INADEQUACY OF THEOLOGY

Such is the origin of scholastic theology original: "kalam" — a rationalist approach to Islamic theology used to defend the faith against skeptics. Many of its adepts, worthy of their high calling, valiantly defended the orthodox faith by proving the reality of prophecy and the falsity of heretical innovations. But, in order to do so, they had to rely upon a certain number of premises, which ] they accepted in common with their adversaries, and which authority and universal consent or simply the Koran and the traditions original: "hadith" — the recorded sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad obliged them to accept. Their principal effort was to expose the self-contradictions of their opponents and to confute them by means of the premises | which they had professed to accept. Now a method of argumentation like this has little value for one who only admits self-evident truths. Scholastic theology could not consequently satisfy me nor heal the malady from which I suffered.

It is true that in its later development theology was not content merely to defend dogma; it betook itself to the study of first principles, of substances, accidents In medieval philosophy, "substance" is what a thing is essentially, while "accidents" are non-essential qualities like color or size and the laws which govern them; but through want of a thoroughly scientific basis, it could not advance far in its researches, nor succeed in dispelling entirely the overhanging obscurity which springs from diversities of belief.

I do not, however, deny that it has had a more satisfactory result for others; on the contrary, I admit that it has; but it is by introducing the principle of authority in matters which are not self-evident. Moreover, my object is to explain