What Do the Technical Terms of the Theologians (Kalam) Mean?
Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Question
I am studying theology and need definitions of technical terms the scholars use: sifat, huduth, ‘arad, mahal, mukhassis, jirm, ta‘lil, and tab‘i. Please add any I have missed.
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful and Compassionate
These terms are the working vocabulary of Ash‘ari and Maturidi theology (kalam).
Most of them belong to a single argument: the proof of the Maker from the origination of the world. So the definitions below are given as the interlocking set they are, in the order the argument uses them.
The concepts these relate to, the arguments that these terms are used to construct, and many underlying assumptions are all nuanced and subtle.
Theology aims to affirm the “greatest of the certainties in existence”-understanding Reality, and the reality of the Oneness of Allah, His Attributes, and His Actions.
Creation is from His Actions.
My teacher, Shaykh Adib Kallas (Allah have mercy upon him) of Damascus, frequently referred to Shaykh al-Islam Imam Ibrahim al-Bajuri as “the verifier of the creed of Ahl al-Sunna (muhaqqiq aqidat ahl al-sunna).” Most of these definitions are taken from his writings:
Body (jirm). Whatever occupies space — from a star to a dust mote. The theologians analyze bodies as composed of substances (jawhar): the indivisible units of created being. [Bajuri, Tuhfat al-Murid]
Accident (‘arad). A quality (and “attribute”) that exists in a body, never on its own: color, motion, rest, heat, shape. Accidents come and go while the body remains, and accidents do not endure of themselves.
Locus (mahal). The substrate in which something subsists. A body is the locus of its accidents — the apple is the locus of its redness. The term is relational, which is why it is best learned alongside ‘arad.
Origination (huduth). Coming into existence after non-existence. Bodies are never free of changing accidents, and what is never free of the originated is itself originated. The world’s origination is the spine of the “kalam proof”: whatever begins needs a giver of being.
Determiner (mukhassis). What originated was merely possible—it could have existed or not, been this way or otherwise. Something must single out (khassasa) its existence over its absence, its form over every alternative. The proof concludes that this determiner is Allah Most High: living, knowing, willing, and powerful. [Sanusi, Umm al-Barahin]
Attributes (sifat). What is eternally affirmed for Allah’s Essence? The Sanusi tradition orders them in four divisions [Sanusi, Umm al-Barahin]. The essential attribute (nafsiyya) is Existence. The negating attributes (salbiyya) are Beginninglessness, Everlastingness, Absolute Difference from creation, Self-Subsistence, and Oneness.
The attributes of meaning (ma‘ani) are Power, Will, Knowledge, Life, Hearing, Sight, and Speech. Their entailments (ma‘nawiyya) are His being powerful, willing, knowing, and so on.
Necessary causation (ta‘lil) and nature (tab‘). Both concern how effects relate to causes. Ta‘lil is explaining an effect by a necessary cause (‘illa).
Tab‘ is the claim that things produce effects by natures intrinsic to them — fire burning, they say, by its own nature. [Sawi/Dardir, Hashiyat al-Sawi `ala Sharh al-Kharida al-Bahiyya]
The theologians deny independent natural causation: Allah alone creates every effect, customarily at its cause, so causes are occasions of His act, not agents alongside. Him [Bajuri, Tuhfat al-Murid; Dardir, Sharh al-Kharida al-Bahiyya]
Your renderings “consequential emergence” and “innate cause” follow a particular teacher’s translations, so when you read any author, anchor each term to that author’s own definition first.
Definitions Live inside Arguments — Take Them with a Teacher
It is critical to remember that kalam terms are tools of a proof, and they only hold their precise edge inside it.
Your next step: study a short text, such as Umm al-Barahin, with a teacher — the SeekersGuidance theology courses are free and designed for exactly this. May Allah give you all good in both worlds, as you prayed for us, and make you of those who know Him by proof and love Him beyond it.
And Allah knows best.
[Shaykh] Faraz Rabbani
Related Answers
- The Ash‘aris and Maturidis: Standards of Mainstream Sunni Beliefs — The two mainstream schools of Sunni theology and how they treat the divine attributes.
- What Is Aqida and Why Study It? — The science of theology, its subject matter, and why its rational proofs guard faith.
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Shaykh Faraz Rabbani is a recognized specialist scholar in the Islamic sciences, having studied under leading scholars from around the world. He is the Founder and Executive Director of SeekersGuidance.
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