Abstract
When examining classical-era kalām books, we may be at first surprised by the great importance
given to language in their theological discussions and the recognition of linguists (ahl al-lugha) as authorities.
Whenever Muslim theologians (mutakallimūn) deal with any issue, they first determine how the linguists
would have made sense of the relevant terms and then explain it in a way that is appropriate for use in
Arabic. This sensitivity to language is not only limited to defining the Islamic terms such as “belief” (īmān),
“unbelief” (kufr), “disobedience” (ma‘ṣiya), and “justice” (‘adl), but also includes defining the terms of physics
and cosmology. In other words, when conceptualizing terms such as “universe” (al-‘ālam), “body” (jism),
“substance (jawhar), “accident” (‘araḍ), “motion” (ḥaraka), and “rest” (sukūn), these theologians mostly take
into account how the speakers of language commonly use them. This article seeks to answer the question
of why they regard language as an important discipline, alongside cosmological issues, in the context of
the language-thought-existence relationship. Perhaps by making a thought system based on Arabic, which
happened to emerge in their regions as a result of long-time interactions with the natural environment and
consequently became conveyers of a particular worldview and way of thinking, they sought to resist the
impact of the Greek worldview and logic that poured into the Islamic world from all lands via translations.
In other words, the primary reason why the theologians considered language as the authority in theological
and cosmological discussions was because they saw it, along with its structure and concepts, as a carrier of
their traditional worldviews and way of thinking.
Keywords
Kalām Language logic thought existenceShare
Details
- Authors: Mehmet Bulğen, Assoc. Prof., Marmara University
- DOI: dx.doi.org/10.12658/Nazariyat.5.1.M0065en
- Year: 2019 (May) / Volume: 5 / Issue: 1
- Page: 37-82
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