DAQĪQ AL-KALĀM - DEVELOPING A CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

[PLEASE NOTE - The course is BOTH in person ONSITE in London and for those who can not attend in person can purchase the LIVE ONLINE STREAMING ticket to watch it from their device and those coming in person, should you not decide to attend person on the day or half the day, you will still recieve a link to the live online streaming, irrespective but are encouraged to attend in person if you have registered for that ticket, as this helps with allows room allocation, respectively for fellow participants].

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Islamic Courses present:

DAQĪQ AL-KALĀM - DEVELOPING A CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

With Professor Basil Altaie [Emeritus Visiting Professor at the School of Physics & Astronomy, Leeds University]

Date: Saturday 31st January 2026

Time: 9am - 6pm

Venue: Ebrahim College, 399–401 High Street, Stratford, London, E15 4QZ

Classically, kalam was considered to form the foundation of jurisprudence (fiqh) which in turn constitutes the basis for the shariah, which comprises the Islamic religious rules of life. The reason for this was that the shariah constitutes a deductive system of rules and instructions which needs a logical foundation in order to be fully justified and established. Kalam was further classified into jalil al-kalam and daqiq al-kalām. The former is the part dealing with problems related to the divine attributes, the resurrection of the dead, and the questions which relate to the divine knowledge, will, and power. These subjects lead on to the question of human free will, as held by one school of Kalam, and the counterproposal of self acquisition (kasb) of actions that was suggested by another school. Daqiq al-Kalām deals with problems of natural philosophy, most prominent among which is the question of the creation of the world, its structure, temporal development, and the meaning of causality. This entails discussions of the concepts of space, time, motion, force, and many other aspects of the physical world. It will be shown that daqiq al-kalām can provide the basis for a contemporary philosophy of science which resolves many of the philosophical questions raised by modern physics. Altaie is his discovery that the scholars based their arguments on five basic principles: Temporality; Atomism; Continual re-creation; Contingency and Indeterminacy of the world and Integrity of space and time and looking at Ibn Rushd, Ibn Hazm, Al Baqillani, Mutazalis, al-Shahrustani, Ghazali, Quentin Smith, Grunbaum, Hawking, Hartle, and others. Many of the arguments of daqiq al-kalām are still living and have sound value in contemporary science and the philosophy of modern science. Whilst there is genuine research work needs to be done in order to identify the possible scope for deploying kalam in the contemporary science-religion dialogue.

Drawing upon the following works: 1. Basil Altaie, Islam and Natural Philosophy: Principles of Daqīq al-kalam, Beacon Books 2023. 2. Basil Altaie, God, Nature & the Cause, 2nd edition Beacon Books 2025. 3. Hary Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalām, Harvard University Press 1976. 4. Dhanani, A.. The physical theory of Kalām: Atoms, space, and void in Basrian Mu‘tazilī cosmology (Vol. 14). Brill. 1992.

This short intensive overview course will cover the following:

1. Historical background and the contemporary need for Daqiq al-Kalām

2. The principles of Daqīq al-Kalām and their scientific value. Temporality; Atomism; Continual re-creation; Contingency and Indeterminacy of the world and Integrity of space and time and looking at Ibn Rushd, Ibn Hazm, Al Baqillani, Mutazalis, al-Shahrustani, Ghazali, Quentin Smith, Grunbaum, Hawking, Hartle, and others.

3. Applications of The Principles of Daqiq al-kalām

4. Extended Q and A with general discussion on contemporary science-religion dialogue and debates.

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About the course presenter: * Professor Basil Altaie is Emeritus Visiting Professor at the School of Physics & Astronomy, Leeds University. He obtained his PhD from Manchester University in 1978 and has worked on fundamental research problems in Quantum Field Theory and General Relativity, publishing more than two dozens of papers in peer reviewed journals like the Physical Review and the IOP journals. Over the past 40 years Altaie has taught many physics courses at Mosul University, Iraq and at Yarmouk University, Jordan and has supervised research projects at postgraduate levels. Altaie has worked on topics in Islamic Kalām that deals with problems of Natural Philosophy. He claims that Kalām can provide full view of the Islamic Philosophy of Nature. This he expressed in his book Daqīq al-Kalām: the Islamic Approach to Natural Philosophy. He has been invited by several universities and institutions worldwide to give talks about his theory. Altaie is the author of God, Nature and the Cause, 10 other titles in arabic.

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AUDIENCE: Open to ALL and any one interested in Kalam, science, metaphysics, philosophy and classical Islamic scholarship and contemporary science-religion dialogue and debates on an advanced level.

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All welcome, limited spaces, pre-registration required!

DEADLINE FOR BOOKINGS APPLY after which prices increase

For more information call/tel: 07956735301 or email: [email protected]

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* Please note, time and resources have been set aside to ensure the programme runs in a smooth and professional manner for the maximum benefit of participants and thus unless the programme has been postponed or cancelled, there are NO REFUNDS as part of the terms and condition policy.

*Lunch and refreshments can be purchased at cafe's or restaurant's near to the venue and NOT included in ticket price.

*The course is BOTH in person ONSITE in London and for those who can not attend in person can purchase the LIVE ONLINE STREAMING ticket to watch it from their device and those coming in person, should decide not to attend person on the day or half the day, you will still recieve a link to the live online streaming, irrespective but are encouraged to attend in person if you have registered for that ticket, as this helps with allows room allocation, respectively for fellow participants

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