Hamza Karamali

Dear Muslim Who is Concerned About Islam,

Have you ever felt the fire to defend Islam from critics but found yourself turning to non-Muslim arguments—Christian apologetics, secular philosophies, or even simply arguing to expose flaws in the variety of “isms” we find today? 

Maybe you’ve used Christian theological arguments like the Intelligent Design Argument to explain why God must exist.

Or maybe you’ve argued that without religion you can’t have any absolute morality. 

Perhaps you’ve leaned on scientific discoveries to defend the Quran.

Or argued for Islamic law by saying things like, “Napoleon based early French law on classical Islamic law.”

Maybe you’ve found yourself reading complex books of philosophy so that you can expose the flaws and double-standards in the variety of “isms” around us today.

Do you sometimes feel that the answers you’re using are scattered and incomplete, or that they have been forced together hodge-podge and don’t quite resonate? 

Perhaps you’ve studied what atheists, secular academics, and missionaries have to say so that you can learn their objections and challenge them back. And yet, your every discussion feels like a battle that only leaves you drained and unsettled.

Imagine instead possessing a mastery of Islam’s own scholarly tradition. Imagine being so well-equipped with its depth and nuance that modern objections all seem shallow in comparison. 

Imagine having the clarity and calm to engage others without frustration. Imagine being armed with something they’ve never encountered before: an Islamic perspective that speaks directly to their questions.

So you can finally defend Islam, not by descending to a disparaging critique of other “isms”, but by confidently illuminating the inherent truths of Islam.

Here’s the Reality: 

Islam’s intellectual heritage already holds answers that go deeper, are more nuanced, and are unusually sophisticated. For centuries, our scholars developed unparalleled systems of thought, weaving together rationality and revelation, engaging with every imaginable objection—and they did this all within the Qurānic framework.

Scholars like al-Ghazāli, Abu Bakr al-Baqillānī, al-Bayḍāwī, al-Taftāzānī, and hundreds of others. 

Our scholars left us a legacy that, when properly understood, provides us with the tools to respond to any intellectual challenge and modern issue we find today.

But their works, although filled with tools, principles and maxims that are timeless, are written in a language which addressed the times they lived in, and doesn’t directly speak to the contemporary challenges and modern objections that we find in front of us today.

The Kalām 3.0 Institute bridges that gap by translating these timeless insights into a framework for today. When you study with us, you won’t just grasp the sophistication of our intellectual heritage, but also learn how to articulate its ideas in a way that speaks to the modern mind. 

You won’t just be defending Islam; you’ll be conveying its depth and relevance with clarity and conviction.

Imagine moving beyond reactive arguments and stepping into a role where your knowledge inspires others to rethink their assumptions about Islam. 

This is your opportunity to become not only a defender, but also a teacher of the Islamic intellectual tradition—a guide who can pass on the wisdom of our scholars to future generations.

The Kalām 3.0 Institute is here to show you that Islam’s heritage gives you everything that you need. 

You won’t need to rely on Christian books, study secular theories, or feel compelled to argue endlessly. 

Instead, you’ll uncover how the works of our own scholars answer modern questions, address misconceptions, and do so with a depth that even Western traditions cannot parallel.

The Kalām 3.0 Institute is dedicated to building the next generation of great Muslim minds—people who can wield our scholarly tradition to reveal the truth of Islam in the 21st century. 

Our three-year program empowers you to:

• Understand and Internalize Our Scholarly Tradition: No more piecing together responses from scattered sources. You’ll study kalām (Islamic theology) as it was built by giants like al-Ghazālī and al-Taftāzānī, who left us a legacy that, when properly understood, gives us the tools to respond to any intellectual challenge today.
• Master the Art of Quranic Critical Thinking: Learn to extract and apply arguments directly from the Quran and Sunna, without needing to depend on secular systems of reasoning and arguing. Everything our scholars wrote was an elaboration of the rationality of the Quran and Sunna, and when you become an heir of their legacy, you learn how to shine the critical light of divine revelation on every intellectual challenge today. 
• Teach and Inspire Others: With these insights, you won’t just defend Islam for yourself; you’ll be able to teach others, guiding them to complete conviction in Islam with confidence and clarity. You’ll become a resource for those around you, equipped with both knowledge and a sophisticated understanding of our theological heritage.

Imagine this: no more heated arguments or piecemeal explanations. Instead, you’ll engage with grace, grounded in a tradition that can navigate any modern challenge with timeless wisdom. 

Join us at The Kalām 3.0 Institute and become part of a legacy that spans centuries by becoming the next generation of Muslim intellectuals—those who embody, defend, and show Islam’s truth in a way that’s timeless, relevant, and powerful, just as our scholars intended.

Discover the strength in your own heritage.

The Kalām 3.0 Institute

Building the Next Generation of Great Muslim Minds (mutakallimūn) to show the Truth of Islam in the 21st Century. 

From the Prophet ﷺ

To Kalām 3.0

Allah Most High sent the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ with clear proofs (bayyināt) to take the ancient Arabians out of the darknesses of their uncritical imitation of their ancestors and kufr into the light of his evidence-based knowledge and imān. (Qurān 2:257 and others)

The ancient Arabians were unlettered. So they weren’t part of the theological, philosophical, or scientific traditions of the civilizations that surrounded them. But when they became Muslim, they established a global civilization of knowledge. This brought the evidence-based message of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ into contact with the theological, philosophical, and scientific traditions of the surrounding civilizations, and that’s how kalām was born.

What is Kalam?

Kalām is the science that “enables one to prove the truth of religious beliefs by making arguments and responding to objections.” (al-Ijī, al-Mawāqif fī ‘ilm al-kalām [Beirut: ‘Ālam al-Kutub], 7) It originates in the Qurān and the Sunna of the Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, which censure the Meccan idolaters, the Arabian Jews, and the Arabian Christians for following the religion of their ancestors without any evidence and merely on faith, and exhort them to use their minds to discover the truth and follow it (see, for example, Qurān 2:170, 10:101, 43:23, 43:81, 48:28, and dozens of other verses).

Some object that the post-classical kalām tradition doesn’t look Qurānic because it is full of the terms and questions of ancient Greek philosophy. But that’s because kalām developed in response to its Hellenistic opponents. And that means that it had to express the original Qurānic arguments using their terms and questions. 

Kalām has developed so far in response to two opponents (al-Taftāzānī, Sharḥ al-ʿaqāid, 11-14). 

What is Kalam 1.0?

Early kalām (kalām al-mutaqaddimīn or Kalam 1.0) was a response to the Muʿtazilites, who were the first group of Muslim intellectuals to use a logical framework to argue for conclusions that conflicted with the Qurān and Sunna. The popularity of flawed Muʿtazilite arguments in the intellectual mainstream forced Muslim scholars to critique the logical framework of the Muʿtazilites and to develop a logical framework of their own. In order to be effective, they had to use terms and address questions that were familiar to the Muʿtazilites. The result was Kalām 1.0, which was produced by mutakallimūn such as Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/936), Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944), Abū Bakr al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013), Imām al-Ḥaramayn al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085), and Abu al-Mu‘īn al-Nasafī (d. 508/1115).

What is Kalam 2.0?

Later kalām (kalām al-muta’akhkhirīn or Kalam 2.0) was a response to the Avicennan falāsifa. Their logical framework was far more sophisticated than the logical framework of the Muʿtazilites because the falāsifa had inherited a two-thousand-year-old Aristotelian and Platonic tradition of philosophical debates. The Avicennans used this logical framework to rationally argue for a necessary being who was a nonvolitional causal ground for necessary and immutable cause-and-effect relationships in the universe. 

The popularity of their flawed arguments in the intellectual mainstream forced Muslim scholars to critique their logical framework as well as their natural philosophy, and to develop a logical framework and natural philosophy of their own. 

In order to be effective, they had to use the terms of the Avicennan falāsifa, and they had to engage their philosophical concerns. The result was Kalām 2.0, which was produced by mutakallimūn such as Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 544/1150), ‘Aḍud al-Dīn al-Ijī (d. 756/1355), Sa‘d al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī (d. 793/1390), al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī (d. 816/1414), and ‘Abd al-Hakīm al-Siyālkotī (d. 1057/1657). 

What is Kalam 3.0?

Our opponents today are not the Muʿtazilites, nor the Avicennan falāsifa. Our opponents today are scientific materialists. Whereas the Muʿtazilites and the Avicennan falāsifa both acknowledged, in their own ways, the truth of Islam, scientific materialists don’t. They use science and the scientific method to argue against the existence of God, miracles, revelation, and the supernatural. According to proponents of scientific materialism (also known as naturalism), Islam in its entirety is myth and superstition. 

The goal of kalām is to prove the truth of Islam. Kalām 1.0 did that in the philosophical language of Mu‘tazilism; Kalām 2.0 did that in the philosophical language of falsafā; and today, we need a Kalām 3.0 that does that in the philosophical language of scientific materialism. Unless we do that, kalām is dead.

What about the Philosophy of Descartes, Hume, Kant or Professional Philosophers of Modern Universities?

Our opponent today is not the philosophy of Descartes, Hume, or Kant, nor the professional philosophers of modern universities, because their arguments and ideas are only understood and debated by a small group of amateur and professional philosophers. Our opponent today is scientific materialism (or naturalism) because its arguments and ideas are understood and debated by everyone, even high-school students. In fact, the philosophy of modern universities either stands on the shoulders of, or in opposition to, scientific materialism. And so a kalām response to scientific materialism both brings religious conviction to the public mainstream and is a necessary first-step in responding to the arguments and ideas of professional philosophers.

Is Kalām, As it is Being Taught Today, Really Dead? 

Some who love the kalām tradition and admire its sophistication will object that to say that kalām is dead is going too far. But remember that a thousand years ago, Imam al-Ghazālī didn’t just say kalām was dead; he said that all of the Islamic sciences were dead (he called his magnum opus “The Bringing-Back-to-Life of the Religious Sciences” (Iḥyāʾ ‘ulūm al-dīn)). Whenever a science doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, it’s dead, and it needs to be brought back to life. If we truly love the kalām tradition and admire its sophistication, then our most important task is to make kalām do what it’s supposed to do. 

And what kalām is supposed to do is prove that Islam is true so that it is as clear as the shining of the sun. That is just as possible today as it was during the golden age of kalām.

Muslims really do have the most powerful rational arguments for religious belief on the planet. The reason why even advanced students of kalām don’t see that today is because kalām isn’t doing what it’s supposed to be doing. Because it hasn't been brought into conversation with scientific materialism. When that happens, the rational power of  kalām can be released into the public mainstream. And everyone will then be able to see that the truth of Islam is as clear as the shining of the sun.

The Problem with Kalām Studies Today

There have been many great mutakallimūn in recent times who have used the science of kalam to speak to prove the truth of Islam to people around them, most notably Mawlānā Qāsim Nanotvī and Mawlānā Anwar Shah al-Kashmīrī in India, Şeyhülislam Muṣtafa Ṣabrī in the Ottoman empire, Shaykh Yusuf al-Dijwī in al-Azhar, and the late Muḥammad Saʿīd Ramaḍān al-Būṭī in Damascus.

But their contributions have been individual contributions, and none of them left behind a kalām curriculum to train mutakallimūn to do what they did. None of them left behind a kalām curriculum to produce mutakallimūn.

As a result, kalām studies today are drowning in inter-Muslim polemics, i.e., debates between Sufis and Salafis, debates between Sunnīs and Shiʿīs, debates between traditionalists and modernists. Kalām has become a source of division. It’s become an excuse for Muslims to argue with one another.

Or the other problem is that kalām studies have become intellectual history. Kalām students study how intelligent scholars such as Ghazālī and Rāzī were, but they don’t learn how to bring their intelligence to solve the problems of today as they solved their problems at that time. This is either because the works of our scholars are studied in a secular context. Or it’s because they are just admiring the intelligence of kalām scholars but don’t know how to apply the scholarship to modern questions.

Or the other problem is that kalām studies have turned into a study of Christian arguments, either the arguments of neo-Thomists, or the arguments of evangelical Christians like William Lane Craig and Stephen Meyer. The argument that is made is that Christians are close to Islam and they have experience studying modern science and philosophy, so let’s learn from them. But when this is done without grounding yourself in your own tradition, you’re unable to distinguish between their correct conclusions and their mistakes.

In order to change this, we need a curriculum that is non-polemical, i.e., not focussed on inter-Muslim debates, and non-historical, i.e., not studying kalām as intellectual history. 

Instead, we need a curriculum that shows how to use our kalām tradition to turn Muslims into critical thinkers who can engage in the public mainstream that is dominated by non-Muslims who are attacking Islam as backward and irrational. 

We need to create Muslims who are open-minded, who work with other Muslims, who work with non-Muslims, and can confidently guide them to the fact that Islam is true.

That is the goal of The Kalām 3.0 Institute and its curriculum. 

The Aim of Kalām 3.0 Institute is to:

Build the Next Generation of Qurānic Critical Thinkers (mutakallimūn) to show the truth of Islam in the 21st Century. 

A mutakallim is someone who has the ability to prove the truth of Islam and to respond to objections that people make to those arguments. It requires learning four things: 

• the Quranic rational arguments that show the truth of Islam, 
• logic,
• the natural philosophy of the time, and
• how to use logic to express the Qurānic arguments in the language of the natural philosophy of the time.

This three-year program aims to train Qurānic critical thinkers (mutakallimūn) by grounding them in Kalām 1.0 and Kalām 2.0 but also updating them and equipping students to affirm Islam’s truth by applying this Qurānic reasoning and logic within the context of contemporary scientific discoveries and today's intellectual scene.

The intellectual scene and real questions on the ground today are science and methodological naturalism, the Big Bang, quantum physics, virtual particles, intelligent design, fine-tuning, the multiverse, chance and randomness, evolution and design, miracles and laws of nature, the true nature and inference of causation, indeterministic causation, cognitive psychology, modal logic and metaphysics, mathematical Platonism, the mind vs. the brain, inference to the best explanation, the properties of various kinds of infinity and infinite regress, transfinite numbers, set theory, contingency and the fallacy of composition, and the nature of necessity. 

The Kalām 3.0 Institute has a Three-Stage Curriculum

• Each Stage Takes One Year
• Each Year Comprises 150 Hours of Live Class-Time (4 hours a week) Plus Assignments
• All Recordings Are Available (Attending Live is Not Mandatory)

The Why Islam is True course is a prerequisite for this curriculum.

The focus of this curriculum is learning how to use the epistemology and ilāhiyyāt sections of kalām to engage modern scientific materialism and atheism. 

These sections are the most important parts of kalām, and also the most difficult parts of kalām. Mastering them enables mastery of all other issues.

This curriculum shuns polemics. It is open to students of all theological backgrounds. It teaches the positions of the Ashʿarī, Maturidī, and Atharī schools on all points of theological disagreement in a non-partisan way without delving into polemics, and remains focussed on how to use kalām to prove the truth of Islam in the 21st century.

Year 1

Connecting Kalām to the Modern World

Year 2

Applying Advanced Kalām to the Details of Science

Year 3

Applying Kalām Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Philosophy of Mind to Every Modern Atheist Argument and the Modern Philosophy of Religion

Year 1: Connecting Kalām to the Modern World

The goal of this first year is (a) to learn the most important terms and issues of Islamic logic, falsafa, and kalām; (b) to see how these terms and issues were optimized for Avicennan falsafa; (c) understand the natural philosophy of modern science and materialism, and exactly how it changed and refuted and abandoned Avicennan falsafa; and (d) learn how to re-orient the kalām tradition to solve modern problems.

First-Year Textbooks:

• Isāghūjī by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali
• Hidāyat al-Ḥikma by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including an introduction to the modern scientific analysis of the universe).
• Umm al-Barāhīn by Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including a non-polemical introduction to the theological positions of the Ashʿarī, Maturidī, and Atharī schools on all points of theological disagreement).
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
• Jawharat al-Tawḥīd by Ibrahim al-Laqānī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including an intellectual history of kalām questions and a non-polemical introduction to the theological positions of the Ashʿarī, Maturidī, and Atharī schools on all points of theological disagreement).
• Kalām 3.0: A Manual of Logical Arguments to Show the Truth of Islam in the 21st Century by Hamza Karamali

Year 2: Applying Advanced Kalām to the Details of Science

Study the most celebrated manual of kalām in the history of Islam, Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyya, but do it in a way that clearly identifies the application of Qurānic arguments for the truth of Islam to medieval falsafa, and clearly shows you how to correctly apply those same arguments for the truth of Islam to modern scientific materialism today. Delve deep into the intelligent design argument, the theory of evolution, the philosophy of set theory, and the Big Bang theory, and learn how to benefit from the philosophical contributions of Christian philosophers and scientists without falling into their mistakes, and how to use their contributions to optimize the articulation of kalām arguments for the truth of Islam today.

Second-Year Textbooks:

• Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid al-Nasafiyya by al-Taftāzānī
• The Kalam Cosmological Argument by William Lane Craig
• The Return of the God Hypothesis by Stephen Meyer
• Kalām 3.0: A Manual of Logical Arguments to Show the Truth of Islam in the 21st Century by Hamza Karamali

Year 3: Applying Kalām Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Philosophy of Mind to Every Modern Atheist Argument and the Modern Philosophy of Religion

Study the modal metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and epistemology of the kalām tradition, and learn how to apply it to a critical analysis of modern symbolic logic, the ontological argument, and the modern philosophy of religion. 

Third-Year Textbooks:

• Tahdhīb al-Manṭiq by al-Taftāzānī
• Discerning Religious Truth: A Didactic Exposition of the Logic and Epistemology of the Islamic Sciences (Based on Khabisi’s Commentary on al-Taftazani’s Tahdhib al-Mantiq and Its Glosses) by Hamza Karamali, Marwan Tayyan, and Justin Poe
• Tahdhīb al-Kalām by al-Taftāzānī
• An Introduction to Modern Symbolic Logic, Modal Logic, and Ontological Arguments by Hamza Karamali
• The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God, by J. L. Mackie
• An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, by Michael Rea and Michael Murray

Today’s Enrollment is For the First Year of Studies at the Kalam 3.0 Institute.

Here is a detailed description of the first year of studies:

1st-Year Detailed Learning Pathway

Step 1: Critical Thinking, Logic, Epistemology, Falsafa, and Modern Science

Textbook: Isāghūjī by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including an introduction to modern scientific reasoning, which will update Isāghūjī and connect it to modern scientific materialism).

Description: Master the skill of formal reasoning by learning and applying the basic syllogism, the complex syllogism, analogical reasoning, and inductive generalizations to the key philosophical issues related to proving the truth of Islam in the modern world, and begin to explore the epistemology and modal metaphysics of the Muslim scholarly tradition. Then depart from Isāghūjī into the modern world to learn about scientific reasoning and how it fits into traditional Islamic logic and epistemology.

Step 2: Neoplatonism, Modern Science, and the Truth of Islam

Textbook: Hidāyat al-Ḥikma by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including an introduction to the modern scientific analysis of the universe, which will illustrate the difference between the medieval natural philosophy of Hidāyat al-Ḥikma and the modern natural philosophy of science).

Description: Learn how the Avicennan falasifa analyzed the universe, and how their analysis undermined Qurānic arguments for the truth of Islam. Then learn how the mutakallimūn critiqued Avicennan falsafa through kalām atomism, radical contingency, and an argument for divine agency, in order to create a new falsafa that was consistent with Qurānic arguments for the truth of Islam. Learn in particular how this was facilitated by the mutakallimūn’s careful analysis of existence, causation, timelessness, and the existence and qualities of the necessary being, all in light of a carefully-articulated philosophy of mind that is both philosophically rigorous and also assumed by the Quranic rational arguments for the truth of Islam. Then depart from Hidāyat al-Ḥikma into the modern world to learn about the modern scientific discoveries of atoms, molecules, forces, relativity, and quantum mechanics, and how these discoveries have rendered the natural philosophy of the falasafa and mutakallimūn out of date.

Step 3A: Re-Orienting Kalām From Falsafa to Modern Science

Textbook: Umm al-Barāhīn by Muḥammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including a non-polemical and non-partisan introduction to the theological positions of the Ashʿarī, Maturidī, and Atharī on all points of theological disagreement).

Description: Apply your mastery of Isāghūjī and Hidāyat al-Ḥikma to (a) a careful study of the definitions of God’s attributes, (b) a careful study of the attributes of God’s messengers, and (c) a careful study of traditional kalām arguments for the truth of Islam. Grasp how all of these definitions and arguments are expressed in relation to medieval falsafa and learn how to re-articulate them in relation to modern scientific materialism. Learn the positions of the Ashʿarī, Maturidī, and Atharī schools on all points of theological disagreement without delving into polemics, and remain focussed on how to use kalam to prove the truth of Islam in the 21st century.

Step 3B: Kalām-Analysis of Modern Scientific Materialism 

Textbook: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Description: Apply your mastery of Isāghūjī, Hidāyat al-Ḥikma, and Umm al-Barāhīn to a careful analysis of Richard Dawkins’ arguments for atheism. Learn exactly how popular scientific materialism intersections with arguments for the truth of Islam, and how to show a scientific materialist that Islam is true.

Step 4A: Maps of Kalam 1.0 and Kalam 2.0 

Textbook: Jawharat al-Tawḥīd by Ibrahim al-Laqānī, with commentary, English translation, and notes by Hamza Karamali (including an intellectual history of kalām questions and a non-polemical and non-partisan introduction to the theological positions of the Ashʿarī, Maturidī, and Atharī schools on all points of theological disagreement).

Description: Consolidate your grasp of kalām by constructing a mind-map of the key theological questions of medieval kalām manuals, and contextualize this map with the historical emergence of the Khawārij, the Muʿtazila, and the falāsifa. Learn the positions of the Ash‘ari, Maturidi, and Athari schools on all points of theological disagreement without delving into polemics, and remain focussed on how to use kalam to prove the truth of Islam in the 21st century.

Step 4B: Map of Kalām 3.0

Textbook: Kalām 3.0: A Manual of Logical Arguments to Show the Truth of Islam in the 21st Century by Hamza Karamali

Description: Consolidate your contemporary application of kalām by studying the formal structure and epistemology of 8 formal arguments to show the truth of Islam in the 21st century. Grasp how these arguments are the most effective articulation of medieval kalām arguments against modern scientific materialism. (Note: This course will only study part of the textbook. The remainder of the textbook will be studied in Year 2.)

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Join the Next Generation of Great Muslim Minds (mutakallimūn) to Show the Truth of Islam in the 21st Century. 

*** Please Read - Important Details ***

• This program will begin immediately after Eid (approx. start date: April 7th 2025)
• By securing your spot you are committing to the first year of the curriculum
• Proposed live online class times: Tuesdays and Thursdays 9 pm EST 
• These class times are flexible and can be adjusted depending on what works best for the majority of the students
• Recordings will be available for those unable to attend live
• Approx. 4 hours of class / week for 40 weeks for a total of 150 hours of live class time
• Tuition: $2997/year (payment plans for as low as $250/month for 12 months are available). This does not include the costs of the course textbooks, which will be made available to students at a 50% discount.