Mastering Theology: No Science Stands Alone
This is the fifth in a series of articles on mastering the science of theology drawn from a seminar delivered by Dr Hamza al-Bakri & Dr Omar Qureshi. The full seminar can be found here: Mastering Theology
No science in the Islamic tradition works entirely on its own—least of all theology.
The Foundations of Theology
Imam Ghazali (Allah have mercy on him) called theology the universal science (al-ilm al-kulli). [Ghazali, al-Mustasfa]. The reason is straightforward: theology establishes the foundations that every other Islamic science assumes.
A student of hadith relies on those foundations. So does a student of legal theory (usul al-fiqh), or of Quranic exegesis (tafsir). Theological questions do not stay confined to theology books. Whether good and evil can be discerned by reason alone (tahsin and taqbih) is debated as an issue in the science of legal theory.
However, it is, at root, a theological question. Sadr al-Sharia counts it among the most foundational issues in legal theory. [Sadr al-Sharia]
This is exactly why a serious student studies as many of the Islamic sciences as possible: theology’s reach extends into so many other disciplines.
The Masters Who Refused to Stop
Look at the great authorities of theology; none of them stopped at theology. Imam Taftazani (Allah have mercy on him) was a logician and a rhetorician as much as a theologian (mutakallim).
Rhetoric (balagha) engages questions of language and meaning that bear directly on the science of theology. He also wrote some of the greatest commentaries on legal theory, such as al-Talwih.
The pattern repeats with Imams Iji and Razi (Allah have mercy on them). Imam Razi produced works in theology alongside significant ones in legal theory. Imam Ghazali mastered legal theory, theology, Islamic jurisprudence, and logic. He even reached mastery in spirituality (tasawwuf) as well.
Focusing on theology alone and leaving the rest aside is not a path to mastery. Theological discussions in the Western academy today often go deep in theology while staying thin in the other Islamic sciences, and that imbalance weakens both.
Where Theology’s Fruit Actually Shows
The clearest evidence of theology’s reach is in tafsir and hadith commentary. Understanding the Quran draws on every Islamic science at once, and any serious work of tafsir carries substantial theological discussion running through it. The same holds for hadith commentary.
Among all the sciences, two deserve particular attention: logic (mantiq), and the science of dialectics and disputation (adab al-bahth wal-munazara). Dialectics functions as the tradition’s own pedagogy, a methodology for reasoning toward truth and arriving at it step by step.
To take up dialectics, a student needs logic first, since it assumes much of what logic has already established. Together, the two sciences supply the rules for a genuinely critical mindset.
The student does not simply start asking questions however they please. The inquiry follows the rules that the science of dialectics lays out. This same methodology carries into every other Islamic science. But the method itself can only be established by grasping the terms it works with, and that is where the next article picks up.
Related Articles
Mastering Theology: The Path to Deep Understanding – To truly know something is not to have read about it but to possess it. First in this series.
Mastering Theology: The Inner Discipline – Mastering theology requires more than intelligence; it calls for a particular kind of character. Second in this series.
Mastering Theology: Getting the Balance Right – How does a student of theology stay confident in the science while maintaining a critical mindset?
