History of kalam

Kalam cosmological argument and opportunism

One of the conditions for enslaving the opinion of others is that the follower will not understand that he is in fact a slave. Whenever he realizes this, the stained glass of slavery will be shattered; This is a rupture and chaos whose reunification is impossible.

-Al-Ghazali, Al-Munqiya Min Al-Dalal

Surprisingly, al-Ghazali remains more unknown in our Muslim society than it is known. Al-Ghazali is known to Islamic theologians as the savior of Islam, freed from the "impurity" of Greek philosophy of the time.

Such is his image in the Muslim mind. Ibn Sina wrote Ihya'a Uloom al-Din (Revival of Religious Science) to free Neoplatonist philosophers such as al-Farabi from the influence of Aristotelian sophistry. However, his philosophical works have remained hidden in our society.

Even today, the philosopher al-Ghazali is not well known to us, but in this age of intellectual infertility in our Muslim world, there can be no better ideal than al-Ghazali in spreading the great culture of independent knowledge.

I knew the world-famous philosopher of the Islamic Golden Age, Ibn Sina, or the curious Ibn Rushd, who peeked over Pythagoras' neck in the paintings of Raphael Sanzio's School of Athens.

But maybe al-Ghazali didn't care because he was a theologian, or maybe I heard from Muslim society itself or some Orientalists that Al-Ghazali's opposition to Greek philosophy made me think that al-Ghazali might be a slave to theology. But one day while browsing the internet, I came across an argument about the existence of a creator called Kalam Cosmological Argument.

Al-Ghazali is far more unfamiliar in Muslim society than he is known to be, but in this age of intellectual infertility there can be no better ideal than Al-Ghazali in spreading the great culture of independent knowledge.

Image Credit: The Muslim Vibe

Cosmological arguments were already known, only those interested in any philosophy should know; Basically, philosophers and theologians have given a lot of evidence in the ages to prove the existence of the Creator.

Some of these point to the marvelous design of the universe; That all of this is really the work of an independent entity. Again something proves His existence to be the original cause; Everything must have a beginning, which is the Creator. The latter type of argument is called cosmological or cosmic evidence. However, the cosmological arguments that are popular all over the world, including in the Western world, are those of the thirteenth-century Christian theologian Thomas Aquinas.

Seeing the word kalam in the title, I understood that it would be related to Islamic philosophy and tradition. But I never thought it was al-Ghazali's own proof.

Although there is a lot of discussion and ancient discussion about the proof of the Creator in the philosophical tradition, it is no exaggeration to say that the proof of the Creator was non-existent in today's professional philosophical society. And the rate of atheism in the philosophical circles is close to seventy percent.

The nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche even announced the death of the Creator. At such a time in the twentieth century, a Christian theologian and philosopher, William Lane Craig, is doing his doctorate with evidence from a book that is almost a millennium old.

The title of the book is Tahafut al-Falasifa (the incoherence of philosophers), and needless to say, the author of the book is Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

Al-Ghazali's argument for the existence of a Creator is extremely simple. Only three lines long-

1. There is a reason behind the existence of something that has a beginning.

2. There is a beginning to the existence of the universe.

3. Thus, the reason for the existence of the universe exists.

But of course it is simple in appearance, but its discussion is not at all simple. Otherwise there was no need to do Lane Craig's PhD. The main objection to the argument about any first cause is that what is the reason behind the first cause? Since the cause of everything exists? But al-Ghazali did not say that the explanation or cause of everything exists. Says that at one time the cause of its existence exists.

Like most of the philosophers of al-Ghazali's time, the world has existed forever. Al-Ghazali, however, said it was impossible; Because according to this view, if the universe has existed for an infinite period of time, then infinite time exists before today, as it did yesterday. So why today? Why not yesterday? He added that infinite causation is impossible, because it will never achieve the present.

William Craig wrote the book "The Kalam Cosmological Argument" about the existence of Al-Ghazali's creator.

Image Credit: palgrave.com, calvin.edu

When al-Ghazali was writing these words, there was no experimental scientific theory about the origin of the universe as there is now. The current Big Bang Theory points to a beginning; So it is not unclear why the appeal of this millennial argument has caught the eye of William Craig.

Craig has since debated with a number of atheist philosophers and scientists, and the cosmological argument has always been one of his weapons. Which he has brought into the eyes of the present modern world. And in honor of the Islamic tradition, he named it 'Kalam Cosmological Argument'. Because in the medieval Islamic tradition, logic was called ilmul kalam.

At present the argument is that Chanchal