It is quite unfortunate that today you find universities in certain countries, whose inhabitants claim to adhere to one of the four madhhabs, refer to academic departments that teach issues of ʿAqīdah as departments of Rhetorical Argumentation (al-Kalām) or departments of Philosophy. This bitter fact illustrates how far many Muslims are from the teachings of the religion and demonstrates how ‘strange’ the (true) teachings of the religion of Islām have become.
There is a huge difference between the science of ʿAqīdah and Rhetorical Argumentation and Philosophy. This is because the term al-Tawḥīd is a Sharī ʿah legislated term as evidence in Sūrah al-Ikhlāṣ as well as the ḥadīth of Muʿādh Ibn Jabal when the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) sent him to Yemen and said to him, “Make the first thing you call them to be professing the Oneness of Allāh (أن يوحدوا الله…).”
In a similar manner, the Salaf used this term. It is narrated in al-Bukhārī[1] that al-Harāwī narrated from al-Shāfiʿī that he said, “I asked Mālik about al-Kalām and al-Tawḥīd. And he replied, ‘It is impossible for us to think that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) taught his nation how to clean after relieving themselves, but not al-Tawḥīd!’”[2]
[2] Fatāwá ‘Ulamā al-Mālikīyah fī Taqrīr ‘Aqīdah Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamā’ah, (pg.65).
.departments of Rhetorical Argumentation
