in Islamic practice relates to the discipline of seeking theological knowledge through debate and argument. A scholar of kalām is referred to as a ''mutakallim'' (plural ''mutakallimiin'').

With [[Kalam]], questions about the [[Sirah Rasul Allah|sira]] and [[hadith]], as well as science ([[Islamic science]]) and law ([[fiqh]] and [[sharia]]), began to be investigated beyond the scope of Muhammad's beliefs. This period is characterized by emergence of [[ijtihad]] and the first [[fiqh]]. As the Sunnah became published and accepted, philosophy separate from [[Muslim theology]] was discouraged due to a lack of participants. During this period, traditions similar to [[Socratic method]] began to evolve, but philosophy remained subordinate to religion.

Independent minds exploiting the methods of [[ijtihad]] sought to investigate the doctrines of the [[Qur'an]], which until then had been accepted in faith on the authority of divine revelation. One of the first debates was that between the [[Qadarites]], who affirmed [[free will]], and the ''[[Jabarites]]'', who maintained the belief in [[fatalism]].

At the 2nd century of the [[Hijri year|Hijra]], a new movement arose in the theological school of [[Basra]], [[Iraq]]. A pupil, [[Wasil ibn Ata]] (AD 700–748), who was expelled from the school of [[Hasan of Basra]] because his answers were contrary to then-orthodox Islamic tradition and became leader of a new school, and systematized the radical opinions of preceding sects, particularly those of the Qadarites. This new school was called ''[[Mu'tazilism|Muʿtazila]]'' (from ''i'tazala'', which means "to separate oneself" or "to dissent") that lasted from the 8th to 10th centuries. Its principal dogmas were three:

#God is an absolute unity, and no attribute can be ascribed to Him.
#Man is a free agent. It is on account of these two principles that the Mu'tazilities designate themselves the "Partisans of Justice and Unity".
#All knowledge necessary for the [[salvation]] of man emanates from his reason; humans could acquire knowledge before, as well as after, Revelation, by the sole light of reason. This fact makes knowledge obligatory upon all men, at all times, and in all places.

In the [[history of Islam]], one of the earliest [[Schools of Islamic theology|systematic schools of Islamic theology]] to develop were the [[Mu'tazilism|Muʿtazila]] in the mid-8th century CE.<ref name="Schmidtke 2016"/><ref name="Peters 1980">{{cite journal |author-last=Peters |author-first=J. R. T. M. |date=1980 |title=La théologie musulmane et l'étude du langage |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_1980_num_2_1_1049 |journal=Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=Société d'histoire et d'Épistémologie des Sciences du Langage |volume=2 |issue=1: ''Éléments d'Histoire de la tradition linguistique arabe'' |language=fr |doi=10.3406/hel.1980.1049 |doi-access=free |pages=9–19 |issn=1638-1580 |access-date=2021-11-30 |archive-date=2021-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130233309/https://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_1980_num_2_1_1049 |url-status=live }}</ref> Muʿtazilite theologians emphasized the use of [[reason]] and [[Rationalism|rational thought]], positing that the injunctions of [[God in Islam|God]] are accessible through rational thought and inquiry, and affirmed that [[Quranic createdness|the Quran was created]] (''makhlūq'') rather than co-eternal with God, which would develop into one of the most contentious questions in the history of Islamic theology.<ref name="Schmidtke 2016"/><ref name="Peters 1980"/>

In the 9th–10th century CE, the [[Ash'arism|Ashʿarī school]] developed as a response to the Muʿtazila, founded by the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologian [[Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari|Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī]].<ref name="Thiele 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Thiele |author-first=Jan |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Between Cordoba and Nīsābūr: The Emergence and Consolidation of Ashʿarism (Fourth–Fifth/Tenth–Eleventh Century) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA225 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=225–241 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.45 |isbn=978-0-19-969670-3 |lccn=2016935488}}</ref> Ashʿarītes still taught the use of reason in understanding the Quran, but denied the possibility to deduce moral truths by reasoning.<ref name="Thiele 2016"/> This position was opposed by the [[Maturidism|Māturīdī school]];<ref name="Ulrich 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Rudolph |author-first=Ulrich |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Ḥanafī Theological Tradition and Māturīdism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=285–290 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.023 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488}}</ref> according to its founder, the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologian [[Abu Mansur al-Maturidi|Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī]], human reason is supposed to acknowledge the existence of a [[creator deity]] (''bāriʾ'') solely [[Rationalism|based on rational thought]] and independently from divine revelation.<ref name="Ulrich 2016"/> He shared this conviction with his teacher and predecessor [[Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man|Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān]] (8th century CE), whereas al-Ashʿarī never held such a view.<ref name="Ulrich 2016"/>

According to the Afghan-American philosopher [[Sayed Hassan Akhlaq|Sayed Hassan Hussaini]], the early schools of Islamic theology and theological beliefs among classical Muslim philosophers are characterized by "a rich color of [[Deism]] with a slight disposition toward [[theism]]".<ref name="Hussaini 2016">{{cite journal |last=Hussaini |first=Sayed Hassan |author-link=Sayed Hassan Akhlaq |date=2016 |title=Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism |journal=Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |location=[[Braga]] |publisher=Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural |volume=72 |issue=1: ''Teísmos: Aportações Filosóficas do Leste e Oeste / Theisms: Philosophical Contributions from the East to the West'' |pages=65–83 |doi=10.17990/RPF/2016_72_1_0065 |issn=0870-5283 |jstor=43816275}}</ref>