The Ruling on Studying the Science of Theology in Universities

Question:
May Allah reward you. Honorable Shaykh, a questioner says: If the science of theology (kalam) is of no benefit, why do we study it in our universities?

Answer:
We study it in our universities, if it is actually taught. In my time of study, during the era of the Shaykhs, Shaykh Muhammad refused to teach it and abstained from doing so. If it was taught after that, my experience with the university, meaning from long ago, I do not know, but if it is taught, their intention is that a person should be able to refute them. If he knows their terminology and knows their method, he can refute them, just as Islam has a refutation for them, because it digested these sciences and studied them, enabling it to refute them. So their intention is good, if Allah wills, and that is what is presumed of them. That they teach it or include it in the curriculum so that the student has knowledge of it, enabling him to refute them based on their own words.