Islamic kalam is the fruit of the efforts of early mutikallimun in the history of Islam. From among the main teachings of Islamic kalam, the immateriality of God, on the one hand, and corporeality of what is other than Him, on the other, enjoy particular importance. The
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Islamic kalam is the fruit of the efforts of early mutikallimun in the history of Islam. From among the main teachings of Islamic kalam, the immateriality of God, on the one hand, and corporeality of what is other than Him, on the other, enjoy particular importance. They are in fact two of the few issues that are almost shared by all kalami schools, especially those in early Hijri centuries. The Mu‘tazilite, Shi‘ite, Ash‘arite, and other kalami schools of thought all agree with the immateriality of God and corporeality of other than Him. This unanimity is rooted in their religiosity since they believe that attributing “immateriality” to other than God may undermine the foundations of God’s Oneness and weaken the pillars of theology. Accordingly, mutikallimun introduce what is other than God as corporeal things (whether subtle or dense) and consider the “immaterial” to be a perfect truth and an absolute needless being.
This theory is the basis of some major kalami teachings. The negation of anthropomorphism and immaterial worlds (such as the world of intellects) is among the negative aspects of this view, while the corporeality of angels, createdness of the world, annihilation of the world, and corporeal resurrection are among its affirmative aspects.
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