{🧵} al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī رضي الله عنه and ʿIlm al-Kalām
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Wahhābīs and pseudo-Shāfiʿīs love to misquote our Imām on this, so I shall mention here the narrations which prove that he did not prohibit Kalām as a whole, but rather allowed Sunnī Kalām, and explain narrations that seem to indicate otherwise.
Wahhābīs and pseudo-Shāfiʿīs love to misquote our Imām on this, so I shall mention here the narrations which prove that he did not prohibit Kalām as a whole, but rather allowed Sunnī Kalām, and explain narrations that seem to indicate otherwise.
{💎} Section 1- Where he unrestrictedly prohibited it
al-Shāfiʿī once debated Ḥafṣ al-Fard, a Muʿtazilī. After the debate, he said: “That a person be tested with all sins other then Shirk is better than he be tested with Kalām.”
al-Shāfiʿī said: “Anyone who wears the garment of Kalām shall never succeed.”
al-Shāfiʿī said: “My ruling on the people of Kalām is that they be beaten with palmsticks........ This is the punishment for those who left the Kitāb and the Sunnah and embraced Kalām.”
{💎} Section 2- Explanation
al-Bayhaqī explains that what al-Shāfiʿī means is the Kalām of the Muʿtazilah, as they were the ones known as “Ahl al-Kalām” back then. He also explains that the reason for al-Shāfiʿī prohibiting Kalām in some narrations while using them in others...
...is that when al-Shāfiʿī was first in al-ʿIrāq, there were not much Mubtadiʿah, but when he later returned to al-ʿIrāq in the caliphate of al-Maʾmūn, the city was full of Muʿtazilah (Ahl al-Kalām as they called them). Therefore, al-Shāfiʿī was forced to use Kalām against them.
al-Bayhaqī further establishes that the fact that al-Shāfiʿī allowed Kalām is not just some Taʾwīl cooked up to defend Ashʿarīs. Rather, it is established from him through authentic chains.
The explanation of the first Athar I mentioned (al-Shāfiʿī dispraising Kalām in the debate with Ḥafṣ al-Fard) is that this was talking about Muʿtazilī Kalām, the Kalām of Ḥafṣ al-Fard. The following narration proves that this is what is meant:
al-Shāfiʿī said in the same incident but a different narration: “That Allāh strikes a person with sins as much as the mountain of Tihāmah is better than he be struck with a single letter from the belief of this man (referring to Ḥafṣ al-Fard, the Muʿtazilī).”
This proves that this narration was only talking about the Kalām of the Muʿtazilah. As for the second Athar, it also refers to the Kalām of the Mubtadiʿah, as I shall explain in a while.
As for the third Athar, his saying “This is the punishment for those who left the Kitāb and the Sunnah and embraced Kalām,” leaving the Kitāb and Sunnah is a condition for Kalām being blameworthy, as is understood from this (Dalīl al-Khiṭāb), as you shall see from his own words.
al-Shāfiʿī said: “Every Mutakallim upon the Kitāb and the Sunnah is what is needed, and every Mutakallim upon anything other than the Uṣūl of the Kitāb and the Sunnah, then that is nonsense.”
The Isnād of the above is authentic without a doubt:
Zakariyyā al-Sājī -> Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Sulamī -> al-Karābīsī -> al-Shāfiʿī
All of them are famous Imāms, all trustworthy.
Zakariyyā al-Sājī -> Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Sulamī -> al-Karābīsī -> al-Shāfiʿī
All of them are famous Imāms, all trustworthy.
This is exactly the definition of Sunnī Kalām, and this is very clear on which Kalām al-Shāfiʿī prohibited.
al-Bayhaqī comments: “How can he (entirely) prohibit Kalām when he himself used it?”
Here are the proofs that he used it:
al-Bayhaqī comments: “How can he (entirely) prohibit Kalām when he himself used it?”
Here are the proofs that he used it:
al-Shāfiʿī used Kalām, and he was told “This is for the people of Kalām, not for the people of Ḥalāl and Ḥarām (Fiqh).” al-Shāfiʿī said: “We mastered that (Fiqh) before this (Kalām).”
This proves that al-Shāfiʿī himself used Kalām, and he even mastered it after having mastered Fiqh.
Though one may say that al-Bayhaqī did not mention the Isnād for this (though he said that it exists). No problem, son. I can show you one with an authentic Isnād.
Though one may say that al-Bayhaqī did not mention the Isnād for this (though he said that it exists). No problem, son. I can show you one with an authentic Isnād.
The following narration says:
al-Shāfiʿī used Kalām against Ḥafṣ al-Fard. When he said that the Qurʾān is Makhlūq, al-Shāfiʿī said: “You have disbelieved in Allāh, the Great.”
Keyword: al-Shāfiʿī used Kalām
al-Shāfiʿī used Kalām against Ḥafṣ al-Fard. When he said that the Qurʾān is Makhlūq, al-Shāfiʿī said: “You have disbelieved in Allāh, the Great.”
Keyword: al-Shāfiʿī used Kalām
Its Isnād is as bright as the sun, for every person in its Isnād was from the greats Imāms:
al-Bayhaqī -> Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī -> ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Ziyād -> Ibn Khuzaymah -> al-Rabīʿ -> al-Shāfiʿī.
al-Bayhaqī -> Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī -> ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Ziyād -> Ibn Khuzaymah -> al-Rabīʿ -> al-Shāfiʿī.
Here is narration of al-Shāfiʿī using Kalām against Ḥafṣ al-Fard, but its Isnād has Abū Aḥmad b. Abī al-Ḥasan al-Dārimī (a teacher of al-Ḥākim) whom I could not find a biography for. So there's no use of Istidlāl with it, and what we mentioned earlier is enough.
al-Bayhaqī also says: “The Kalām of Ahl al-Sunnah is based on the Kitāb and the Sunnah. Anyone from Ahl al-Sunnah who (sometimes) used Kalām based on logic only did so to prove that Islām does not contradict logic, nothing else.”
May Allāh ﷻ be pleased with Imām al-Mutakallimīn Muḥammad b. Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī.
والحمد لله وب العالمين
والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين
وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين
ما دام ما في السماوات والأرضين
والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين
وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين
ما دام ما في السماوات والأرضين
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