The Theologico-Scientific Research Program of the Mutakallimūn: Intellectual Historical Context and Contemporary Concerns with Special Reference to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

Abstract

Situating kalm in its full intellectual historical context reveals it as a systematic theocentric scientific research program possessing of objective cognitive content. On the one hand kalm is about understanding God, and on the other it is about understanding Creation, and in between lies the rational mind mediating between the two poles of Being: one absolute, the other contingent, relating one to the other and integrating them within the framework of a comprehensive and coherent Qurnic worldview. Unsurprisingly, the investigative nature of this research program demands of the mutakallimn a mastery of the revealed, rational, and empirical sciences which enables them to critically engage the scientists and philosophers with a view toward the formulation of a sophisticated, empirically rich, theocentric counter-science. Fakhr al-Dn al-Rz plays a central role in the conceptual and empirical maturation of this research program, thus serving as an intellectual beacon for Muslim scientists in their systemic quest for a contemporary counter-science “powerful and elaborate enough to function as a substitute” for modern Western science.