What is the ruling on applying the term *ilm al-kalam* to the science of *aqidah*?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it correct to apply the name *ilm al-kalam* to *aqidah*, since we have heard people saying this?
Answer:
Yes, they call *ilm al-kalam* the science of *tawhid* (the oneness of Allah). In their books, they use it as a title for their books, such as "The Book of *Tawhid*." But when you read it, you find that it is all debate and logic. They call it *tawhid* in their opinion because they believe that *tawhid* is established by rational proofs. They call it *tawhid* for this reason. This is a mistake. It is not a book of *tawhid*; it is a book of debate. It should be called "The Book of Debate," not "The Book of *Tawhid*." Yes.
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, is it correct to apply the name *ilm al-kalam* to *aqidah*, since we have heard people saying this?
Answer:
Yes, they call *ilm al-kalam* the science of *tawhid* (the oneness of Allah). In their books, they use it as a title for their books, such as "The Book of *Tawhid*." But when you read it, you find that it is all debate and logic. They call it *tawhid* in their opinion because they believe that *tawhid* is established by rational proofs. They call it *tawhid* for this reason. This is a mistake. It is not a book of *tawhid*; it is a book of debate. It should be called "The Book of Debate," not "The Book of *Tawhid*." Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [646 -1024] ما صحة إطلاق علم الكلام على علم العقيدة؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.