Kalam Research & Media
Kalam Research & Media (KRM) is a collegial think-tank and training centre, founded by theologian Dr. Aref Ali Nayed. KRM is dedicated to research, education, content development, and capacity building in the following core areas: Islamic Theology (Kalam); Islamic Philosophy and Wisdom; Islamic Philosophy of Science, Technology, and the Environment; Inter-Faith Engagement; Inter-Faith; Conflict Prevention & Resolution; Scriptural Reasoning and Hermeneutics; Islamic Professional and Business Ethics; Creative and Critical Thinking.
The Riwaq Project
Kalam Research & Media are presently developing an online collaboration portal to facilitate discussion and interaction centering around Ilm al-Kalam, between religious scholars, students of sacred knowledge, scientists, philosophers, academics, and other experts in their fields. The online platform is part funded by the John Templeton Foundation’s Analytic Theology initiative to help revive this tradition of Analytic Theology amongst Muslims that has fallen by the wayside in post-modern and post-colonial times.
Kalam is a vast subject encompassing theology, philosophy and spirituality, logic, and science and has been at the forefront of addressing and resolving theological questions facing Muslims throughout its history. In the present era, important and far-reaching questions are being raised by science, research and secularity, that Muslims are seemingly ill-equipped to deal with. It is by going back to our own analytic theology tradition that Muslims can begin to analyse and understand the key questions facing us today. Kalam will enable us to be a prepared and equipped to take part in the global discourse that is taking place and to express our unique perspective on the issues of the day that will shape the ideas of tomorrow.
The problem thus far has been that the science of Kalam has been marginalized and pushed to the fringes by very vocal sectarian voices, much to the detriment of Muslim scholarly responses to the contemporary context. We find that Muslim scholars are working in isolation of scientists and other experts whose fields raise very serious and pertinent questions of religion, ethics and belief. Conversely, scientists and other experts very rarely consult religious scholars, because most of the time they don’t know which religious scholars can help them tackle such questions that arise and often times such questions challenge certain commonly held beliefs and views amongst Muslims. Our aim with the Riwaq Portal Project is to bring together scholars, scientists and experts to exchange views and ideas, to enter into debate and discussion and tackle some of the key questions raised today and open up inter-disciplinary dialogue.
The Riwaq Portal
It is with this in mind that we are developing the Riwaq Portal.
In traditional Islamic architecture, a “riwaq” is the area that surrounds the courtyard of mosques and education institutions. This area served as a place for meeting, discussion and exchange of ideas and this is what we hope the Riwaq Portal Project will achieve.
The Portal is based around the idea and functionality of social and professional networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, but keenly focussed on discussing issues of theology. Participation on the Portal will be by invite only with a rigorous vetting process for any new registrations. This is so that disruptive elements do not find their way on to the site so that we can maintain a friendly and convivial atmosphere. Discussions will, by default, only be visible to registered users of the Portal and all registered details of the users will not be in the public domain and only available to the members of the Riwaq Portal.
The Portal will have a public facing website, which will host various articles and other content relevant to the subject of Kalam, Philosophy, Science, Logic, and so on. Only registered users can leave comments and participate in discussions.
To give you an idea of our publishing capabilities, our current monograph collection can be viewed and downloaded here:
Resources
We have a number of auxiliary projects under development that would be useful and indispensable resources for theologians, they are as follows:
The Digital Hawashi Project – In the pilot stages, we will be presenting the Creed of Nasafi and Taftazani’s commentary in digital form and overlay on to the texts some of the leading classical hashiya commentaries. The system will also allow for contemporary discussions and additional comments to be made on the text. It is hoped that contemporary commentaries will arise from this interaction and to then extend this platform to other key Kalam texts in the future.
The Kalam Glossary Project – There are around 400 key Kalam terms that have developed over time. The glossary project will catalogue these terms, track how they have been used and how their meaning and application have changed through history. The object here is to extrapolate contemporary relevance and meaning and to establish the parameters and reasons for the development of the terms.
In addition, the glossary project has been extended to included general glossary items of interest, such as scholar bios, annotated bibliographies, other terms in use, and so on.
The Kalam Manuscript Catalogue – We have initiated a project to collate and catalogue various Kalam-related texts that are found in various libraries and collections around the world. This is so that we have a single database for relevant Kalam texts that may be required by scholars and those wishing to study and reference the texts. It is also an objective of this project to uncover lesser known and perhaps unknown texts as well.
As you can see, we are involved in a number of key technology projects that endeavor to make the resources of Kalam more accessible, to make collaboration easier and to further develop the tradition of Kalam by giving it contemporary relevance. We hope that you will join us in this endeavor by taking part in the discussions on the portal.